Catheryn called her vet clinic for me and emailed to say, �I just talked with Dr. Elrod at Opelika Animal Hospital. They have gotten the results of all the bloodwork, etc. Jackson has tested HW +. Dr. Elrod said they didn't want to do the surgery until this was treated. I will gladly pay for the treatment, but I wasn't sure if you wanted him treated at the vet or in a foster home environment. She said his being so young made it certain he hadn't had heartworms for very long and should recover nicely from the treatment. Otherwise he is very healthy.� Heather emailed to say that it would be better to wait to start the treatment until Jackson�s in a home environment and not under a lot of stress.
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Keely and I were on a potty walk around the apartment complex and then we met Mona the Mini Schnauzer, who's off leash again of course (I've known Mona for about a year and half, and I think I've only seen her leashed once). Mona let out a happy bark and ran over to Keely. Mona's dad called her back but of course she never does, at least not until she had enough of sniffing the other dog. Mona immediately started sniffing Keely, Keely just stood there and let the smaller dog do it. I don't think Keely's nervous this time, she didn't have her tail tucked all the way in, but she just let the little dog sniff her, without any barking. And I kept telling Keely "Good Girl" and tried to distract her by telling her "Come" and "Let's Go".
Keely and I were on our campus walk tonight, and we walked past a couple with three little dogs, a Cocker, a Mini Schnauzer mix I think, and a short-haired dog like terrier or Chihuahua. Two of the dogs barked at Keely as soon as they saw us. Keely just took one look at them and ignored them and walked on with me.
Yesterday in class, Karleen the instructor said Riley the Min Pin gives dominant stares during class, and she told his owner to distract him to prevent Riley arousing another dog in class. Indeed Riley pretty much stares everybody in the eye, and he even did that with me several times. Another reason I don't think Keely's an alpha in public is because she has never stared at any of the other dog in the eye in class.
The big bag of Wellness Chicken came tonight! I am feeding Keely this for a week to see if her stool returns to normal. After it does, I will test her with Nutro Ultra to see if she's sensitive to lamb meat. Then test her with Nature's Variety Beef canned to see if she's sensitive to beef. If she's sensitive to both, then the only food she can have that I can locally that's also Whole Dog Journal approved is Royal Canin's Sensible Choice Natural Blend, the rest we'll have to ship them in.
The CGC evaluator in Atlanta called tonight and said they are going to do the practice test at a Starbucks that's near the dog school on March 4, and then the real test at the dog school on March 11. She remembers me perfectly, and also she asked about Jake and Anastasia (she always calls her Fantasia; I used to correct her about it, but I thought I would just let it go last night, because it was like the fifth time she used that name on my cat, it's also a pretty name though). I told her Jake got adopted on Christmas Eve (�What a great Christmas present?!�, she commented; and I told her I haven�t had time to do nursing home visits with Anastasia, because I�m still busy with foster dogs. She responded, �Yeah dogs take up more time than cats do.�) She was so funny, she said, didn't I tell her that I wasn't going to foster another dog for a while after Jake's adopted? Well, I told her, I just couldn't resist. She said she understands. She said Keely is a pretty name, and she said (without any prompt from me) that since the test is a month from now, this will give some time for Keely to get ready for the test (I told her that I just got the dog).
Friday, February 3, 2006
I went to pick up Jackson at 2 PM today. Today he is even more energetic and reminds me of Jake. I asked the vet tech and she said they've given Jackson his vaccinations. He climbed into the car by himself today both times (to and from my apartment). In the car, he's also eager to look around and at outside (paced from window to window to window). He did stick his head between the front seats once, but pretty much stayed in the back. I think on Tuesday, part of the reason he was a little nervous was because he hadn't ridden in a car often before, because when I got out of the car at my apartment parking lot, Jackson tried to get out too, but he tried to scratch under the front seat, then tried to squeeze between the chassis and front driver seat. He did not think of squeezing between the front seats. However, I think he's a very smart boy and can learn fast. I was a little slow in opening the door, by the time I was ready to open the back door for Jackson, he was in a very nice Sit position and waited until I opened the door.
I took him walk around the apartment complex, he both pooped and peed, loose stool. When we were ready to climb the stairs to get to my apartment on the second floor, Jackson freaked out and wouldn't climb the stairs even after some coaxing. I finally had to drag him by the leash. But he learned very fast, because the second and third time we did it, he had no problem climbing them. When we got inside my livingroom, my cat was sleeping in her bed on the livingroom floor, and I tied Jackson's leash to the treadmill, which is about 125 lbs, in the livingroom and right next to the cat bed. My cat didn't move and Jackson didn't even notice her until I showed him. He sniffed her once and then ignored her.
Then I took another leash to the bedroom and came out with Keely leashed. Keely was very excited to see me back home as always, and when she saw Jackson in the livingroom, she didn't act like it was a big deal either.
Then I took Jackson to the bathroom for a bath. The first 30 minutes of the bath Jackson was very good, just stood there and let me put water all over, and shampoo on his body, I didn't even leash him. But once I put shampoo on his head, he didn't like that, and started fidgeting a lot, even jumped out of the tub. So I had to put his collar and leash on and tied the leash to the handle to finish rinsing him. He still has some musky shelter smell, but I think they all should come out after two more baths. At least by the time we finished the bath, the rinse water wasn't brown anymore. And now his fur is softer. I guess it's like Buckley, before bath his fur felt gritty and coarse, but after bath is much softer. He was fine when I towel dried him all over, and I gave him a kiss on the nose, he had no problem with that either.
I continued letting Keely off leash just let her walk around in the apartment by herself. She pretty much kept a 5-foot distance from Jackson. I took Jackson to the bedroom for drying. First I tied him to the big table leg. When I turned on the blow dryer, the first 10 seconds, he freaked out and tried to run away, but after that, he realized that the warm air felt good and just stood there while I dried him. Then I started brushing him. I had to stop several times because Jackson was being very fidgety. I thought he wanted to walk around like Keely was, so I let him. Well, he marked twice, once on the agility tunnel, and once on Keely's bed. I yelled at him "Hey!" and he just looked like me like "What?" I do think he's pretty much housetrained though, but like when Jake first came, just couldn't resist marking. So I kept Jackson leashed for the rest of his visit.
I also grabbed my cat and had her walk around in front of Jackson to see how he would react to a moving cat. He sniffed her behind also, then barked at her several times and followed her as she was walking away. But he stopped barking and ignored her once she got into her bed and stopped moving. I took my cat out again and held her in my arms and let Jackson sniff her more. My cat hit Jackson's nose with her paw and he turned his head away. Then sniffed her for a few more seconds before she went back to her bed again. So I think Jackson will be okay if the family has cats.
I kept Jackson tied to the table leg while I went to get the ear cleaning supplies. He was okay for the first 3 minutes, then he started yelping. At first I thought maybe he and Keely got into a fight, but Keely was nowhere near Jackson. So I think Jackson yelped to get my attention. So I went away from him again, and just let him yelp this time. He yelped for about 30 seconds and stopped. After about 10 seconds of silence, I came back to the bedroom.
Then I cleaned Jackson's ears, he closed his eyes and seemed to enjoy it while I cleaned them. I don't think they are infected, but I would recommend that they be cleaned once a week. Then Keely came over again as I was giving Jackson some treats, and Jackson licked Keely's behind. Keely let him do it for about 10 seconds, then I think Keely was about to growl again, so I distracted her and took her to the livingroom, then I returned to the bedroom to finish grooming Jackson. I also looked at his left rear leg and paw, this time with more light, and I couldn't find anything out of ordinary.
I had Jackson in my apartment for two hours yesterday. Before we left the vet clinic, I asked to make sure they did deworm Jackson for intestinal worms (I was washing his behind yesterday and there were some feces stuck on the fur). And they did deworm him.
Saturday Jackson "jumped" into my car to go for the rides. He definitely acts more like a young dog now, more energetic. We walked around my apartment complext again before going inside, and then I pretty much just confined him to the livingroom this time, with leash or crate. Jackson knows the Sit, Stay, AND the Down commands. I brought out the semi-moist beef treats that Keely's allergic to, and Jackson did the Down commands when I showed him the yummy treats.
Then I put Keely back in the bedroom and took Jackson back to the vet's office right before they were about to close for the day. In the vet office waiting room, this time there were three kids there. There was a little girl about 6 years old and a little boy about 4 who came with the same mom. Then there was a little girl about 2 who came with her own mom. Jackson had no problem being in the same room with the kids. The 6 year old little girl thought Jackson's cute and asked me if she could pet him, and I said yes. She seems to have lots of training about meeting unfamiliar dogs, because she let Jackson sniff the back of her hand first, and I didn't see her staring into the dog's eyes at all. She petted Jackson's head and back, and Jackson just stood there, facing the little girl, and let her pet him. The little girl asked her little brother to come and meet Jackson too, but he didn't seem interested, just walked by but didn't pet him.
Keely and I went on our campus walk, just when there were lots of people on campus for the school's 150 year celebration. Keely loved all the attention and pettings from the people (adults). Haven't tested her with kids yet.
Keely is a pretty good watchdog, I guess especially with her "territorial" side. She would bark at people passing by the windows at the apartment, whereas most of my previous fosters didn't.