Sweet Puppy, and a Dog that Needs to be a Therapy Dog

Almost all of my Turtle Gardens fosters are so well-mannered inside, polite when around other dogs and just seem to 'get it'. I swear they are bootcamp for "this is how to be a good house dog."

Everyone is getting into the groove nicely. I believe Cheddar is still missing his siblings -he's a kling-on pup- and is very attached to Penny or whoever is in the room -he starts a right good temper tantrum if he's left behind the baby gate without a human. He is also a supreme cuddler. Right now he's gone for his little morning jaunt and is snoozing away beside me on the couch as I write.

He likes to have someone beside him. We're working a little bit on crate-training (he isn't too fond... there's no other dog to cuddle in there!) but we're definitely making progress. The first attempt we had to wait almost three hours for him to settle and then sleep. Once he hit the sleep marker, out he was allowed to come. The next two times the amount of fuss dropped less and less. Nighttime he's a bit better for, but he wakes up a couple of times whining until you give his crate a little thump to say "Hey, I'm still here, go back to bed!"

He's not going to be the easiest little dude to reliably crate-train but patience will preservere. He's getting it too, you can see him working to calm himself down. It will be important with him to have times away from his people as he does have the neediness to have some seperation anxiety. He needs to learn to be okay on his own for small bits of time.

For some reason my computer doesn't want to upload pictures today, but I'll try to get some up for tomorrow. They have their pictures on the side bar too! (Thanks Piper!)

Penny is head and shoulders above any other dog I've fostered -and I've had some amazing dogs come through. She is "Nana" from Peter Pan, a gentle, loving creature who already has fabulous recall -even off a dog she's playing with-, is happy to meet any new face and could cheer up anybody with a tail wag. I hesitate to call any dog "perfect" but Penny is pretty darn close. She has turned into my sister's dog, following her around the house like a non-needy shadow, laying by her bed and always ready for whatever is next. Kathleen is taking her for two walks every day on her own and you can tell even after just one day of this (this being day #2) that Penny looks forward to the special time with her person. It's very possible -with the permission of TG of course- that Kathleen might adopt her and she'd get to stay here. I wouldn't mind at all! My dogs all love her and Jinks and Penny play quite a bit when we go out to the big tennis court for some great off-leash time.

What I would really love for Penny more than anything else is for her to become a therapy pet to go to hospital and promote the great dogs in rescue, and to possibly to go schools to do the same thing. I am looking into getting her an appointment this week to be screened temperment wise to become a therapy dog. Of course she could be a great family dog too, but her love of people and her calm stable personality makes her able to do so much more. She's not just a dog -she's an abassador of all rescue dogs. Regardless if she stays here or not, I can definitely say I'm going to be picky with her applications. Not just a GREAT home, but THE VERY BEST home will do. Someone who will make her the center of their world.

Updates as they come. Things are usually busy e-mail wise right after the bus run, so I haven't heard yet about Cheddar's adoption pending, but I will snuggle him as long as I can :)

Emily Out