Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Pics of Honey's Offleash Adventure with Dog Trainer Meshum Prey

Since I was off to visit family and my family's place isn't pet-friendly (and way to many carpets to boot!) Honey was invited to spend the Easter Weekend with good friend and co-worker Meshum Prey, who is one of the trainers at K9HQ -the daycare I work at.

Here are a couple of shots from her off-leash adventure with Meshum's pack -half clients and have her own dogs-. As you can see she had a blast!









Things are going along well here, with Honey becoming more and more outgoing everyday. On Monday when people came to see May, Honey was wagging her cute little tail and going up for some cuddles. Does she have the potential to revert, most definitely, but with consistency and other dogs around she's going to be fine.

Funnily enough, I think its May whose made the biggest change in Honey. Beckett is calm and stable, friendly, but also 'Husky' in a lot of ways. May is a social butterfly, ridiculously outgoing and fearless. Who knew a 'death row' chi from California would be a huge contributing factor to getting one really shy terrier to become a balanced dog.

Honey and May, -inseperable friends- Sharing a Nap

Monday, April 25, 2011

Oh How Time Flies

Today May had her first family-visit. A family with a hobby farm and two bigger dogs and one pre-teen looking for a 'good-with-everything' kind of girl. I don't think May made her best presentation -but I think that's what you get when people come onto 'their turf' instead of meeting in a neutral location. She barked at the people, ignored what recall training I've given her -I'm still getting the cold shoulder for leaving her over the weekend I guess- and was basically a diva. She also managed to barf up her lunch on the mum's shoe. So, with that family looking at multiple dogs, I'd be very surprised to see May go home with them.

On the plus side, she did initiate play with the pitbull and gave the daughter some loving. I keep my fingers crossed that she's already chosen her family with goodfriend/co-worker Cathy and her parental units. She was over there for the weekend while I was away for Easter and loved every minute of it. She was so zonked when I picked her up, but that didn't stop the huge tail wag and kisses. Haha, my fosters are more excited to see me than Beckett who goes 'oh hey, that's my bed, night guys' after he's dropped off.


May when she got home.



Honey also has a potential family. Hopefully they'll come for a meet and greet sometime later this week, but their application sounds great -lots of terrier experience and a calm/older dog to help stabalize Honey. Here's hoping she's a good fit. Honey spent the weekend with the trainer at the daycare and was "GRRRRREAT". She was taken on a group off-leash adventure and has excellent recall when travelling in a pack. Funnily enough, we've come to learn that Honey LOVES her crate.



I only really started using the crate with her for mealtimes as she trying to eat EVERYONE'S food. Fell asleep on the couch while she was eating a late supper and woke up an hour later to find her chilling. I don't bother locking the door yet, but close the door. I guess crate training doesn't have to be hard (which I should know, but seeing as Beckett's got at least 50-70 hours behind him and is still PETRIFIED of a crate, seeing instant results is nice).

She was also SO HAPPY to see Beckett and me again. When I went to pick her up it took her a minute to realize I was there and all of a sudden her eyes got huge and she was all whiny happiness. Same thing when she saw Beckett. She better get a home soon, cause unlike most of the other fosters so far, she's getting super attached. I mean, they all get to like you, but with dogs like Tucker and May I can tell they know/knew they're still looking for THEIR family. Honey doesn't seem to care about any other people. As far as she's concerned I'm her family. :S

Oh, and to end this post, I've finally started making the 'tuggies' (homemade tug toys), however I haven't moved past a basic braid. But here is a short video of the girls playing with the tuggie.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Dog Day Afternoon

One of the excellent perks of a job that has you out the door by 1:30 most days is that you get to enjoy the great spring/summer afternoons. It might be hard to pull yourself out of those warm covers, -and pull some of the dogs out!, but on days like today its totally worth it. Check out Beckett and the Fosters May and Honey having a blast in the sun.



Honey's so fast I want to see if I can get some hoola hoops/obstacles to see if she would like the challenge of agility. Cause I'd really like to fiddle with agility and a visually impaired dog like Beckett would be complete FAIL. I'm also hoping it might boost her confidence to a point where she feels comfortable relying almost solely on her handler instead of the other dogs that are present. Honey's bio is on Victoria Adoptables now (thanks VA crew!), so fingers crossed that she catches somebody's eye! Out for an off-leash hike tonight. Currently May drags her leash and Honey is tied to Beckett just in case a bird takes her interest.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

2 Week Update for Honey, 3 week update for May

Honey and May both started daycare this week. From day one May was/is the life of the party, playing with anyone and everywhere who will chase her or she can chase. She's either in someone's lap snoozing, or running around stupidly. May is the kind of dog who thrives on social interaction. Without other dogs around she's going to get bored fast! Sure she'll hang around with her person/be a lap dog for awhile, but she's got too much piss and vigor to cuddle for too long.

Honey on the other hand took a day or two to warm up to daycare. She is super social, but she doesn't venture far out of her comfort zone. After 4 days she is now playing quite a bit and although she can get too riled up sometimes (its the terrier in her) she's quite easy to call off, have a quiet couple of seconds and continue playing. Now when Honey sees she's going to daycare she KNOWS its time to PLAY and if no one wants to play with her she's sure going to become a terrier and annoy whomever she can until they play! Honey's new terrier style game is to chase little, fluffy dogs who don't want to be chased. One of these days she's going to pull that on the wrong dog and get some stern telling off, but when that happens I'm sure she'll just turn tail and booker. For now, we keep her occupied -especially since Honey can play a mean game of fetch and bring the bone/ball back 80% of the time!


The most interesting/challenging thing we found this week is that Honey NEEDS the company of another dog. For interviews at the daycare today, I arranged to bring Beckett with me and May -as there was a tiny pug puppy that I thought Honey might be a little too rough for right off the bat-. Jerrad wanted to go for a walk so it was decided that he'd take Honey for an hour and a bit to work with her one-on-one. Fifteen minutes later I find Jerrad coming into daycare with Honey. Without any other dogs around -so far- Honey buckles down into severe seperation anxiety. She paced and howled in the back of the car. When she got home she whined/began to dig at the fence and she definitely wasn't going anywhere on a leash with Jerrad. So he brought her to the daycare, a big ball of stress, frantic, pacing, drooling. She found another dog -the two hanging out in the office weren't mine- and was instantly fine. When she calmed down a bit she came and hung out with the rest of us and she found her 'house siblings', friends from daycare, etc, and was just fine.

I will try walking her on her own tomorrow to see for myself how she is without any other dogs around, but it seems fair to say that Honey will benefit from a multiple-dog household. She isn't picky about who she hangs with, so hopefully it doesn't make her adoption harder. It is understandable that since she was very young she's always had lots of dogs around.

An just to fun, a half-minute of the dogs doing what they usually do.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Action Time

It seems like I can only manage to get got shots of the dogs when they are down for the count. Or, I make an 'action video', and get that annoying voice that gets them going -but is probably really annoying to watch. So, here are some attempts at action shots. Forgive my lack of photography skills!











I'm starting to really enjoy having Honey around too. Not that I didn't like her before or anything, but she's coming around to be such a well-rounded girl both at home and in the big, wide world. It is no longer a heavy training exercise just getting out and about to do the normal day-to-day stuff.

Honey is definitely a dog's dog though. She has no idea what to do in the mornings at daycare while I set up and she's the only one. On her own she's still nervous of new people, but once other dogs start happy dancing, she just has to get in there and dance too. I'm kinding of hoping to get her sister Toast in here to foster as well, but all in due time.

Emily

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Fosters So Far

When I got into my awesome new digs I was so excited to start fostering. That was just over a month ago now, and four dogs have come through my doors and two have already been adopted to great homes.

A Rundown of my Fosters:

TUCKER (Turtle Gardens) -the shy guy turned social butterfly



Tucker was the best cuddly, wrestler, dino-wrangling dude to come through here. Super quiet and attentive he's been adopted to a great new home up in Cobble Hill!


MAY (Victoria Adoptables) -the 8 pound labrador retriever



May was a stray in California if you can believe it. She was so pathetic when I picked her up, but as soon as she got into the house she was a party-animal. May is cuddler extraordinaire, but is also the instigator of many games out in the yard. She retrieves balls, bones, stuffies, and loves to be chased. She LOVES big dogs. May needs to put on some weight and will stay with me until she is spayed. She is up for adoption through Victoria Adoptables.

YAYIS (from Cozumel Humane Society) -the nervous beauty.



When a client at the daycare was talking about dogs coming up from Mexico I went to help out. I ended up fostering Yayis -a foxhoundX?- for four days until she met her forever family that own a dog facility in Parksville. Off of a dump in Mexico she was bonded instantly with Jerrad -probably because the dump was mostly men- and was his complete shadow. You couldn't find a more beautiful, loyal, unique dog than miss Yayis. I hope I get the chance to foster for Laura again.

HONEY (Turtle Gardens) -shy feral pup turned complete terrier



Honey is my newest foster and Tucker's 'replacement' (although the two dogs got to spend a couple of days playing together before Tucker ventured off to his forever home). Honey is smart, affectionate, and all kinds of cute 'trouble' if you let her. From being a shut down scared little hairy girl on day one, one week later she's bolting around the yard, running to the gate to have her leash put on, and heading up to most strangers with ease. She's still super skittish around odd noises, but is starting to come around with more and more exposure. The funniest thing about Honey is when the radio comes on with dogs barking, she just has to bark back! Honey is that big dog in a small dog package -like most terriers are- and is going to be a mountain of fun for whatever family is desitined to have her!

One Week Update of Honey





We've had Honey for one week now and WOW what a difference. From the time we took her from Dave -when I had to pick her up and bring her into the car, a big shaking mess- to today, doing zoomies and greeting people without any hesitation she's already making big steps.

Honey's leash training was at a big fat 0 when we got her (no worries, we can deal with that), but to make matters worse she spooked at any sound (a frog, a car, the wind blowing a different direction, seemingly nothing) and buckled down into fear mode. The first couple of days our usual half hour route (which isn't all that busy) turned into an hour and a half, and I can tell you Beckett wasn't particularly happy about the pace. The walk consisted of three steps, sound, avoidance/fear, about a minute or two of pulling gently on the leash and getting Honey to move -on her own- forward. Rinse and repeat.

But yesterday we took Honey and May into Petcetera as we needed new Nylabones ASAP! Honey followed May's lead in greeting people, she took a couple of treats and only went into 'OMG, something is going to kill me' mode once when she accidently nicked a shopping basket as she went through the till.

She can now walk very well on a leash when there aren't many distractions around. She is fine with having other dogs and people on the walk but busy roads are still hard, so we've started with nature hikes and are progressing to crescents, little-traffic roads, side-streets, etc. By next weekend we hope to try out some busy parking lots.

Her confidence is building daily and she sure is a terrier now. She's high-energy, fun and go-go-go. She jumps into bed in the morning, licks our faces and heads to the door. She wags her tail for the leash to go on and to go out and about. She whines at the door if she needs to go pee. She is either at level 10 crazy or zonked out sleeping. We're working on staying calm, but she is still a puppy.

Yesterday when people came over to visit she wasn't shy at all about wanting attention and is starting to be the first to go over to say "HI, I LOVE YOU!".

Maybe its Beckett, or the more focused attention, or the movement of one place to another, but for whatever reason shy dogs don't stay shy here for very long!