Sunday, October 28, 2007
Finally a breather
Finished up the haunted house last night (with some cleanup today) and I went to pickup Hermes at the shelter at the end of the day. Monica told me she was showing him to a family yesterday and he was being standoffish as he can be. He was hiding behind her while the man was trying to get him to come to her. She sat down also to try to get him to come out and he stayed behind her, but decided to mark his territory by peeing on her shoulder and down her arm. She was a bit unhappy :-). Again, this is the problem with Hermes not showing well. He has to be with me so that people can see how he will bond with them.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Coming up on 13 weeks
I have been very busy with extracurriculars and haven't been blogging. Barktoberfest followed by the IBM Uptown Classic 10K and this week the IBM Fall Festival where I am in charge of the Haunted House. Sunday I will finally get a break. Hermes had to spend the entire weekend last weekend at the shelter since I spent the weekend working the race setup and teardown and the race. This weekend I have to be in the Haunted House from 6-9 on Saturday and won't be able to zoom out to CP to get Hermes from the shelter so he will have to spend another Sat. night at the shelter.
Hermes hasn't gotten the attention that he used to. I hardly find time to walk him and now that it is getting dark earlier, I use that as an excuse. I need to get back to walking with him in the morning and the evening. He is a good boy and affectionate in his own way. After a long day in the yard, he zooms around us when we come in and I have to take him out back and play with him or he dashes around the house like a madman and with the tile and laminate floors, he doesn't get a good grip.
Saturday will be 13 weeks we have had Hermes. He is such a sweet dog, I don't know why he isn't adopted. He doesn't show well at the shelter where he just paces around. I need to stay at the shelter and keep him in the office with me. He does well when he is with someone. That would help him show better. He is looking like he will take the longevity title (don't recall if it was Bubby or Sandy he is taking the title from). Of course, after having him for nearly 3 months, I start thinking about keeping him, but then I remind myself that the idea here is to help more dogs and to find good homes. All of the dogs that I have brought home have been sweet and affectionate with me, but the goal is to get them placed and I am just an extension of the shelter. Still, it can be tough. Well, I need to find some time to spend here at home and get back to Hermes training. He is obedient about staying with me when I am out working in the front yard, but he doesn't "come" to me, but will come back and come with me. He also doesn't come over to me when called in the house. I need to work on the come command.
Hermes hasn't gotten the attention that he used to. I hardly find time to walk him and now that it is getting dark earlier, I use that as an excuse. I need to get back to walking with him in the morning and the evening. He is a good boy and affectionate in his own way. After a long day in the yard, he zooms around us when we come in and I have to take him out back and play with him or he dashes around the house like a madman and with the tile and laminate floors, he doesn't get a good grip.
Saturday will be 13 weeks we have had Hermes. He is such a sweet dog, I don't know why he isn't adopted. He doesn't show well at the shelter where he just paces around. I need to stay at the shelter and keep him in the office with me. He does well when he is with someone. That would help him show better. He is looking like he will take the longevity title (don't recall if it was Bubby or Sandy he is taking the title from). Of course, after having him for nearly 3 months, I start thinking about keeping him, but then I remind myself that the idea here is to help more dogs and to find good homes. All of the dogs that I have brought home have been sweet and affectionate with me, but the goal is to get them placed and I am just an extension of the shelter. Still, it can be tough. Well, I need to find some time to spend here at home and get back to Hermes training. He is obedient about staying with me when I am out working in the front yard, but he doesn't "come" to me, but will come back and come with me. He also doesn't come over to me when called in the house. I need to work on the come command.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Barktoberfest
Yesterday was a busy day with the 5th annual Barktoberfest fundraiser for the shelter. I brought the 7 canopies from the IBM Club and also borrowed 2 really big ice chests. Hermes and I packed up and left the house at 7. I slipped his harness on him when we got there and hooked him to running leash/belt. We setup canopies and other stuff and then wandered around helping where we could until 10:30 when it was time for the walk. There was a good crowd of walkers with dogs and Hermes did really well except for when he would walk up into a crowd of walking people and he got a bit scared and moved off to the side. There were water bowls for dog watering setup along the way and I let Hermes stop for a drink a few times, but he kept putting his feet in the water bowls and digging, so he had to stop. The shelter had brought out hoses and a kiddie pool and tons of water bowls, so Hermes had plenty of ways to cool down.
Hermes did quite well with all the other dogs. The only thing that freaked him out were dogs that were a lot bigger than him. There was 3 harlequin great danes there and he was just too timid to approach them. He shied away at the several chances he had to go greet them. He also was too shy to greet a mastiff that was there. We hung out and worked the education table from noon to 2 and then took down the canopies, cleaned up trash and moved picnic tables. It was an overall successful event and Hermes was asleep sitting up in the car. He came in to the house and crashed.
Hermes did quite well with all the other dogs. The only thing that freaked him out were dogs that were a lot bigger than him. There was 3 harlequin great danes there and he was just too timid to approach them. He shied away at the several chances he had to go greet them. He also was too shy to greet a mastiff that was there. We hung out and worked the education table from noon to 2 and then took down the canopies, cleaned up trash and moved picnic tables. It was an overall successful event and Hermes was asleep sitting up in the car. He came in to the house and crashed.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Thumbs, who needs em
I saw Hermes flipped onto his back playing with his lambs wool toy (not squeaky anymore as he ate those out of there) and grabbed the cell phone to shoot a short video. I didn't want to get too close and have him stop, so video quality isn't that good. I should have gone for the digital camera, but he would have followed me to the back of the house and it would have ruined it. Embedded video to follow:
Weekend
Hermes went to the shelter this weekend. I took him to the shelter on Sat. and took him with me down to our booth at Leander Fall Fest for a bit and then back to the shelter. He met a nice couple that is interested but can't have a second dog just yet.
Sunday I dropped Hermes off at the shelter and ran some errands. He is always happy to get home from a long hot day at the shelter.
In response to the email comment/question I got from Jackie, Hermes is a male, he is about 1.5 years this month. He does have a brother Zeus, but don't know of any sisters and he isn't 3 years old. Hermes was at CTSPCA (note: the shelter is now centraltexasspca.org instead of .com) when he was a pup with his brother.
Sunday I dropped Hermes off at the shelter and ran some errands. He is always happy to get home from a long hot day at the shelter.
In response to the email comment/question I got from Jackie, Hermes is a male, he is about 1.5 years this month. He does have a brother Zeus, but don't know of any sisters and he isn't 3 years old. Hermes was at CTSPCA (note: the shelter is now centraltexasspca.org instead of .com) when he was a pup with his brother.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Long time no blog
Things have fallen into a busy pattern around here and I just haven't seemed to find time to stop and blog. Herme's has garnered some interest at the shelter, but he just hasn't seemed to hit it off with a full family yet. Have had several sets of folks who have looked at him seriously, but he seemed standoffish to one of the couple or they to him. He is shy and it takes him a bit to warm up to you but once he does, he is very loyal.
We haven't had any big chewing incidents. My schedule is very erratic. Some days I can work from home more and/or come home in mid afternoon to work from home or finish my work later in the evening, but lately I have been working more hours at the office. I don't go in right away, so Hermes is here with me until 10 or so, but then he is out in the yard. He gets board out there. It is the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and we have a sukkah in our backyard. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a temporary booth structure where you can eat your meals. It is a friend's sukkah, but that is another story. Hermes has been leaving it mostly alone, but he has taken down a few of the fake flowers hanging in there and played with them.
I have been busy in the evenings and haven't been getting him out for as many walks. He gets playful and if I take him out back and toss a ball or a stick or his big tuff toy, he will run laps around the yard until he exhausts himself.
I picked up a harness at the shelter this weekend. I had gotten myself a hands-free walking setup from REI. That consists of a belt for my waist which is adjustable and has a metal ring on each side to attach leashes to. It came with a leash that is adjustable from 3-6ft. and which has the snaps on each end like you hook to the ring on the dog's collar and to the ring on the belt. Hook the dog to this and go for a walk or run (hopefully) with your hands free. Well, to take any strain off the dog neck, I figured it was best to not hook the dog end to Herme's collar but instead put him in one of those dog harnesses that go around the head and under the front legs and have the ring on the dogs back. He is afraid of it and runs from me when I want to put it on him. I did hook him up on a leash the other day and then put him in the harness and switch to it and we went for a walk and it worked great. Much better control. Now if I can just get him to put on the harness as willingly as he goes for the leash.
We haven't had any big chewing incidents. My schedule is very erratic. Some days I can work from home more and/or come home in mid afternoon to work from home or finish my work later in the evening, but lately I have been working more hours at the office. I don't go in right away, so Hermes is here with me until 10 or so, but then he is out in the yard. He gets board out there. It is the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and we have a sukkah in our backyard. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a temporary booth structure where you can eat your meals. It is a friend's sukkah, but that is another story. Hermes has been leaving it mostly alone, but he has taken down a few of the fake flowers hanging in there and played with them.
I have been busy in the evenings and haven't been getting him out for as many walks. He gets playful and if I take him out back and toss a ball or a stick or his big tuff toy, he will run laps around the yard until he exhausts himself.
I picked up a harness at the shelter this weekend. I had gotten myself a hands-free walking setup from REI. That consists of a belt for my waist which is adjustable and has a metal ring on each side to attach leashes to. It came with a leash that is adjustable from 3-6ft. and which has the snaps on each end like you hook to the ring on the dog's collar and to the ring on the belt. Hook the dog to this and go for a walk or run (hopefully) with your hands free. Well, to take any strain off the dog neck, I figured it was best to not hook the dog end to Herme's collar but instead put him in one of those dog harnesses that go around the head and under the front legs and have the ring on the dogs back. He is afraid of it and runs from me when I want to put it on him. I did hook him up on a leash the other day and then put him in the harness and switch to it and we went for a walk and it worked great. Much better control. Now if I can just get him to put on the harness as willingly as he goes for the leash.
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