�After nearly half a year of Millie following Brenna and I home on our morning walks and visiting our house, and then camping out on our doorstep (one time for up to two days with us giving her no food OR WATER) we finally caught on.... Millie has chosen US as her family! We have been starving her out at our house not wanting to lure her away from her family, as she comes from a home with two young kids. But when it came down to Michelle and I losing sleep over starving her and nearly tearing our hearts in two I decided it was time to talk to her owners and settle who owns Millie. Turns out that the husband told me, "Dogs just aren't my thing, and my kids pay absolutely no attention to her." She had been wandering the countryside around here scrounging for attention! He said he was just going to take her to the pound. YIKES! I told him we would gladly try letting her stay at our house and if it doesn't work we will find her a good home.
So Monday night we went over there in the dark and called for her and brought her home and fed her a GOOD meal and loved on her! We put one of Brenna's collars on her (until I had a chance to buy her one today) and made her Millie Degenhardt.�
�Millie continues to astonish and amaze us! I don't know if her sister, Brenna, is just having such a good influence on her, but we already tried our first night of letting her sleep in the house with us. Now keep in mind, this dog lived the first full year of her life wondering fields with cows! She was very antsy to be inside after a few hours. But her stay at the kennel seemed to have changed that, she liked staying inside longer. So Monday night, the day we brought her home from the kennel, I decided to go ahead and lose sleep and try to acclimate her to our bedroom.
Didn't loose ANY sleep! We laid something out on the floor for her and Michelle first laid her down. When we got in bed she hopped up with us. I laid her down and told her to stay. A few minutes later she hopped up again. I laid her down one last time and she slept there next to Brenna until around 2AM. She hopped up one more time then, but I laid her down and she caught on and never tried again.
No soiling the house, being well behaved, loving Michelle's students, not bothering us AT ALL while we eat dinner! All this from a wild dog?!?!?
I really think that our positive reinforcement, Brenna being a good influence, and she is such a good breed (English Shepard), PLUS a few answers to prayer makes all the difference. Plus, she chose us, she wants to fit in.�
Sunday, February 18, 2007
�Michelle, Brenna, and I are back home safe! Millie cannot be picked up until tomorrow morning, so we are only 3/4 home.
Michelle's dad is doing great and got out of the hospital on Saturday. He actually went to church this morning!�
�So here's and update on the Brenna-Millie story. Mille has been at the vets all week as we got her spayed Monday and decided it would be safer for her wounds to stay at the vet for a full 7 days. Brenna and Millie play so hard I just thought it would be best. It's likely been very hard on Millie, as she is such an outdoor free spirit!
As for Brenna, we thought it would be hard on her, but we discovered something VERY interesting, Brenna has been HAPPIER than she has been in weeks since Millie has been away! Millie just wears on Brenna after a while. Since Brenna is SOOOOO submissive, Millie has been doing the very same thing Briar did after a while, turning very Alpha. Millie interupts everything Brenna does, when she drinks watter Millie bumps her out of the way and starts drinking. When Brenna starts chewing on her favorite bone, Millie takes it from her and starts cheing on it. In fact, the first morning Millie, was gone Brenna chewed on that bone for an hour straight just because she could! She was happy and dancing.
So we had already made the decision (even before we saw Brenna's reaction) that Millie was bored silly with our lifestyle and that we weren't the right house for her. #1, she needs LOTS of land to run on and our 25' X 50' fenced yard was boxing her in. #2, she needs to be outside more than inside. This is a huge problem for us as we work at home and cannot constantly be checking on Millie outside. #3, she needs to be around children! She lights up around kids, especially Michelle's piano students.
So we made up a flyer and started passing it around (see atached) and we found the perfect match for her in less than a week! A family with a farm about 20 miles from here found out about her and want her badly. They have a 7 year old daughter, 2 horses and a farm. They have a 1 year old Australian Shephard that needs a running companion, something Millie is PERFECT for given her energy level! They are going to meet Millie at the vets tonight and then sometime in a week or two they will take posesion of her. They are waiting for a special collor they have on order already for her.
So that will have a very happy ending for all involved! We will greatly miss her smiling face, but Brenna is enough for all of our K9 needs!�
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Email from Buddy�s parents to Scott and Michelle:
�It was heartwarming to watch Buddy and Brenna play. Buddy really has a good time playing with Peggy, but it was obvious that he has special feelings for Brenna. Their play was on a different level than his play with Peggy. When you come to visit, we plan to gate off Peggy and Penny in one of the 2 rooms they stay in when we are away. I just wanted to let you know that we have a plan for handling Peggy's antisocial behavior. We really didn't notice a lot of that type of behavior with her until Punther died and she became the "head dog."