What's up with the dirty treats?

KD had a rawhide that she had taken outside the other day and it was softer today. She ran around with it and chewed on it for a while and then she buried it in a hole that the other dogs had dug in front of the pond. Later in the evening, she dug up the now dirt covered rawhide and was running around with it and then was laying down to eat it. She gave it to me in the house and I washed it clean and gave it back. I don't understand the eating of dirt, but I guess we have moved a long way away from the animal state that dogs still live in and if we humanize them, we are wrong.

How are the adopted dogs doing?

Hey, if any of the adopting families of any of my 2007 dogs are reading this, please drop me a comment to the blog to let me know how things are going.

Happy New Year

Just got back from a short run with KD (about 2 miles). I changed her collar to the Martingale collar that I picked up at the shelter when I picked her up. I put on the running belt/leash that I had bought back with Hermes and let the leash out a bit so that she had some room to run and off we went. Within a block or so, it became obvious that too much leash was just a good way for her to become tangled, so I shortened the leash back up. She fell in behind me and ran with me the whole way. We took it nice and slow. I had taken KD out on the flexi-leash the other night to run off some energy and she was off like a shot. I ran along behind her and after about 3/4 of a mile, she was running alongside me instead of off in front of me. From that, I knew that if I kept the pace slow and even, we wouldn't have any problems.

I was somewhat inspired by what I have been reading in Cesar Millan's first book that I am now reading. He takes his pack out for about 4 hours of exercise each morning to get them in tune with him and to run off their excess energy. I haven't been getting up early since I am on vacation, but with no where to be, I figured that we would start off the morning (after a bit of lazing around and checking my email) by running off some energy. KD is a low to medium energy dog, so 2 miles is about the distance for her, at least at this point. KD fell in behind me just under the leash length and there was enough slack that I wasn't pulling her and she was "migrating" behind me. I stopped twice to let her sniff a bit and then we got back to it. She never challenged me for the lead, she just took her place behind and followed along. We came inside and she grabbed some water and wandered the house for a minute and then laid down on her dog bed.

Yesterday, after the cleaning ladies came and all the dog toys were piled up in one spot, KD found a bone in the pile that had been lost since before she came to the house. She seemed to like it a lot. She wanted to take it outside, so I let her. She ran around the yard with it looking for a good spot to bury it and then decided to bury it under the tree behind the pond (which is dry for the winter). The area under and between the 2 trees directly behind the house is dirt covered with crushed limestone. She dug a spot at the base of the tree with her front paws and then set the bone in and adjusted it a bit and then started to cover it over by pushing piles of stuff on it with her snout. She would bury her nose into the ground/rocks and push a pile of stuff onto it until it was mounded over. I was surprised that her nose wasn't more sensitive.

Yesterday, I also found an outside toy that she likes. We had played ball a bit with the tennis balls in the backyard and she would run after it, dash back and then carry it around a bit near me and then drop it. She played a bit, but didn't seem overly enthusiastic. Well, yesterday I was working on the grill and I noticed that I still had the little green squeaky football on top of it from when Watson was here. I took it down and squeezed it so it squeaked and her head turned and she perked up. I squeaked it a few more times and then threw it and she dashed after it. She picked it up and squeaked it while she ran and brought it back near me but wanted me to chase her or play tug with it, but I wasn't having any of that. Finally she let it go so that I could squeeze it and throw it again and we went on this way for a while longer. She also played with it later in the day. This seems to be the first outside toy that grabs her interest. The toy is the green (small or medium?) Toy Shoppe Rubber Football. When you squeeze it, it kind of sounds like a duck. (http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2750767).

Happy Holidays

I took KD to the shelter on Friday as we are out of town for the weekend. I was taken aback by seeing Watson at the shelter. He seems to have gotten noticeably taller since I dropped him off on Tuesday. He is starting to get some of that lanky hound dog look to him. Everyone at the shelter really likes him and he seems to be doing fine. I brought bones for Watson, Valerie and KD. KD didn't seem pleased to be put in her kennel at the shelter. She looked at me as if she wanted to know what she did to get returned. I will pick her up on Monday and she will be happy to see me.

I read Cesar Millan's second book this weekend. It is pretty good and I especially like a couple of tables to analyze what is normal and what is problem behavior. I am having some difficulty visualizing what he means when he talks about calm-assertive. I understand the concept, but visualizing it in myself is the difficult part. I know that we could have done better with Watson and that KD needs some work on meeting new people. I can see that I need to use his no touch, no talk, no eye contact rule for having new people come in the house that the dog hasn't met and let the dog approach them on her own terms. There is some good stuff in the book. Next on my reading list is Good Owners, Great Dogs. I checked them both out of the library and I will start reading through it tonight after we get back from the library.

Sweet little girl

KD is a sweet little girl (she is only about 15" tall). I haven't had a little dog in a while in my fostering. She had some minor adjustment getting used to being here, but is doing great. The first day that she was home, she growled at Ben and Sam when they came back after school and she paced around them. She just needed to get used to them and we didn't have any incidents. What I remembered about KD that she likes to get on the furniture. We are working on that. She also growled/snapped at Lori on Tuesday night when she went to get KD off the bed while Ben / Lori/ I were working in the dining room. So, 2 incidents of her snapping (one at Ben when he startled her), but those seem to be over. I have taken her in the car a few times (Petsmart, school, etc) and she seems ok, but not totally happy. Sometimes she curls up in the back corner, sometimes she sticks her head out the window.

She really loves to be out on a leash for a walk. I haven't figured out what she likes to play. She likes to hang out in the back yard if I am hanging out back there or if I have the back door ajar. She happily wanders around sniffing, etc.

Tuesday, the day I brought her home from the shelter, I tried to let her sleep on the doggy bed on the floor in my room. She hopped up on the bed and I put her back down. She hopped up again and I took her to her crate and put her to bed there. She slept in her crate at the shelter every night and I didn't have any issues with her getting in. Last night, when she got tired, she went in the back of the house to my room and laid on her doggy bed. When I went to bed, she stayed in her spot and stayed there all night. We are still working on staying off the furniture, but I think it was a good first step. She likes to curl up in my lap (or really lay across it) and she loves to give kisses. We just need to make a better match for her from the shelter and get her a forever home. I will be taking her to my Petco adoption day weekend after this.

Welcome back to KD

Watson has completed his meds for kennel cough and has a slot at the shelter so I took him to the shelter this morning. He didn't seem to happy about being left there, but he needs some time with other dogs and he will be very popular at the shelter. When I took Watson, I said I really wanted to give KD a break from the shelter and that is what I did this morning. You may remember KD from her sleepover with Hermes here at the house (August 11th blog post). She is a cute little basset mix who is now the dog at the shelter for the longest time. She did get adopted out twice last month, but came back in a day or so. The first time for chasing cats and the second time for being aggressive over toys. She is a real sweety and the only issue I had with her before was that she is insistent on getting on the furniture (sofa and bed). I washed all the toys and dog comforters to get rid of any hint of kennel cough germs (bleach, bleach, bleach). We may go out of town next weekend to visit my mom and KD will have to spend the weekend at the shelter, but she will otherwise be with us until we get her adopted out. This month is a 5th Saturday month, so I will be taking her with me to Petco Great Hills.

Separation Anxiety

Hermes went home yesterday. I went by the shelter when they opened and hung out in the office with him for about 20 minutes but then had to go because it was rainy out and I wanted to be available to pick Ben up at school.

I experimented more with leaving Watson inside by himself with all the doors in the back of the house closed so he didn't go into those rooms and it went fine again. The first time I went out, I came back to find him just laying on his comforter resting and the second time I went out I found him laying curled up on the couch. I don't let him on the couch and so had to go shoo him off, but from a leaving him by himself aspect, it was successful. No hints of destruction of any property. I am not sure that there is serious separation issues with him. He doesn't like to be closed out of the room that you are going into, for instance, the bathroom. He whines and howls. But that isn't the destructiveness associated with separation anxiety and I don't hear him whining and howling when I head out the door, so I don't think he just cries himself to sleep.

Since Watson has been eating so much, I decided to weigh him yesterday and he came in at a whopping 60 lbs. That is 10 pounds more than a week or so ago. He isn't getting fat, must just be filling out. I wasn't sure if he was getting too big for his breed, so I did a google search on Black and Tan Coonhound and aside from the reference to breeders (which I don't support, there are too many dogs in need of rescue already), I found it to be a good reference website:
http://puppydogweb.com/caninebreeds/blktncoon.htm

It's all in your perspective

And it seems that I have gotten a bit. Watson and I seem to be doing better. I attribute this to several factors:

1) We haven't had as many of Ben's friends over playing guitar hero for him to pester. He is really eager to be with people and to please them and to play with them and the boys just want to play their game and don't want to interact with them and he can get insistent. I told them to ignore him and if he jumps up on them, to stand up and walk away and look away, but that is hard to do when you are playing a video game.

2) I sent an email to our former behavioral instructor, Dana Cooper with Woofer's Canine Training (http://wooferscaninetraining.com/). She reminded me of the lessons about shunning the dog if he is jumping up and that I should take my hands out of reach and look away and walk away until the dog calms down. This seems to be working pretty well. The other important lesson that I went back to is that dogs try to use space as a sign of dominance. If a dog is in your way, walk right through them, don't walk around or yield.

3) I am reminding myself that he is a puppy and he needs more exercising. He doesn't want to just go out and run around by himself. He is much more social than Hermes and he wants to play and he will fetch and bring back a tug toy (or a ball, but less so with a ball). He wants to play tug with it and then have me throw it. The weather has been colder and rainy so that the rope toys in the yard are a wet/cold mess, but I have been going out and doing it and keeping up the walks and he seems to be doing ok there.

On another front, I have been winding down for the year at work and only working 1/2 days. Most of my calls / meetings are in the morning, so I have been mostly working from home. This gives me extra time with him. I have experimented the past 2 mornings with just leaving him in the house to have free roam except with all the bedroom doors closed when I take Ben to school. I even ran a quick errand yesterday after dropoff. I haven't had any issues. When I came home, Watson was laying on his comforter just hanging out waiting for me to return. I have been crating him still if I am going to be gone for an hour plus, but I think I will try to loosen up on that.

A farewell to Hermes

Seems I skipped completely over writing about Saturday. Saturday was the second Sat. of the month, so it was my day to be volunteer buddy at the shelter. I went and worked at the shelter and Hermes new family came for another meet and greet with their dog. Gypsy and Hermes got along fine again, played a bit, both dug in the same spot for some cool dirt to lay in (80's in December, you gotta love Texas) and shared the same water bowl, even both drinking from it at the same time (of course, Hermes also tried to dig in it). Hermes was his sometimes standoffish self from all of us humans, but didn't really snub us like he has with some previous visitors. Well, his new home is ready this week with the movers bringing back the household contents on Monday and the new family was trying to arrange a mid-week pickup and if not, then Friday. Sitting with Watson curled up in my lap this morning, I thought back to Hermes coming over to the bed in the morning to get some petting and rubbing. It is sad to see him go, but I am glad that he ended up with such a wonderful family that obviously loves him. So, it is time to say farewell and move Hermes to the adopted section of the blog.

Man this dog can eat

I have been feeding Watson the sensitive stomach adult food that I had for Hermes and it didn't seem to be any problem for him. We always feed the big dogs at the shelter 2 cups adult in the morning and 2 in the evening. I have been feeding Watson 2 cups and he devours it and he wants more. Some times he will eat as much as 3 or 4 cups in the morning and come back for 3-4 cups in the evening. I don't know if I am overfeeding him. He is a growing pup and doesn't appear to be getting fat. Even with this volume of food, he still wants treats. He is an eating machine.

A handful

I am starting to see what might have caused Watson to be owner surrendered. He is a handful. He is either sleeping or wanting to play. He plays hard and leads with his mouth. This dog is really an alpha and he needs to be neutered as soon as he is well enough. Perhaps that can take the edge off of him. It isn't really the barking, but the constant desire for attention and the wanting to play tug and to chew on toys and grab them even if your hand is there. Ben is starting to wear thin and I am getting a bit frazzled too. I am sure we can keep him in line until he is well enough to go to the shelter, but that is about as long as we will keep him.

Vet visit

Well, Dr. Barnett confirmed that Watson has kennel cough and prescribed a cough suppressant and antibiotics. I spoke with Monica and she didn't want to put Watson in the infirmary with kennel cough because we have those 2 tiny puppies living in there. He definitely can't go into intake and spread the kennel cough, so that means he has to stay at our house and that I can't take Hermes back home this week. I will talk to Dr. Barnett and see when Watson can come into contact with other dogs and maybe I can bring Hermes home later in the week.

Personality profile

Was thinking about what should go in Watson's personality profile info at the shelter and on the shelter webpage. Here is what I have so far:

Watson, 50lb Black and Tan coonhound pup
Eager friendly puppy who loves to play tug and really wants attention. Will fetch a tug toy or ball to play tug with. Intelligent but needs some obedience training to learn his position in the pack. Already knows sit and down by visual command. Walks well on leash, will sit to have leash put on. Crate trained and house trained (as well as can be at 5-6 months; he will bark/whine at a door or window when he needs to go out to potty). No cats or small children. Barking is a breed trait.

Kennel Cough

Monica was right to send Watson for a week or 2 of intake fostering. His cough is more pronounced today, very throaty. He doesn't seem to have any other symptoms, but I will call April this morning and get her to fax a vet voucher to Dr. Barnett so that I can have him examined to make sure.

Not sure what this does on taking Hermes back home. Perhaps Monica will still take him in at the infirmary at the shelter.

This and that

Called to check in with Monica on Monday to see if we knew why Watson was owner surrendered and we don't. She called me back and said our night guy was going home sick and asked if I could come close up the shelter after the night shift. I was okay skipping scouts, so I left Ben with Watson and went over to the shelter for a few hours. It was a bit cold out but Duane was taking dogs out on their after dinner walks and putting them in their runs. I helped out a bit and took Hermes for a walk and put him in a run. He paced back and forth in the run while I was walking other dogs. After all the dogs were out and the dinner bowls were put away, I let Duane bring in the dogs while I spent some time in the office with Hermes. He was glad to see me but kept looking at the door wanting to go get in the car. We had a nice visit and he was bummed that I put him back in his run for the night. I came home to see that Watson had wanted to play with Ben and Ben hadn't been able to get any homework done and was having problems getting Watson to listen. Seems Watson didn't see him as dominant and wanted to sit on the couch to watch TV too. I set Watson straight.

Watson seems to be all better from his stomach upset. He seems to be a typical (but big) puppy and he either wants to play or just go lay about. I guess that describes a bunch of dogs though. I checked his intake material from Town Lake and they estimated his age at 5 months (7/1 birthdate). I weighed him today and he is 50.5 lbs. The paperwork for him from Town Lake had him at 46 lbs. Seems like a growing pup. He seems to like his crate. When I am working at the kitchen table and not playing, he will wander over to his crate and lay down on the comforter in there even though there is one in the family room just across from me.

I ran out to the store last night to pick up a few things for dinner and asked Ben to watch Watson. I got about 2 blocks and Ben called me and Watson was howling in the background. He told me that the dog started howling as soon as I left and wouldn't stop. I told Ben to give Watson a chicken jerky treat and that seemed to fix the whole thing. He does seem to have some separation anxiety issues. I will have to try some of those separation anxiety exercises that Dana sent to me.

Watson seems healthy enough to go to the shelter when there is space. Monica told me that Bo and Tehya are going home this weekend and that will free up space for Watson and I can bring Hermes back. I considered introducing Hermes and Watson and see how they get along so that I could have them both here, but I think it better to just bring Hermes until his adoption is finalized and then to foster KD. I think that Watson will find a home fairly quickly.

Seemingly feeling better

I took Watson out for a walk before crating him to go to work this morning. He came out of his crate and sat for the leash. We walked down the block and he seemed a bit more energetic. From what I saw, I think his lethargy might have had to do with stomach upset. His stool was very liquid. Anyway, we went on and walked down the block (which we have walked a couple of times) and we were passing this fence where 2 dogs are out in the backyard. These dogs always jump on the wood fence and bark when I come by with a dog. Watson hadn't made anything of it the last time or 2 we passed, but this time he turned toward the fence, walked part way to it and stood there. The hair on his entire spine went straight up (piloerection), his legs were stiff and he starting barking at them. This was something new and not expected or desired. I call him away and we walked on by and his hair calmed down. The concerning thing, other than the aggression to the dogs on the other side of the fence is that he seemed calm as we walked another block, but when we came upon a little girl coming out a backyard fence, the hair on his spine came up a bit. She went back in the yard and we walked a few paces past there and turned and I told him to be nice and she came back out and he was wagging his tail. This aggressive side warrants watching.

A bit of lethargy

Watson was tired last night, wanting to just nap on his comforter in whatever room I was in. There is a comforter for the dogs in the family room, one in the computer room where Ben is usually located and a dog bed on the floor in my room. All received a washing before having Watson visit. Watson would follow me from room to room but then just curl up in the doggie bed there. When it came time to go to bed for the night, I got the comforter from the computer room and dragged it to his crate so he had more to sleep on since he doesn't wet in his crate. He followed it along and walked right in and plopped down. He slept through the night just fine and went out this morning to take care of business. We went for a shorter walk as it was windy and in the high 30's. He did his business on the walk. I bagged it and tossed it in the nearest trash since it is garbage day and all the cans are at the curb (my favorite time to walk the dog, Sun. night/Monday morning). We made the next big turn and headed home. Watson was not as playful but he was enjoying some petting. He mostly just wanted to lay around. I tried to entice him with a Kong full of food with a peanut butter smear on the lip of it but he wasn't interested. I put food in his bowl but he wasn't interested. I gave him a chicken jerky and he wasn't interested. Weird. He hung out and came to get petting from Ben and I at breakfast and then wandered back into his crate to curl up in his comforter. He is hanging there now and the door to it is open since I am working from the kitchen table for a few more minutes. Guess I will take him out for one more walk, throw some treats in for him and let him nap in his crate today. Hopefully he will be back to his energetic self of Sat/Sunday later in the day. Time will tell.

A little about Watson

Well, we made it through the first night and full day and so a few observations about Watson. He is good on a leash. I can walk him on a 5' leash and he doesn't pull or I can walk him on a extend-a-leash and he usually doesn't go to the end of the leash. He is a very friendly pup, wanting to meet other people and other dogs. The only sign of any issue was when we were taking a walk earlier and there were a couple of young boys on bikes and he stopped, stared at them and started huffing. I took that as a negative reaction. He had the same reaction a minute later to a boy on a scooter coming past us. He was fine a few minutes later with a little girl on a bike and when she got off the bike to pet him he was fine but maybe a bit too exuberant. He is definitely a puppy and definitely playful. He will fetch but he prefers to play tug. He has sharp nails, I need to get them cut. He was wanting to get me to play earlier and he was putting his paws on my arm and trying to induce me to wrestle and I got a couple of good scratches.

He is curious about everything as a puppy should be. Haven't seen any real signs of fear in him. We have walked a number of times today and he seems to be okay approaching anything, even fences with barking dogs. He has a good deep bark and was barking at the dog that lives behind us when the dog barked at him through the fence. He is definitely teething. This morning he was chewing on a rawhide chip like it was chewing gum. He walked around with it for about 30 minutes including into our morning walk.

Watson apparently has had some obedience training. The leash prowess points to it and he knows how to sit and the sign for sit and I also had him working on down today. He is a treat lover, so training should be easy. I tried to measure his ears this evening, but he kept turning his head and trying to eat the ruler. Best guess I got from the ruler is about 7" long.

No accidents in the house today. I crated him last night and he kept the crate clean overnight and he went as soon as he got outside this morning. I have been praising him a lot all day when he goes out to "potty". I have seen him go to the door 3-4 times today and I let him out and he went. He seems to know what to do, so things are good on that front. No signs of any health issues at this point. He has a healthy appetite and inhaled his food last night. Overall, if we can keep his chewing directed, I think we will have a pleasant little visit.

Big Day, Big Day

Well, Hermes had his meet and greet today with Gypsy and they got along very well. There was no signs of aggression when they met. There was some interest and we moved it to the meet and greet pen and let the dogs off leash and they played. Gypsy wants to herd Hermes and he doesn't want to be herded. He would run away and then come back for more. The only thing that threw us all was a bit of yelping from him. Seemed like he might possibly be a bit intimidated, but he kept coming back for more, so we all decided that things were fine. Based on that, the family has decided to adopt Hermes. They are having some serious house work done that has them away from home for 2 more weeks and so Hermes can't go home yet. Woohoo though. Hermes new family seems very nice and like great dog people.

In the mean time, I got an email from Monica on Friday asking if I could do an intake foster on a 7 month old black and tan coonhound. She thought Hermes was going to be able to go home this weekend, but I straightened her out on that. She still asked that I take in Watson until a spot opens up in intake at the Shelter. Hermes is having to board at the shelter for a few days. Bo and Teyha (the new Huskies that we got this week at the shelter) had some interested folks today, so Bo may be opening up a big dog spot in intake soon. So, for now, we have a big puppy hanging at the house. Watson is very much a puppy. He peed in the house this evening, but he didn't pee in his crate when we had to leave him for 2 hours and he went right out to pee. He has gone to the back door a few times and gone right out to pee or poop, so I think he knows what to do, he just needs the control. He is an owner surrender to Town Lake and his time there was up. Apparently, hound rescue (generalized) and coonhound rescue were both full, but we wanted him and needed to take some special actions to facilitate his intake so he didn't overstay his time at Town Lake (they are a public shelter and don't have the luxury our shelter has of being no kill). Here is a picture of Watson: