New pup home!

[denverpilot]

So a few weeks ago our doggy camp that Dino goes to told us that he was crazy about one of the rescue dogs. If they're not in the same play area, they run the fence until they're put together. Then they play and play.

They told us Rona was a rescue from Oklahoma where she was found abandoned and tied to a tree with two pups. As the pups grew, they took her to camp for socialization and seeing lots of other dogs trusting people. She had a lack of confidence and was a little scared of humans, like many rescues.

She was doing well at camp and then she met Dino and the two of them became pals. They had already let us know that they'd had to remove collars before because she'd just grab him by the collar and drag him around the room. (Typical woman. Haha!)

So the rescue folks and camp folks let us know they thought these two were bonding, and suggested we try a home visit. We did that a week ago, and they immediately recognized each other and started playing. In fact, we had never seen Dino play that much or that long... He's a total goof around her.

Anyway, tonight the rescue folks brought Rona over to stay. Here's Dino showing her around the place...

 

[TEFLONSEAN]

Looks like she's got a little Pointer in her too by the look of her coat.

Pretty sure your looking at soul mates....but they had this figured out long before us silly humans could catch on.

Awesome!!!

 

[N801BH]

Good on you Nate to help a dog live a great life......

 

[timwinters]

 

[write-stuff]

Congrats on the fine addition to your family!

 

[James331]

Good on you Nate to help a dog live a great life......

X2

They look like two happy pups

 

[murphey]

Dino's got a grrrrrllllfriend!
Dino's got a grrrrrllllfriend!

 

[LDJones]

Well done!

 

[AggieMike88]

Now if Blanche and I can just get you to join the MPR Flight Team.

Good on ya to enriched the lives of two canines!

 

[denverpilot]

Looks like she's got a little Pointer in her too by the look of her coat.



Pretty sure your looking at soul mates....but they had this figured out long before us silly humans could catch on.



Awesome!!!

Actually they think she's part catahoula. The coat is extremely soft, and the spots/markings are typical. Not many around here but she came from Oklahoma which is "south enough" to see more of them. They're the Louisiana State Dog.

Since they think Dino is part or mostly Münsterländer, partly because all his head and black fur is also extremely soft, we oddly have two fairly rare breeds, if so. Both rescues.

Normally the U.S. Münsterländer breeders go to great lengths to hunt down purebreds that end up in shelters, because they only sell them to hunters, so we suspect he's a mix that some breeder surreptitiously dumped, or something very odd happened. Some of the breeders even tattoo the dogs to identify them for life if lost, and rescue them back to hunting foster families. He does have an odd hind end gait and they can't sell expensive hunting dogs that walk funny for fear of hip problems later on.

The shelter tells the story that he was with a young family with a new baby and they feared he would knock over the baby so they crated him 12+ hours a day. Not good for an active hunting breed at all, if true. That's why we pay to have him go to camp anytime we aren't home. He loves all day playtime and it keeps his energy level reasonable. He loves to sleep at home which is common for the breed. Camp is "work" and home, he chills. It's interesting. I'll walk him or play with him whenever he likes, but some nights he just sleeps. Depends on his day and mood.

With her here tonight he played quite a bit and he's ready for bed for sure. They both passed out while we watched an hour of late TV.

However they ended up here, it seems they're both happy about it!

The rescue we worked with does work with PnP and they're always transporting dogs. Y'all know from previous posts that I think it's a shame we have homeless people and 90% of my Facebook feed is about homeless dogs and cats, so I still think we have a National priorities problem or mental block... I guess it's harder to love homeless people. But...

Seeing the effort the rescue went through to get her here and all the work to re-socialize numerous traumatized animals... It does make me think about volunteering to help them. Dogs like her might just be too fearful to hop in an airplane, but some of the drives the volunteers do are impressively long.

Tomorrow Karen heads out for singing competition for a week (and she gets to meet Dizz from PoA!) so I'll be playing the roll of Doggy Dad all week.

Somebody (!) will be fully spoiled by the time Doggy Mom gets home... She's decided she likes my side of the bed. I'll have her fully trained to take up all of Karen's side before Karen gets home. Haha.

 

[denverpilot]

Now if Blanche and I can just get you to join the MPR Flight Team.



Good on ya to enriched the lives of two canines!

I assume that's a doggie transport? MPR?

 

[AggieMike88]

MPR = www.mountainpetrescue.org

One of the rescues that Blanche and I (and many others) have flown for. Based in the ski resort area. They pull lots of dogs from DFW area. My dog, Sugar, was supposed to go there, but the 7 day foster turned into a full blown adoption.

She is a good match for me. Smart, funny, loves learning commands, friendly, good energy when it's time for exercise, and will,listen when it is time to wind down for evening.

 

[denverpilot]

MPR = www.mountainpetrescue.org



One of the rescues that Blanche and I (and many others) have flown for. Based in the ski resort area. They pull lots of dogs from DFW area. My dog, Sugar, was supposed to go there, but the 7 day foster turned into a full blown adoption.



She is a good match for me. Smart, funny, loves learning commands, friendly, good energy when it's time for exercise, and will,listen when it is time to wind down for evening.

Cute face.

Will keep it in mind. Right now I'm not even legal to fly dogs...

 

[N801BH]

Cute face.

Will keep it in mind. Right now I'm not even legal to fly dogs...

....

 

[denverpilot]

By the way, she's decided she can't fall asleep tonight unless she is touching me... If I move my arm away, she just snuggles closer. On the couch, on the bed. She's obviously trying hard to stay where she feels safe right now.

And apparently I'm not such a bad guy. Heh.

She's between us at the head of the bed and Dino decided he wanted up here tonight at the foot of the bed (normally he goes to his end of the old couch), so it's a full King sized bed tonight!p

Karen is snoring, Dino is dreaming and growling and woofing and his feet are running, and Rona is puffing little shallow breaths and is out like a light, laying on my arm. I'm posting on PoA. Ha. I may not sleep too well tonight, but that's fine by me. It's a good night.

 

[denverpilot]

....

BFR expired some time ago. Too much work, not enough play. Kinda knew it'd happen with the new job. About time to fix it.

Co-worker managed to pass his Private Glider rating at Boulder this summer, so I've been living vicariously through him. Heh. No power rating for him. He's totally hooked on soaring.

 

[N801BH]

BFR expired some time ago. Too much work, not enough play. Kinda knew it'd happen with the new job. About time to fix it.

Co-worker managed to pass his Private Glider rating at Boulder this summer, so I've been living vicariously through him. Heh. No power rating for him. He's totally hooked on soaring.

I see.....

I just went out about an hour ago and did three full stops to get night current for winter flying.....

Suppose to snow tomorrow, Sunday, Monday....

 

[TEFLONSEAN]

By the way, she's decided she can't fall asleep tonight unless she is touching me... If I move my arm away, she just snuggles closer. On the couch, on the bed. She's obviously trying hard to stay where she feels safe right now.

And apparently I'm not such a bad guy. Heh.

She's between us at the head of the bed and Dino decided he wanted up here tonight at the foot of the bed (normally he goes to his end of the old couch), so it's a full King sized bed tonight!p

Karen is snoring, Dino is dreaming and growling and woofing and his feet are running, and Rona is puffing little shallow breaths and is out like a light, laying on my arm. I'm posting on PoA. Ha. I may not sleep too well tonight, but that's fine by me. It's a good night.

Good times.

Smart girl....she recognized the Alpha....now is doing her best to fit in with the pack. Until she feels accepted and even after she will continue to do this...until someone higher in the pack stops her....she will continue. (Wouldn't blame you for not stopping her)

Of all the dogs I have had during my life ....the rescue dogs somehow rescued me(my family)....and i have had some pretty awesome and expensive purebred dogs that could never compare. Took me awhile to figure this out...

 

[denverpilot]

Good times.



Smart girl....she recognized the Alpha....now is doing her best to fit in with the pack. Until she feels accepted and even after she will continue to do this...until someone higher in the pack stops her....she will continue. (Wouldn't blame you for not stopping her)



Of all the dogs I have had during my life ....the rescue dogs somehow rescued me(my family)....and i have had some pretty awesome and expensive purebred dogs that could never compare. Took me awhile to figure this out...

Yeah and we've done the "wean the Velcro dog off of Alpha" routine before. Dino was incredibly Velcro dogish when we first got him, drive him nuts if either of us left the room and he HAD to follow, and if we were in separate corners of the house, he'd wear a hole in the carpet going back and forth.

It's a confidence thing... She'll get there. Not going to happen on he first night, though. She's going to be a bit clingy when something confuses or frightens her for a while. She can't do the basement stairs at all yet... Stands at the top looking down at us (there's a mud room and a reversal in the middle and another landing halfway to the basement) like we're crazy. Who'd go down THERE? And encouraging talk seems to make her even more leery of it, like she's been lured by the "friendly sounding" dog catcher before, and she's not falling for THAT trick again.

Dog catcher didn't have a walkout basement door though. Haha. She'll happily walk right into the basement from outside, and she's gone UP the stairs a couple of times...

So eventually she'll figure out it's all the same, a good place upstairs and down, and doesn't matter how you get there... Heh. She seemed a little surprised the second time she went UP the stairs like, "Hey, wait a minute... This is that place I'm supposedly scared to go..." Not full realization yet, but she'll figure it out.

Karen tried the treat lure game, she's on to that one, she ran up and snatched the entire treat away because Karen hasn't quite figured out her baseline is fear. Fear of being trapped, caught, lured... Typical doggie with some street time on her... I've seen it more than Karen has... My family has had more strays and rescues than she grew up with. No biggie.

I also noticed she has that "snatch and dash" food grabbing habit of a street dog... Only "in range" of the human long enough to grab the food. She therefore also doesn't really get it when it comes to "gentle" food taking, so she pinched my thumb a bit earlier. Just me being clueless... We worked that out with Dino a long time ago, and you forget...

He will now sit somewhat impatiently with a treat on his head until you tell him to "get it". He's too klutzy to flip it to his mouth, though. I could get him to do it, but it'd mean a lot of sad looks from him while not allowing him to have the treat if it hit the floor. The balancing act is a worthwhile trick... It taught him patience and trust that he would still get the treat... The next step on that progression is not all that useful, and would bum him out considerably. He's VERY food motivated.

She looks so far like she'll be mostly motivated by stuff that feels good and doesn't scare her. She wants protection right now. Which, is exactly where I'd expect her to be at this point.

Two years... She'll need about two years to get most of that fear out of her head, around us, and in controlled environments. And she may have a baseline of mistrust of people for far longer than that...

She taught herself how to survive on the street. She'll always know those techniques and they'll pop back up under stress. Run away. Hide. Stay back from the person talking nicely to you until you know they won't grab you...

 

[murphey]

Nate - I've never had a problem with the dogs once they get in the airplane. some get crated, some just get put on a harness and attached to the seat belt in the back seat. Only once did I have a problem and that was because the dog was incredibly hyper to begin with and wanted to play.

Most of them go to sleep but the german shepard sat up in the back seat the whole time, just watching everything out the window. Definitely one of my favorite passengers!

 

[denverpilot]

Nate - I've never had a problem with the dogs once they get in the airplane. some get crated, some just get put on a harness and attached to the seat belt in the back seat. Only once did I have a problem and that was because the dog was incredibly hyper to begin with and wanted to play.



Most of them go to sleep but the german shepard sat up in the back seat the whole time, just watching everything out the window. Definitely one of my favorite passengers!

I can see that. She would have problems getting in, not once in. She's mistrustful of small openings. She's also is a massive drooler in vehicles, apparently. She's probably not had many car rides with good outcomes, so it's her baseline. She'll get there.

 

[murphey]

I can see that. She would have problems getting in, not once in. She's mistrustful of small openings. She's also is a massive drooler in vehicles, apparently. She's probably not had many car rides with good outcomes, so it's her baseline. She'll get there.

And that's why there's 4 beach towels across the back seat if the dog isn't in a crate. Just in case. Even in the crate, there's a big towel to curl up with and to help avoid sliding around.

Mike & I have gotten good at this.

 

[denverpilot]

Yep, I'm tired. Fell asleep around 1A and Karen had the alarm set for 5A for her ride to the airport. Rona jumped pretty high when it went off, but figured out it was okay when we just groaned and got up. LOL.

Off to the airport for the drop off, Rona was a little scared to get in the pickup truck but a boost and a pat took care of that. Drool started about ten minutes out and continued for an hour. Ha. She can drool a lot! No biggie. The back seats of the truck have a doggy hammock between the front seat backs and the rear seat backs.

Dropped Karen off, got an interesting reaction from Dino. As I drove off he started growling. He thought the airport took Karen. LOL. Told him everything was ok and he settled back into big dumb boy likes truck rides mode. I guess he was kinda right. He was ready to go get her back.

Got home, quick run in the yard and potty break, water and then food in separate rooms. All good. Then another shot at the stairs... Nope, not yet... A little playtime upstairs where they were still working out pecking order, and then outside to go downstairs and a quick nap for me. She's alternating between chilling and sniffing everything.

Right now she's meeting Neato the vacuum robot. She ran to me to check if everything was okay when Neato fired up, and now she's cautiously approaching and sniffing at the robot and then acting like she isn't interested at all, and then back to me to see if it's all okay, and repeat.. Ha. And while I typed this she decided Neato isn't a problem but the best place to be to avoid him is on the bed, lying down.

Both of them were sound asleep this morning with legs sprawled everywhere before the alarm clock. Dino never left the bed, he wanted in on the pack snooze instead of being on his couch.