Hermes settling in

Hermes seems to have taken to the dog bed in the family room and also in my bedroom. He is a bit big for the little dog bed, but when he curls up he fits and when he stretches out, he spills out of the bed onto the floor. He seems to really like to be petted or rubbed down. He is a bit of a nervous dog but not too badly. We went out back tonight and hung out in the backyard and he was running around a bit nervously when the dog behind us was barking through the fence, but he was okay. I need to start getting him out running with me in the morning. His leash manners aren't what they show in Cheri's YouTube video, but I haven't been trying too hard. I will have to see how he does as a running partner. I am a bit nervous that he will bolt out and be pulling me along, but I will try to reign him in and get him in sync with me.

Welcome Hermes

Ben and I went to the shelter today with my friend Lori and we looked at dogs to foster. April had said Scooby could use some work, so he was in the running. Holly was pushing a new Wolfhound mix that just came in as an owner surrender, Elvis. Elvis was a cutie, but he was setting off allergies in Lori and that is why she came with us. We looked at Scooby (same allergy issue), Shipley and Hermes. We decided on Hermes. Hermes is already pretty famous. You can see some of his videos on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/group/Hermesdog. Cheri did an awesome job with him and I hope that we can pickup where she was at and get Hermes back in the swing of his training. He seems to be settling in nicely this evening. He found the big dog bed in the family room that April gave us back when we brought Sandy home and I brought in the little round dog basket/bed to put in the bedroom so he can sleep at the foot of the bed (well, across from the foot of the bed, by the wall). He curled up in there and laid down, so I hope he will snooze the night away as I do.

Bubby has an approved application

I heard from Monica last night that Bubby has an approved application. The family met Bubby over the weekend while she was in the office. They wanted to meet her again and so I called and setup a meeting tonight at a park. The timing is pretty good since I am going out of town on Thursday and had to leave her at the shelter for a few days anyway. She can go to the shelter Wed. night and if all is good with the meeting tonight and the adoption is going through, then she can go home with her new family on Friday. Hopefully, another foster success story. Ben will be home in 2 weeks, so I will hold off on bringing home another dog until he gets here.

Conditioned response

Like I said last time, we have fallen into a morning routine of petting, eating, running a 1.5 mile loop. Often, after the run, I will go get on the exercise bike in the bedroom and use the computer to do work. When I get on the exercise bike and start peddling, Bubby will go lay down on the floor in the bedroom. If I slow down or stop, she hears the change in the sound of the bike and hops up to come see me. If my foot slips off the pedals and I slow or break the rhythm, she is up like a shot.

Rain rain go away

It sure has rained a lot lately. Bubby goes and lays under the tree or in the back corner under a tarp shade area I set up for her when it is raining, but when it is really coming down, she is smart enough to come in and get me to towel her off. Yesterday for the forth, I was supposed to go to a friends for burgers and maybe to see the fireworks, but it was pouring down rain and I didn't want to put Bubby back out. I talked to my friend and she said I could bring Bubby over with me to her apartment. I didn't want to mess with getting Bubby in the car, so I opened the car back remotely and when we walked out into the garage, I just picked her up and carried her back there and put her in. She is normally way to slow and passively resists. We drove over to the apartment and parked under a cover. I took her for a brief walk to let her have a potty break and then we went in. She wandered around the apartment for a bit and then just settled down on the floor and hung out. She got up when people were moving about, but for a good bit she just hung out laying on the floor. My friend's son took her for a walk, but she went right to the door of other apartments trying to figure out where I was. I went outside and got her to come back in. We went home and she went outside while I was cleaning the pond from all the rain overflow, but when I headed back in, she came in with me because of the fireworks going off. She stayed in a for a good long time while I was napping on the couch and then she came to get me later and wanted to go out again to sleep. I let her and she was fine the whole night.

Mornings have gotten into a rhythm. I get up and let her in the back door. She is very excited to see me and wants to be petted/rubbed down. Then she excitedly dashes to the kitchen for food. If I am not trailing right behind, she dashes back and forth. She eats and then follows me around the house excitedly dancing waiting to go for a morning walk or run. She is looking pretty healthy and I weighed her yesterday and she is 66 pounds of happy dog.

Out and about for the weekend

Well, Bubby got out and about plenty this weekend. We went to the shelter on Saturday morning to pickup the stuff for the Petco adoption day and she got to hang around the office and go out to the playpen while I got stuff gathered and in the car. I took to puppies with me for the other 2 volunteers. Rosemary and Cilantro went in the crate in the back of the car with Bubby and she pretty well ignored them. We setup out in front of Petco Great Hills and that always gets us more foot traffic. Bubby was good, but panted and drooled the whole time we were there. The puppies were about 4 months old and are small breeds and I got applications for both of them, but nothing on Bubby. After adoption day, we all went back to the shelter and I put Bubby out in the playpen for the rest of our visit. We had a number of visitors, but no solid interest in Bubby.

On Sunday, I took Bubby for a longer walk (no run) and then we got ready and hopped in the car to go to Pedernales Falls State Park (well, I had to pick her up, she still isn't getting into the car by herself though she does jump up at the fence when I leave her in the playpen, so I know she can). We went hiking up and down the trails to the Twin Falls Overlook (there are a number of rocky areas and first she was afraid to climb up or down, but then she got the hang of it and was no problem. We hiked over to the main river overlook and sat there a few minutes. Bubby did well on the long car ride out there and back. After relaxing a bit at home, I noticed she was just napping in the yard and decided she could do that at the shelter. I packed her into the car and we headed to the shelter and I noticed it was drizzling a little on the way there, but decided to keep on anyway. I had to coax her into the playpen at the shelter and then I went inside. After about 10 minutes, another volunteer came in and said it looked like it was going to really storm, so we brought in all the dogs and the sky opened up and Bubby was the last dog to come in. She was a bit wet, but happy to be in with me. We hung out in the office and after a while she got bored and dozed off for a few minutes. The shelter was very quiet with almost no visitors and at 5 we packed up and went home.