Sunday, December 25, 2005
�Jake is lying next to me on the floor with only the occasional Jake groan. Sham continues to be brave and is willing to be within a few feet of Jake. Jake is being the perfect picture of a man restrained (with a little help from either Kate or me). Rocky is keeping a greater distance but has come up from the basement and is now routinely admiring Jake from afar. When "afar" changes to anything else he does the Halloween cat posture, hisses, and scampers back to the basement. We are most optimistic about the long-term.
Jake has not missed a meal or a morsel in his bowl. He has been drinking Birmingham water with true gusto (and a lot of side spray). He slept through the night in his crate (or would have had I not coaxed him out into a rainy night to relieve his bladder). We are slowly letting him find his own way around each room (with us in the same room interfering only when we get scared). He has done just fine around the wood stove. Makes me wonder if he does not have some prior fireplace or stove experience. All things said - Kate and I both find Jake a marvel and a love.�
Monday, December 26, 2005
�Jake has had a busy day today and seems to be happy as can be. We went on a long walk this morning including a stop by our vets office to schedule his first visit (tomorrow 9:30am). We played 'tennis' on some double wide tennis courts and we visited a friend of Kate and mine who recently bought a new house and is in the midst of painting and the like. Lots of stimulation for us and Jake. He seemed to love it all and has been appropriately famished and tired.
He went to sleep in his crate just before 11pm last night and slept thru until a little after 6am this morning. The work with the cats had some set backs today with Jake startled and hissed at and a tumble between him and Sham. Back to square one in some respects but I think even the scary encounters are valuable in relationship building. I am getting ready to start working with him in earnest on collar and leash walking tomorrow (he's had to endure so much change over the past couple days I did not want to start that at the outset of this, as well). For the short term I would like to keep using the harness but want to be sure it is not so small as to be a discomfort.�
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
I have very limited internet access over the holiday period, so I asked Virginia to check my email for me today. She said John and Kate emailed me asking me a question about the harness, since I don�t have internet access ready, I decided to give them a call. John said they took Jake to Home Depot with them and he was very good with everybody they met. Also they walked him to the vet (who lives within walking distance from them) and the vet declared Jake perfectly healthy and said to check again in six months. Jake also met a few cats in the vet office waiting room, and John said he either sniffed and ignored them or ignored them completely. So John and Kate know Jake is very good with cats. John said when they were at the waiting room, Jake walked around (with John holding the leash) and was curious, but when they were in the exam room and the vet entered, Jake immediate went to Kate and sat by her. I think maybe Jake knows Mom will protect him (Jake doesn�t like the vet office after his neuter surgery, maybe it�s because he had to boarded at my vet�s overnight after the surgery), just like his foster mom took care of him. They�ve take Jake on lots of walks since the weather is a lot better this week, and they�ve met a few dogs on walks and Jake has been fine with them too. John said they�ve put up a baby gate on the kitchen entrance, so Jake could not get to the cat�s food on the floor. But once when Sham finished eating and decided to jump over the gate into the living/dinning room, the cat landed right next to Jake and startled the dog. Jake barked and Sham hissed and ran down to the basement. But otherwise the dog and cats have pretty much left each other along, with heavy supervision from John and Kate. John said Jake loves to fetch, and they�ve taken him fetch at a nearby tennis court. He said Jake doesn�t seem to like car rides. But I told him maybe it�s because John has a truck, because Jake loved to ride in the back of my sedan, with the window cracked open so he can feel the wind on his face.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
John called last night, because he knew I have limited access to the internet until school starts next week. He said everything's fine with Jake. They've been on plenty of walks, he still is trying to train Jake to walk on regular collar for about 15 minutes a day, then rest of the walk is on the Easy Walk Harness. They've had a couple friends of Kate�s over for short visits, and Jake's been fine with everybody. They think Jake is very handsome, and when they walk around the neighborhood, people would stop them and ask about Jake (what a handsome bird dog). John said Jake usually gets really tired by the end of day around 9 PM and has no problem sleeping in the crate until 6 AM when they take him out potty again. His poop is normal too, no problem eating his meals, and they are feeding him some treats. They are still supervising Jake's time with the cats, there are still some hissing, but he thinks everything will be alright once one of the cats gets brave enough to swat Jake with kitty paws. John said Kate loves Jake too, and Jake has converted her to a dog lover also. I asked them since it's one week after adoption, if they want to keep Jake, they said definitely and forever. John said they�ve taken Jake on some car rides in Kate�s sedan, and he seems to love it. But they will work on getting Jake to like to ride in John�s truck. John said he will have to teach a class today, and both he and Kate will return to normal class schedule next week, but he thinks Jake will be alright because they've started leaving him in the crate during the day for a couple hours each time this week already, and Jake's been fine with it too. John said he's still amazed at what an extraordinary dog Jake is and also at the great work we've done with him and with all the rescued dogs.
Picture of Jake and his mom.
�We had a great long walk this morning and Jake did a pretty fair job of loose-lead walking for about a five minute segment towards the end. I've decided to just make our walks fun and put the other work sessions at a different time or as small segments of walks after he expends a bit of energy.
Kate asked me to send the attached photo so that folks looking at the website would get a well-rounded picture of the 'family'. We had some more really good close encounter time this morning and all of it just exciting without issue for anyone.�
�Everything with Jake and his new family is fine. The relationship with his new feline pack-mates is calmer and we think working itself out without much interference on our part. Jake tolerated his first ear-cleaning and tooth-brushing session like a trooper. He and I are working about 30 minutes each day on loose-lead walking (actually about two minutes of loose-lead and 28 minutes of stubborn resistance). Truth is we are having a good time with it and I can really see progress during the training sessions. The stretch comes when we are on our walks because of the multitude of distractions the world throws in Jake�s path. He is a prince of a guy and we love him madly!� Picture of Jake and his dad.
Buckley got adopted to a family in the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area in New York! And Brenna�s dad, Scott, helped with the Tennessee part of the transport. Here is Buckley getting out of Bruce and Rene�s car so the dog can be moved to Scott�s car. Bruce and Rene are two ESRA volunteers who live in northern Alabama and they helped with that portion of the transport.