This weekend, we had visitors. My brother and his wife came up from San Diego, and brought their two Maltipoos, Charley and Angel. Lizzie started the weekend in some stress. Strange people (very scary), and two little dogs who kept her corralled in her room.
They arrived on Sunday, and when we went to my sister’s house for BBQ, we left Lizzie at home. She wasn’t ready for a strange house, with strange dogs and people she just stayed in her room while we went out.
Lizzie continues to amaze with her level of comfort. She is constantly in the living room with us, she is comfortable hanging with barbara (a huge progress in a mere 3 days), she is going outside at will to do her business.
She did destroy a bed with aggressive “nesting” behavior. Replaced with a bed with a ballistic nylon cover…
While I could be angry that she is pushing her boundaries, I am not, as they are an important stage in adopting a rescue dog. They often come from sketchy backgrounds, and places where they were unduly disciplined for any minor infraction. Or worse, just ignored. What they need is a stable home, some freedom, and gentle behavior correction. It is not a short process, it is a journey.
Five and a half weeks, and what a transformation in the lil’ Lizzie. Shy, timid, retiring when we first picked her up, she had to be carried outside for her eliminations, and cowering in her crate otherwise. It was a huge deal when she first ate in the kitchen, when she went outside by herself to do her duty, when she started playing, when she finally went out on her own during daylight hours, when she first let Barbara pet her out of her crate or den.
Remarkable progress, progress that I thought would take months happening so quickly that my head is almost spinning.
(WARNING: This post will talk about urine and feces. Dog people will get it. If you cringe at the thought of a big dookie in the living room, you will probably want to leave now.)
Celebrating milestones is important. Yesterday, we had a significant milestone. If you recall from last week, we had a bit of backsliding on her “housebroken” status. Both a pee and a poo in the the living room, and barely concealed disappointment. She had been doing so good.
The one consistent thread is that Lizzie is somewhat nocturnal exercise. Pretty consistently, at 3:00ish AM, she wakes up, and gets really playful. Sprints, shadow boxing, indoor/outdoor zoomies, milling around the rosebushes, and general mayhem. It is fun to watch her truly own her environment, but, I will admit that my sleep patterns are completely off kilter. Waking up at 2:30 to 3:20 AM every day does a number on me.
I know it is bad luck to say this out loud, but it has been a week and a half since Lizzie has had a mistake in the house. In that time, she had visiting fast dogs, she has become more comfortable going outside during the day. She is doing her business regularly. She comes out in the living room when we are watching TV. SHe even climbs on eh couch with both of us.
She still wakes up too early, and she has an insane amount of energy when she first gets up. Like a mile of zoomies in the house and out the back door.
Ah, the joy of having a young, and energetic pooch in the house has rekindled the vestigal art of “puppy-proofing”. Strictly speaking, this is the need to protect household goods from a teething puppy who is chewing everything to help work the puppy teeth to fall out so that the adult teeth can grow in. Typically, this is a temporary period, but many dogs enjoy chewing, so we supply them with Nylabones, rope toys, and other things to occupy their gnawing jaws.
As a lurker on a couple of cat pages on Facebook, one of the common attributes I hear people complaining about is that they have insane bursts of activity in the dead of the night, causing their owners mayhem and … Read more
We are now just into the third week of Lizzie being part of our pack, and she has come a long way from the shy, timid, and fearful dog that I had to manually extract from her crate to take out back to do her business.
She has completely warmed to me, and she is warming to Barbara, albeit slowly. We know that this is a process, and that she has to make her own progress at her level of comfort.
Before we even began looking for our next hound, we committed to watching the girls, Falcon and Clara, while their parents moved. Then we got Lizzie, and the first week made me a bit nervous that it wouldn’t be good to bring new pooches into the house. However, her rapid changes, and improvement in her comfort, play, and behavior led me to believe it was worth the risk.
I suspected that Lizzie would be fine. The reports form her foster parents were that Lizzie thrived with other dogs, while being reserved around people. But the real wild card was the greyhounds. Most of them are good with other dogs, but not all, and Falcon is very very strong.