Here�s Bella�s bio:
�Bella is doing fine in a crate with only a few minutes of fussing but then settles in nicely. She is only being crated about 3 hrs during the day and at night. She has not spent a full night yet so stay tuned on that progress. She is getting along great with the resident 11 yr old "Springer Princess" and doesn't even mind being reprimanded by her when enough play is enough. The resident dog is very gentle and patient so far and may teach her some doggie etiquette. Bella has tried to chase the cat but when the cat was placed in front of her and hissed and swatted Bella backed down quickly. This little puppy loves to play and chew on bones and rope toys. She will however play and splash all of the water out of her dish. It is very cute but does require lots of towels. She went on a walk with the resident Springer this evening and did really good for a puppy. She pulled some but nothing near what I have experienced with other dogs. She is a quick learner and will already sit for a treat. She has tried to lounge on the sofa but we are discouraging that.�
After some discussion with Bella�s previous owners, it turned out that Bella�s things are in Auburn/Opelika, just that the father didn�t bring them on Friday because he probably thought he was just bringing the two dogs for another playdate at his daughter�s house. Anyways, I went to pick up Bella's stuff this morning. The crate is Bargain Hound brand plastic molded crate, 36 inch (length) one. I think one of the Poodles peed in it, so I washed it right after I got it home. The rope in the picture is mine by the way; they said it�s an extra large crate, so I thought I would have to drive back by tying it onto the roof of my car. But it ended up being the same size as the crate I have, so it fits fine in the trunk. I guess it�s �extra large� for a four-month-old puppy.
There are two collars, one leash (the kind you can clip on the different rings to make it different lengths), and a harness. Nothing "designer" like they claimed, unless stuff at Walmart is considered designer. One of the collars is plain hot pink, as well as the harness. The leash is plain black. The other collar is Lupine brand with the trout pattern (the same one that came with Tara), I think Lupine is sort of high quality. I just put all the leash and collar in the washer.
I had to throw away two toys that were breaking apart. What's left are three rubber squeaker toys, one puppy-size Nylabone, a rope toy, and two stuffed toys. Washing the toys also.
Also there is one regular stainless steel bowl (no feeder), and a poop bag dispenser thing that you can clip onto the leash. And a water bottle that's supposed to be attached to the door of the crate I guess, but it's missing the hanger, so now I don't know how to attach it to the crate.
Heather and Liana put me in touch with an approved applicant in Atlanta who�s interested in foster-to-adopt Peter. I emailed Deirdre about Peter�s heartworm treatment and about his personality. She also asked what things they need to get before bringing Peter home. The family includes Deirdre and her husband, Bryan, and their two children, six-year-old Annie, and four-year-old Davis. Bryan grew up with dogs, and Deirdre�s mom and sister currently have Jack Russell Terriers, but Deirdre and Bryan currently do not have any pets. And Deirdre only works part-time, so Peter wouldn�t have to be crated for a long time each day. After emailing Deirdre a little bit about Peter, we arranged to meet in Atlanta on Sunday. And then I proceeded to ask several Atlanta volunteers if one of them would host the event. Carol was the first one to answer, and we agreed that I could help transport some Springer and dog items to sell at Walk N Wag in Montgomery next week. What a good deal! Now we get to save on the postage too with this meeting.
Audrey emailed about Lily, �Just got home from being out of town. Lily actually remembered me after 5 days away! She spent the long weekend with my sister and her kids, cats and 3 dogs! She was a big hit!�
Peter and Tara got into another fight today, well, actually, Tara went after Peter and Peter submitted immediately again. I have no idea what caused the fight; I was in the kitchen putting the leftovers into the fridge and heard the fight, the dogs were in the hallway that connects the livingroom to the kitchen. I just grabbed Tara�s collar and pried her mouth open to get her away from Peter, and then put her in the crate for timeout. I put her in timeout for about five minutes only, because I think dogs (and cats) are a lot like two or three year-old humans, and with this age of toddlers (and dogs), timeouts would be 60 seconds to 5 minutes. There is no need to put them in 30-minute timeouts if it�s done right (away from social activities to make them feel isolated), because usually within 2 or 3 minutes, they would feel isolated enough that they would start to �feel bad�. I�m not trying to �humanize� dogs, but rather I really do think they behave a lot like two-or-three-year-old toddlers, I mean at that age, they don�t have abstract thoughts either, a lot of their actions and thinking are about immediate response, just like most adult dogs. And yes, two or three-year-old toddlers can be easily trained with positive reinforcement methods also. I checked Tara and Peter again thoroughly, and didn�t find any bite wounds on them.
I was grooming Peter this morning, and found a small bite mark on Peter�s chest, just under his collar. I just cleaned it with hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol, and put some Neosporin on it. I�m pretty sure the wound will heal by itself.
Deirdre emailed and said that they will bring Annie and Davis to the meeting like I asked (I think it�s important to see how Peter does with the kids, since neither Mary nor I had little kids in our home with Peter before). Also she said she will buy some Iams dog food so Peter will have the same food.
