sonny came home.

We brought Sonny home to foster yesterday.

I brought Roxy and Buster to meet him at the kennel. We did one-on-one intro walks and short play dates in the yard after that went well, and then brought all 3 in together just to make sure there were no immediate issues.  It's important to me that there are no issues up front because of Roxy.  We've tried the crate and rotate thing with her and she just plain doesn't tolerate it; and she's come so far in her training, I can't jeopardize what we've accomplished.

Anyway, so Buster, Roxy, and Sonny hit it off.  Roxy was play bowing and inviting him to play left and right.  Buster tried to hump him a hundred times (he has this thing for other male dogs) and we did some Time Outs and that fixed Buster's humping issue.  But whenever he tried, Sonny didn't mind. Sonny was licking both of their faces, in between trying to jump over the 7+ foot fence to get away, poor baby.

When we got home, I took Sonny for a walk. Then I took Sonny and Buster for a walk together. Then I took Sonny and Roxy for a walk together. Everything went great.  Sonny even peed while I was there, for the first time since I've met him.

When we got home, Sonny went in his crate and slept with one eye open for about an hour... then we went outside and he did pretty good out there, aside from trying to jump the fence. At this rate, he'll never be allowed outside without being on leash.  Once we came back inside, though, he went and hid under the fake Christmas tree we have yet to take down.  He crawled underneath the front of it and hid in the back and underneath it.

I went to the back room to prepare their dinners, Roxy and Buster followed me, and Sonny followed behind them. While I was there scooping food out into bowls to bring to the kitchen and stuff into toys, Buster snapped at Sonny.  I never feed them there, ever. But the food comes from there.  And when I first got Buster, he had some major guarding issues.  He's amazing now, he's never guarded toys, and doesn't guard food/chews/high value items from people.  He's great with toys and other dogs.  And I haven't had a problem with him and the food-prepping station with Roxy, but Sonny is new and Buster is just showing that he's a little nervous because there are big changes going on, with a third dog in the house.  Okay, mental note -- dogs go into crates prior to me preparing their food. Done. I do high-value items in their crates already, so this isn't a big difference. Sonny doesn't seem to be holding it against Buster, in fact, he seems to love Buster and is taking cues from him as to what to do.

So, I fed them dinner in their crates, and while he was eating in his crate, I took the silly Christmas tree down before he came out of his crate.  Once everyone was done eating, I opened his crate and he followed Buster around the house.  Then he walked back towards his crate, and instead, he chose to literally crawl into the bottom shelf of my bookcase, on top of some picture frames.  The poor guy just laid in there for a while cowering.

I tried dropping high-value treats somewhat near him, but he didn't budge.  So I went and grabbed a dark colored sheet and covered his crate with it, to see if that helped him any.  I walked into the other room and my guys followed, with Sonny in tow.  When we went back into the living room, Sonny went right for his crate.  Poor guy just wanted his crate covered. Done.
 
And now he's using his crate as his hideout, runs back to it when something scares him, so at least he has somewhere to go where he feels safe. And he's not trying to break out of it (knock on wood) so I'm thankful for that.

He only eats if I leave the food with him and walk away after a few minutes, and he refused to pee last night so this morning he peed for a good minute and a half or more. And he's totally terrified of Rob right now, so Rob's completely ignoring him, except for occasionally dropping high-value items in his general direction.  He scrambles into the corner when you walk around, if you accidentally look at him, he flattens out on the ground.  If you talk while he's exploring, even if you're not talking to him or looking at him, he stops what he's doing and just stares, curiously.

But Sonny just loves Buster and Roxy. His tail wags for them and he wants so badly to play with them. We saw a couple of play bows (Sonny has the cutest play bow ever) but he's still not sure of himself. But any dog-friendly Pit Bull is uber-special to me.

We have some work to do, but he's already perfect to me.

a tribute to bandit

Bandit was our first foster. She was adopted just about a year ago, and I've been thinking about her a lot lately.  I keep looking back, thinking we should have kept her.  I still feel like I made the right decision, but I can't help but miss her. She was such an amazing dog.

A HW+ dog who went through HW treatment while in our care.  She was an amazing dog and her and Roxy were great together... they were both brindle, and just plain adorable together. I joke they were in "doggie love."

Bandit was found as a stray, and had at least one litter of puppies before that.  She had a love-hate relationship with squeaky toys. She loved every person that walked into the house.  Bandit taught Roxy to be a less afraid. We talked of keeping Bandit, but I was nervous because she hadn't yet been spayed (due to being HW+) and I knew that spaying a dog can sometimes change their behavior/temperament due to the change in hormones. I didn't want to have two dogs that didn't get along in the house, and there was no way of knowing how she'd be 6 months down the line.  The other problem was, if we kept her, we wouldn't be fostering anymore.  We had limited ourselves to 2 dogs in the house at one time, except for occasionally watching our friend's dog for a week or so at a time.

She wound up getting adopted by family members of someone who volunteers with the rescue, so I at least knew she was going to a good home. I met the family, a mom, dad, and teenage boy who totally loved her.  He was a good kid, too. You know, one of those kids that had respect for people and actually knew how to hold a conversation.  And he was so sweet with Bandit.  And Bandit loved him.  We knew we would miss her, and being our first foster, it was probably the hardest thing we had to do.  We still miss her.  Rob is still a little upset with me. I don't blame him, but after Bandit... we had the luxury to foster several other dogs, one of which we did wind up keeping.  He needed us.  If we had kept Bandit, Buster we would not have found us... err, we would not have found Buster.

Bandit, here's to you. We will always love you, and I'm sure by now, you've forgotten us because I know you're so loved where you are.

roxy, my super dog

Roxy had a ridiculously awesome day at agility class last night.  We started agility a few months ago, and she's been progressively getting better, in general, and it's been such a great outlet for her winter energy and a great place for us to train as well.

She tends to get pretty excited and anxious when a new dog is in class, but it calms down after the first couple of minutes typically.  But, she has a harder time with that when the new dog is vocal, easily excited, etc.

Last night there was a 4-5 month old German Shepherd Puppy, who was very, very excited.  She's a regular at the doggie daycare, and plays very well with other dogs (so I'm told), but she was non-stop barking, lunging, whining, and all sorts of talking, and she just got more and more excited when a dog started moving through the equipment...

So, Roxy was watching the shepherd when she barked, but she stayed sooooo calm, except for just the tiniest little whine she let out when the shepherd saw the first dog running and got really really excited.

Then, even better... Roxy was in a sit, the shepherd is barking like a loon on our left side, there's a little white fluffy dog on the right side of us that started talking back to the shepherd, and there was a Golden Retriever running through the course at top speed, right behind Roxy.  A few months back, this would have been KRYPTONITE for her. She would have gone into panic mode standing up, her eyes shifting back and forth, she'd be trying to get away, trying to hide behind me, whining, leading to high-pitched barking, etc.

So, when she heard the golden about 3-4 feet away she turned her head and looked at the golden, but she stayed in her sit. I called her name and BAM she turned towards me and held her sit and watched me, amidst all that distraction and scary stuff.

This is a HUGE milestone for her. HUGE. On a million levels.  Looking back, I wish I had a video of her prior behavior so I could post a new video to show the difference in her.  I'm totally, 100% impressed with her and couldn't be more proud of her.

Plus, she ran the equipment really well last night, even with the shepherd barking the whole time.  She was so focused and she didn't skip a beat

I am so amazed and impressed with her transition from the dog she was before vs. the dog she has become.

bobby, adopted!

Dear Bobby,

Your new family is awesome, I can tell already.  I truly hope you are a GOOD BOY for them.  They already love you, so there's no need for you to show off to get attention.  I will miss you, Bobby. You taught me the most about pit bulls, and taught me to love them so much more than I already did.  Be safe and happy in your new home, Bobby Boy <3

Love,
Megan

P.S.  Your new mom and dad saw how much you loved me, so they're looking forward to getting that much love from you, as well!

sonny

Meet Sonny.  Well, don't meet him. Don't try to talk to him, pet him, feed him, or cuddle him. Sonny is a fearful dog, and people are his kryptonite.

Since Bobby has a good looking meet and greet tomorrow, I'm exploring to find my next pet project dog.

Sonny is a very dog-friendly Pit Bull, but he is terrified of people.  He army crawls on the floor when people walk him places, unless he is with another dog.  Then his whole body perks up.

This picture was taken of him at the kennel, where I'll be working with him.  I have yet to take any pictures of him myself, seeing as he's terrified of people.  I don't think he needs a scary person with a flashing box pointing at him, so I'll wait on that.  It may be a while before I can get a better picture.

And I've only "met" this dog once, but I love him already.

bobby

Meet Bobby.  He's a year + old pit bull at my local rescue organization.  I fostered him back in March for about 2 weeks.  He was adopted very, very quickly, especially for a Pit Bull.  This dog is such a love, it's unbelievable.  The family that adopted him had 2 kids, and Bobby was kid-tested and approved.  The guy was used to having Rottweilers, so he seemed to understand the importance of taking extra care of a dog whose breed is stigmatized.  I spent a lot of time with this family to make sure it was the right fit.  And the family loved this dog, or so it seemed.

Three months after he was adopted, the guy called me and said they needed to return Bobby.  I was dumbfounded because I hadn't heard from them in 3 months despite giving the guy my phone number and telling him to call me with ANY issues, that I could get him in touch with people that could help if I couldn't.  He told me that Bobby was too dog aggressive and he was scared for his family, despite him showing NO aggression towards any people.  He refused to understand the difference between dog aggression and people aggression, which are vastly different things.  Anyway, I offered to come down to his house 1x a week until they were back on track with him, but he told me no way, that he'd tried everything.

Anyway, it turns out that they had been tying Bobby up outside for long periods of time.  And Bobby has a lot of barrier frustration issues, so this only exacerbated the problem.  So eventually, Bobby broke off of his tie-out and attacked a small dog, injuring it badly.  The small dog's owner took the family to court, and Bobby was deemed a dangerous dog (supposedly) and required to be walked on a muzzle and a prong collar. This, I know, is a lie.  The law does not dictate that a dog must be walked on a prong collar.

So the guy tells me that Bobby is too dog aggressive for him to handle anymore, and he needs to return him.  He tells me he tried the muzzle and prong collar, but he couldn't walk him because Bobby was so reactive and aggressive.  So he just stopped walking him.  Then he complained that Bobby was trying to jump through windows to get out of the house. Well yea, DUH... the dog needed exercise.

Whatever.  It's better he was returned to us, obviously that guy had no idea what he was doing.  So Bobby has been back with us now for 6 months or so.  I've been working with him a lot on his barrier frustration issues, self-control issues, and manners, but because he doesn't get exercised daily, which is what he needs, it's been a struggle, to say the least.  But I love this dog, and no one else takes him out of his run except for me.  The kennel frustrates him, a lot.  It's can be a very anxiety-causing place for a dog, especially a high-energy dog who doesn't have an outlet for that energy. But the moment we get away from the kennel, he is a totally different dog.

Interesting to me is that, since he's been back, he's shown very little, if any, dog-aggression.  He may be selective, and he can get over the top during play but that's because he doesn't get regular exercise. After he's been exercised to a normal degree, he can be around other dogs without a problem.  In October I had him at a Halloween parade for dogs, and he was walking amongst hundreds of other dogs, large and small, and he was an angel. Yet another reason I know this adopter just plain failed at life.

I've told Rob that, if we move and Bobby is still not adopted, we will need to try to integrate him into our home and take him.  I won't leave him behind. I sure hope he's not still there when we move, though... we won't be leaving for at least a year and a half. It will break my heart if Bobby is still there then.

dog-sitter

I got a recommendation for a dog-sitter that will come and stay at our house while we're away in the beginning of the year.  We've brought Roxy to other people's houses in the past, but it seems to be very stressful for her when we do that, so I'm hoping this works out better.

She's someone who volunteers in rescue, is recommended to me by a volunteer that I know and trust, and she's very inexpensive.  She also said she likes to come over several times before we leave to meet the dogs and make sure the dogs are comfortable with her.  That part is very important to me and Roxy because of Roxy's issues.  I need to know Roxy is comfortable with this person before I can leave her.  She's come over once so far, and Roxy did great for a first meeting.  We still have 2 more meetings (at least) before we leave, which I'm pretty hopeful for.  We'll be gone for 10 days, with no way to check in, so it's really important to me that I know my dogs will be comfortable.  I'm less worried about Buster, seeing as when she came over to meet them, he was best friends with her in about half a second.

She understands rescue dogs that have special needs like Roxy, and she understands that Roxy has special training and she has agreed not to have Roxy meet any people on walks while I'm not there.  Perfect.

another training session

Yesterday was our 3rd session with Erica.  I crated Roxy and Buster, like usual, when she was expected to arrive.  When she came inside, Roxy was in her crate barking, but once she saw who it was, she was wiggling her little wiggle butt to see Erica!! We let her out and she ran to Erica... she was so excited to see her, it was pretty amazing to see such a huge change in her.

We tried to go for a walk but Roxy was struggling, a lot, with the walking piece of it.  She was dragging me down the road.  I think she was just excited to show Erica how good she was doing.  Erica also said Roxy was a totally different dog than she met a few months back.  So, I'm glad to say I've done something right with her.  We still have work to do; in fact, I think we'll always be working, but I'm so proud of her.

Anyway... we wound up coming back to the house and I was explaining to her the trouble I was having with Buster, how he'd become a little bit more reactive and we brought him out and did some work with him also, and she pretty much said I should work on the same things with him that I've been working on with Roxy. So, I have more work to do!

Roxy is a true testament to what humane, positive training methods can do and how amazingly they work when applied correctly and consistently.  I'm seriously so happy with how far she has come already, and it's only been 4 months!

agility

With all of Roxy's progress, I started taking her to the weekly walk-in agility class at Pawsitive experience in Rockaway.  This is the training facility that my local rescue uses.  Honestly, I'd never take a dog there to do any sort of actual training.  Although they have banned prong collars from use inside their facility, they still do a lot of correction based training (read: non-humane training) and I will not do that type of training with my dogs, or any dogs I foster or work with at the kennel.  But this place is 5 minutes away from home and has literally done wonders for Roxy's training.  Now that it's getting colder, there are fewer people to encounter on walks, and fewer dogs to practice ignoring, and fewer stimuli in general.  So this once a week course has been great.  Plus, I think it's important to mention that the instructor realizes Roxy's issues, respects what I choose to do to train her, and doesn't suggest that I give her a leash correction for barking.  She gets it, and we have a mutual respect for one another, despite the fact that I think their ways of training are, well... outdated and can be pretty barbaric.

We started a couple of weeks back and Roxy was pretty reactive the first couple of weeks.  The instructor said it's pretty normal for a new dog to act that way, because there is a lot going on, new smells, new dogs, lots of movement of said new dogs, new people, etc.

Anyway, this has become a great place to practice Roxy's self-control and do a lot of focus work.  Plus, she really seems to like agility.  The instructor was very impressed with Roxy's first class, especially being a fearful dog.  She struggled with the tunnel and the chute the first class, but did everything else without a problem.  At the second class, she was going through both the chute and the tunnel with ease.

The other great thing about this class is it's a "no-touch" class for the dogs.  No dogs are off-leash and no dogs are wandering around or getting in Roxy's face.  But I get the opportunity to mark and pay Roxy for calm behavior while there is a lot of stuff going on.  And there are tons of people there that think Roxy is just beautiful, so we get the opportunity to meet lots of dog-savvy people who ask before they give her treats and ask before they attempt to pet her.  We've been going through our "go say hi" protocol and it's been working great.  There are some people she likes almost immediately, and others it takes a little longer, but overall she's doing really, really well and I am so proud of her.

training: "go say hi"

"Go say hi" is Roxy's new protocol for meeting new people.  It's been working really, really well.

First, we taught her "touch" where she targets the palm of my hand with her muzzle.  Then, I taught her to target other peoples hands with her muzzle (just like she'd do a "touch") and come back to me for treats.  We started with people she already knew putting their palm out for a touch without giving the cue, and when she was reliably running up to their palms, I introduced the cue "Go say hi!" until she got to the point where she learned that "Go say hi" means to go give the other person a touch.

I've essentially made it a game for her and she loves it, and it helps her love people.  The "game" sort of developed over time, and to be honest, the more I think about it, the more I think maybe she invented the game and she's been playing me for a while.

In the beginning I started marking and paying her for any positive interaction, including simply sniffing new people.  She started playing the game and winning, a lot...  It's progressed now to the point where I can have other people ask her for a "touch" and she goes right to them, touches the palm of their hand, and then comes back to me for treats.  And, after she's done this a few times, she's a lot more comfortable around that person.

It's great to see her willingly and excitedly approaching new people. I couldn't be happier!!