Halti collar

I put a halti collar on Ryan this morning and took him for a 1.5 mile walk. The thing just plain works. Ryan didn't seem to mind putting it on too much, but when we left he was trying to figure out why his head was whipping around. He put up with it for about .5 miles and then he started the "try to scratch it off my face" routine. I stopped him and he did it again half a block down but then he seemed to resign to it and the whole walking experience was much better for me. I need to give him a bit longer of a leash as I was walking right up behind him since he didn't seem to settle into one side of me. I need to work on that, but it was nice not having him choking himself trying to drag me back to the house.

I have got to get Ryan on a better schedule

I have the eating/drinking = peeing/pooping thing all down with him. The shelter system off putting the food out to eat twice a day for 30-45 minutes and letting him eat if he is hungry and then making sure to get him out for the output a while after that is working just fine. What isn't working is that Ryan doesn't sleep the night. He gets up in the middle of the night and comes over to the bed and scratches at the sheets or jumps on the bed. I have putting him off the bed and praising him when he is off,but the scratching at the sheets won't take long to do a number on them. I am not sure if he is sleeping during the day or if I am just not getting him enough exercise. My foot has been bothering me a bit and he is not great on a leash (I need to pickup a gentle leader to try with him), so we haven't been going for a lot of long walks. I need to get that into the routine so that I can get my sleep.

Ryan has become more comfortable going outside on his own if there is something out there that interests him. He will bound off after a squirrel or bark and jump up at the tree to try to get at a squirrel. If I go out on the deck with him, he often jumps up on the deck bench seat with me for some petting or will go over the top railing to go after something. Now I need to add in some obedience work and get him out into public situations. The shyness hasn't gone away, he is just becoming comfortable with me.

I left him this morning to go drop Ben at school and was coming back. I spent a few more minutes at school than usual and when I parked in the driveway and was getting out of the car, I could hear him whining and howling in the house. Once we get some obedience going, we also have to work on the separation anxiety. The wonderful thing is that he isn't destructive while I am gone all day. I think he gets on the sofa and the other day the kitchen table was all swished around like he had walked across it, but he hasn't chewed anything. We have had a few mini blinds that he whacked in the back where the backyard is, but I think that was more him being excited and going after a squirrel bu tnot able to get out.

A burst of energy

Ryan got up early this morning and I went to let him right out so that he could go to the bathroom. He went and then he started running around the yard. He had some steam to blow off. He was just running and running. It was kinda funny. He finally ran up to me and jumped up against me and I set him down and we went inside.

Another day, a bit of washing

Nothing much at the shelter on Saturday. Mallory checked out Ryan and he needed to be "expressed". Enough about that. I bathed him on Sunday and he is smelling a bit better. Sunday, I was busy so didn't take him to the shelter.

Ryan chases squirrels. Not a big deal except that he will lay in the dining room at the front of the house and if he sees something in the backyard, he will run to the backdoor and when I open it, zoom he is after the squirrel. This is a dog who won't go outside by himself otherwise.

Ryan can jump. He has hopped up on the bed with me when I let him out in the morning and then went right back to sleep. Ben also said he jumped up onto the office desk. He also can get bored and chew a little. He chewed on the tip of one of my slippers (actually, the last of that pair because Hermes chewed up the other one in that pair) and he chewed on a cheap pair of sandals I left out. For most dogs, I would get them more exercise, but Ryan doesn't like to go for a walk. I took him for a longer one on Sunday and it went okay, so I will have to do more walking with him.

Small update

So, Ryan is coming out of his shell a tiny bit. He is not only shy/fearful, but he also attaches to the person he is with and then has separation anxiety. He does not like to go out for walks. He is shy about going out the door and then will be fine heading out but if he sees anything going on outside in the street or down the block, he is freaked and wants to head back to the safety of inside.

He does fine sleeping on his dog bed next to my bed. He settles right in when I am getting ready for bed and then stays there when I go to bed. He got up this morning and I was concerned from yesterday's throwing up so I got up too. He started jumping up on me and running around. He is in a good mood in the morning and almost playful. I took him straight out to potty and he went. He even wags his tail sometimes in the morning. He climbed in my lap for some petting too. He is fully house trained, though he did pee in the house the first night when left alone for a while. Other than that, no accidents and if I take him outside, he goes and does his business.

He is getting a little less timid about going into the backyard. I can't just open the door and out he heads to explore, but when I opened the door this morning he headed out ahead of me. That is progress as he usually tags along and then when I sit on the bench he will wander around a little bit.

Last night, observing his behavior, it struck me that he is like a cross between a dachsund and a meerkat. I only know about them from some tv shows and not in depth, but he has that way of holding his head and looking around, a long sleep body, etc. I am sure it isn't genetically true, but it struck me funny.

A day at work

Ben and Ryan seemed to get along well last night. Ryan let up his fear a little bit. Enough to let Ben do a small amount of petting. I went to the office today and wasn't sure what would happen. Ben was asleep and I left the house. Ben tells me that Ryan was fairly vocal. Aside from all around fear, he seems to suffer from separation anxiety. Ben called to tell me Ryan threw up a few times. I am guessing it was stress because the cleaning lady was here today. When I came home, Ryan didn't want to come to me and didn't want to leave Ben. I took him for a short walk. He gets scared and wants to head home. He starts pulling at the leash, hunkering down and paddling with his front legs. Since we got back home, he has stuck with me. I gave him some rice with his food and I will just watch to see how he is.

On NPR today, they had a story about the smell of fear. Apparently many animals let off an alert pheromone when they get frightened. Perhaps Ryan's smell is because he is always afraid. Perhaps.

This is one scared dog

Ryan has settled just a tiny bit. I worked from home the last 2 days from my dining room and I threw a comforter in the corner for him and he lays beside me. If I get up he follows meekly and is under foot or turns and runs away when I go in the kitchen. It may be from me crating him in the kitchen and using the doggy gate in there. I moved his food and water out of there so he would have access. I broke up some pupperoni and got him to come take it from my hand. If I sit on the floor he will come over and stand beside or behind me and let me stroke him, but he won't come sit in front. Walking with him seemed like it was getting a little better, but then we saw a neighbor down and across the street and he pulled the entire way home to get inside where it was safe. We have a long way to go. Will be interesting to see how he and Ben get along tonight.

Settling in a bit

Ryan was pulling a lot last night on our walk. I tightened the Martingale collar a bit more and stopped when he was pulling hard and he was getting the idea but he is so fearful that he is staying ahead but looking back or is pulling sideways. I setup a create with a comforter in the kitchen for him since he seemed to be staying in the kitchen most of the evening. I left it in there with the door open and he laid in it a bit. I put him up and shut out the lights and went to bed and he started whining and howling. After a while, I got concerned that my next door neighbor has her bedroom near my kitchen and I decided to go put up a gate and let him just lay on the tile in the kitchen. This morning, I heard him picking up a bone that I had left on a comforter by the back door which meant he had gotten out of the kitchen. I went and put him in the crate and went back to bed. He howled and whined and scratched at the crate for a long while and then settled for a while and then started again and then settled and then started again and it was time for me to get up. Well, the comforter is pretty ripped up (need to go to Blue Hanger and get another one for $3). I need to decide what to do with him tonight. I think I will setup a crate in another part of the house where it is more central and won't disturb the neighbors and just put in a towel I don't mind shredded and just let him howl.

He is laying next to me on the floor right now. He should be tired because he didn't sleep a lot. I need to get the camera and take some pictures to post up to the blog. This morning after my conference calls, he is getting a bath.

KD

Heard from her new family today. She now goes by Sadie. She is adjust pretty well, a little nervous but getting more settled each day. She is still playing with her squeaky football that I sent with her.

Hello Ryan

Ryan is painfully shy. He is Ringo's littermate. He is next in the house and I brought him home tonight. He has a tendency to stop and try to get away on leash so I added a Martingale collar on him and it seems to be working well. He is hanging out mostly in the kitchen but wandering just a bit. He needs a bath badly, but I don't want to freak him out too much tonight.

Kind of quiet

It is somewhat strange around here with no dog. Nothing to do when I get up in the morning (well, plenty to do but no dog to walk). No worry about getting right home to walk the dog. I checked with our foster coordinator and we decided who needs to be fostered the most and I will get him on Monday when I am back in town. I will update with name, picture, profile when I have got a new foster.

1 year ago today

At KD's exit today, we were going through the file and there was the original foster sheet I filled out on KD. It wasn't for the time that I ended up taking her home after Hermes, it was from 1 year ago today when I took her home to have a slumber party with Hermes. That night I had to keep tossing her off my bed so that she would sleep on the floor. Well, it took a year, but she finally found a home that I hope will be permanent. Katie and Leo are really nice and KD went out the door with them without any hesitation. We have been together a long time on and off and she was very happy at the shelter this morning because it was a staff meeting and all the caretakers were there (well, almost all) and she was so happy to visit with April and Desiree and Mallory and Monica. It was a good send off.

So now what? Ben and I are out of town next weekend so I was figuring we wouldn't get another dog until after that, but he was asking today about another dog. We will see what he is thinking tomorrow and we might go to the shelter and see what we think.

Adoption day tomorrow

I have adoption day tomorrow in Georgetown. It isn't my normal day because I switched with someone who couldn't do theirs this month. It turns out, that KD has a good application and she is scheduled to go home tomorrow also. I will bring her up to the shelter and have to leave her while I am in Georgetown. She has been a sweet little girl and I will miss her, but the people who applied for her are very nice and seem to be dog folks. She will have a good family which is my objective.

A visit with some folks and a Ringo visit here

KD and I went to meet some people who might be interested in her on Saturday. It seemed to go well and they were nice. We will have to wait and see what comes of it. We went to the shelter for the rest of the day and on Sunday. It has been "Africa" hot. Dallas had 107, but we were still hot at 103. The dogs are laying in their pools and we are bringing them in early each day. I got a wild hair yesterday and decided that I would bring Ringo home again. He did pretty well the first visit. He of course is scared to be put in the car, but lay there next to KD. He was anxious to go into the house from the car and he and KD went in the back and chased each other around for a few minutes, but it was too hot. Ringo and KD growl and grab each other and generally play rough. She outweighs him by about 1/2 or more, but he will hold his own. Thank goodness that dogs have such thick skin because they were grabbing each others necks and scruff and rolling around. We went out for a walk and it was not easy not being tied up. We just had 6' leashes but it was a twist and turn. Ringo was pulling the whole time and KD was quite good. There were a few times they were pulling in opposite directions trying to get to sniff something, but overall, it went fine and it was still hot out, so in we came.
Unfortunately, the evening ended early as was a bit short tempered and Ringo kept marking the corners of walls and the door to my bathroom. After cleaning it up for about the 6th time, I decided that it was best if I just took Ringo back to the shelter for the night and I took it easy. KD seemed a bit lonely after that, but I was less upset, so we let it go.