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:

Weekend after Thanksgiving

Came back from Thanksgiving yesterday afternoon. After settling in at home and doing laundry, I went to the shelter to check on Hermes and to bring him home. Monica told me that he had a family come to see him, but that he didn't really go for the 2 little kids, so they decided they weren't really interested. It is understandable. They met and fell in love with Blue, a Great Pyrenees mix.

Today was another gray/rainy day. I took Hermes to the shelter assuming that I would have him in the office since all the dogs would end up inside today. Unfortunately, earlier today, I gave him some Natural Balance dog food sample that I had gotten at Petco and he really enjoyed it, but it appears to be what was making Valerie so gaseous because Hermes was stinking up the place. I put him in his indoor run so that he didn't stink up the office. I walked some of the dogs since they were spending the day inside and then Monica came out to tell me there was someone who wanted to meet Hermes. I took Hermes out to run 5 outside so as to not disturb the meet and greet going on in the M&G pen (KD was meeting her new family's dog). Hermes was glad to be out of his run and was prancing around and coming up to all of us for petting. He warmed right up to the family visiting him and we had a nice visit. They are interested in Hermes and put in an application. They have another rescue dog and so their application will be pending a meet and greet if approved. If all goes well, we will try to set something up for next weekend.

Thanksgiving and the weekend before

Last weekend was a busy Saturday. The shelter had a fund raiser (a car show) and I went to help setup and took Hermes to be there all day. I left after helping work on car check in and went to the shelter to get dogs for my monthly Petco adoption day. There was already a group at the shelter picking up dogs for another adoption day that got moved up this month and I was going to take KD and another dog, but KD had an approved application, so I took Valerie and Casey. Adoption day was slow as usual. People all though Valerie was so cute and sweet, but no one was overly serious about either dog. Casey's lump on her underside had been getting larger and she was scheduled to go see the vet on Monday (didn't ever hear how that turned out). After finishing up at Petco, I went back to the car show cleanup to pick up a few things that I had brought and to get Hermes. He had popped his collar twice (it has one of those plastic buckles that snaps together) and so someone had gone over to the Petco Great Hills and gotten him another collar. Sunday I had stuff to do and dropped Hermes by the shelter in the morning. I put him in a run with Valerie and they immediately started playing. They play kind of rough, getting up on their back legs and "dancing" and seeing who can knock who down. When I picked up Hermes later, he had a scratch on the side of his nose. I put some antibotic cream on it and it seems better.

Today is the day before Thanksgiving. Ben and I went out of town to visit with family and couldn't take Hermes, so he is back at the shelter. Unfortunately, KD's adoption didn't work out because she was chasing cats, so she is back at the shelter. Valerie went home with Alisand for Thanksgiving and so I put Hermes in with KD and they were happy to see each other when I dropped him off. There are a number of new dogs there including some bigger dogs, but Hermes had a run inside still (just a different one). There is a big Saint Bernard looking dog in outdoor run 7 (next to Hermes and KD) and he must be in the big dog room. I am sure that Hermes will be delighted to see me when I go to pick him up on Saturday. Hopefully, he won't get into too much trouble at the shelter. He has become spoiled living at the house and doesn't like to spend the night at the shelter.

Not sure what I should do to help move Hermes along. I know that I really should be reinforcing the training that he already has, but I don't seem to have the energy to work on it. I always find something else to do. I have been taking him for more walks lately, but haven't been working on the sit, down, stay, place or come commands. I need to try to get better at it. I have a couple more weeks then I am off for the year and perhaps I can force myself to focus on training with him.

Thanksgiving and the weekend before

Another slow weekend at the shelter

I took Hermes to the shelter all day on Saturday and 1 hour late on Sunday (today) and there weren't that many visitors at the shelter. I kept Hermes in the office most of the time with me so that he wasn't pacing around outside. It was a bit of a problem once or twice when other dogs needed to come in the office, but I put him up in his run or took him outside when I needed and we didn't really have any incidents. Monica brought out one of the new kittens to the office today and Hermes kept sniffing at it and checking it out.

Not much more to report.

What does a brother have to do to get adopted around here

According to my calendar, we are coming to the end of week 15 with Hermes. Don't get me wrong, it has been great and a nice break from the shelter for Hermes, but he needs to get a permanent home. He is bright, genuinely wants to be with his master (just not in the lap or kissing them), playful, and sweet. Yes, he is afraid of a shadow or the electric meters along the sidewalk during his walks and he does need something to do or he may chew a few things left around the yard, but that is not too bad. He gets along well with other female dogs. I just don't know what to think.

I spent last weekend at the shelter and while I was hanging out with Hermes, he was pretty good. Saturday morning was an Eagle project at the shelter for our scout troop and I went so we were there early. I put Hermes in the meet and greet run with KD and Valerie because part of the project was to take down the old shade shelter in their run and put up a new one. We worked on the stuff and the other dogs went into eat breakfast and I let Hermes out to roam around and he hung around us while we built benches. When the other dogs came back out, I put Hermes back up with KD and Valerie. After the Eagle project, I hung out with the 3 of them and Hermes had a visitor and he was good and came over and let her pet him. She fell for a puppy, so that didn't pan out for Hermes. Sunday I spent the day and we kept Hermes in the office with me part of the day and he just hung around and when he got bored he laid down and didn't bother to get up when people came in.

Oh well, that is my lament for today.