Update from Jenny (Bella)�s mom, �We took Jenny Bell to the vet a couple days ago to establish veterinary care and be sure that we can get her next heartworm preventive when she is due at the end of the month. Everything went well, except that the Vet said that the records we provided did not show proof of her first distemper shot (DHTP), The vet said that there is evidence of the second DHTP shot but not the first which she said could have been given by the breeder or a vet as early as 6-weeks of age. We have her enrolled in a training class starting on Saturday and they need to have proof of all her vaccinations.�
Friday, September 29, 2006
Tonight before Samson was about to go home tomorrow, I gave them each a Frosty Paw that Samson�s parents gave them. Tara was very patient and licked through the entire cup, just like Samson, and did not bite into the cup.
I�ve asked Millie about dog-sitting Tara for me for two weeks while I am on my trip, and she agreed. So this morning at 6 AM, Tara and I drove to Millie�s house in Birmingham. I had a bunch of treats with me, and I only had to give two to Tara at the beginning and she was quiet the rest of the drive. I had told Millie that Tara is picky with her food but I always pick up the food bowl if she hasn�t started eating within ten minutes. Millie said it�s good she doesn�t have to free feed Tara because Freckles would eat the food instead. Also, she said, �About the stairs at the lake....we really don't go much of anywhere when we are at the lake. If I go anywhere, its usually to Wal-Mart and Craig stays home. Occasionally we get invited to dinner over at friends, that would be the only time she would be left at home. I don't take the dogs with me there because there is a little kid and another dog, and it�s just not very relaxing for me to have to watch all the time. If I do leave her at the lake I would either crate her or put a gate across the stairs. It�s not really a gate, but part of an x-pen that I use to barrier.� Millie met Tara and me outside of her garage, and she checked to make sure Freckles had finished his breakfast before we went inside. Freckles and Tara sniffed each other and left each other alone, then Millie walked Tara around the house while I laid out Tara�s stuff to tell her what�s what. She said Craig and Freckles are going to the lakehouse this afternoon, while she and Tara will stay in Birmingham for the night.
Around 1 PM I called; Millie and she said she gave Tara�s breakfast and she ate all of it (!), and they went for a walk and now Tara is resting and she and Freckles are getting along fine.
Wednesday October 4, 2006
�We are fine, no incidents at all so far. Freck spent Monday night at the lake so he just got home yesterday afternoon. Yesterday was busy for me so she was alone from 11-1:30 and 2-5PM then we went out last night from 6-10PM and I crated her because Freck was here. We walked several times throughout the day then I let her sleep in her crate last night from 11-6:30AM. Neither of us had gotten much sleep Monday night so I was really tired and we both slept all night.
So all is well here, I will be home most of today. She is eating just fine and poops on almost every walk..... I love walking with her, she is such a good walker!
She chewed herself for a few minutes in the crate last night and I gave her a Kong with just a few of her treats in it.
Craig is in there loving on her right now. She loves to be rubbed on. Oh yeah, she got really excited when I came home yesterday and we went out back and she woo wooed and ran and flopped around in the grass...barking at the sky....it was too cute. She did the same when Craig came home too. It was fun to see!�
Wednesday, October 4, 2006
Some new pictures of Jenny Bell (Bella) from this past weekend.
We left Auburn at 7 AM this morning. Tara did not sleep much during the 2 hour drive. As usual, once we got on the freeway, she started whining. This time, I had tons of treats with me, and I learned from the Nashville trip (she whined the whole way from Auburn to Montgomery before I decided to do something about it, because my usual reaction to whining in the car is just ignore the dog). So when she was quiet for five seconds, I told her good girl and gave her a cookie. After that, she stayed quiet pretty much the rest of the trip. We arrived thirty minutes early, so we went to a nearby park and walked around for ten minutes. I didn't want her this morning (with my previous fosters, I would walk them 3 miles the morning of the CGC practice test), because I know she actually gets more grouchy when she's tired.
Tara did okay at the CGC class I guess, considering the circumstances. The class started late, as always, and the class was full, which meant 8 dogs, plus Tara is 9, in a 200 sq. ft. room. Also the instructors brought their own dogs (4) that they put in the backroom, PLUS two visiting dogs who stayed behind the fenced-in area near the entrance. The 8 dogs are two poodles (from the same family, one year old neutered male and eight year old female), one GSD (6-months old intact male who kept humping the dog next to him), one Australian Sheepdog (female, one year old, she's the one next to the GSD), two yellow Labs (same litter, not sure if they live together, one intact male, one female, both one years old), and two Dobermans with ear tapes (different families, same litter, one female and one intact male, both one years old). Tara barked first time at the female Lab even before we got inside, when the Lab licked Tara. The owner immediately realized to keep her dog away from Tara's face. So I put the Gentle Leader on her. The first 30 minutes the instructors (Sandy and Xalina) were moving their dogs into the backroom, so the dogs in class just mingled. Well, Tara barked three more times. I really don't remember who they are, but pretty much just any dog who sniffed her behind for too long, or any dog who sniffed her face. Tara was a little anxious, but continued to eat my highest value treat (turkey jerkey, the ones made for dogs, not human ones). Then after class started, Xalina gave each of us a balloon and we used it as to introduce novel object to the dogs. Tara did not care. Then Sandy walked around with crutches and wheeled around in the wheelchair. All the dogs did really well with that also. Then the mailman came, so Xalina asked him to be the stranger in uniform and petted all the dogs. Tara loved the attention of course. Then Xalina introduced Tara and me (this is their third CGC class in the six-week session, and most of the dogs there went through the basic obedience class there too). I told them Tara is a foster dog and that she's almost ten years old. Xalina said I've brought my foster dogs for CGC class before so she knows I'll work with Tara more before the actual test (she told the class that Tara doesn't like her face sniffed by another dog), and that my cat is a certified therapy cat and did the test at their dog school also (the other owners couldn't believe how a cat can be trained also). The next practice is walking through a crowd (they even got the two visitor dogs to join in for this one), and I just walked Tara in the outside circle. Tara barked two more times at dogs who came to sniff her. One of the Dobie's owners was talking and did not watch her dog, and her dog kept coming toward us to sniff Tara, and I kept pushing the Dobie away. Finally Xalina noticed it and reminded the owner that Tara doesn't like her face sniffed. Then Xalina had us exchange dogs (to sort of practice the supervised separation part), but I didn't want to, so I just kept Tara. The poodles and one of the Labs were really attached to their owners and kept whining. Then Xalina walked around to "groom" the dogs (part of the test also), but when she got to Tara, she said she doesn't want to touch Tara, and asked me to examine her myself. I lifted her lips to check the teeth, pulled her ears, petted her head, no problem. Then Xalina asked me to let the poodle's dad take Tara, and had me take the female Dobie. The Dobie kept pulling toward her mom, and I slowly reeled her back. Then her mom came and said, "she's wearing a prong collar and you are not supposed to pull on them." (duh but what was I supposed to do; besides, it's nothing compare to her butchering of her dog's ears) and she told the dog to sit stay. The dog got up again pulled toward her mom, and this time I didn't reel her in, just let her pull herself. Then her mom came and took her leash. And I went back to Tara.
Sandy took us outside to practice with long lines. I didn't bring one because Xalina didn't tell me about it over emails, and the female Lab's owner didn't bring one either because they didn't come to last week's class. So we just practiced with the 6 foot leash. We did sit, down, stay, come outside in the parking lot. Tara became a little anxious and started whining on and off (but so did the poodles too when Sandy made each of them practice at opposite ends, so the dogs won't able to see each other). Tara's sit, down, stay, and come were okay (did them about 50% of the time on command). We will definitely practice more before the real test. And we did heel and she was fine with that too. I just kept feeding her treats during the whole class (I brought my super big fanny pack).
After class, Tara and I went to Red Bandanna pet food store to get some treats and canned food and a treat dispenser toy. There weren't any dogs in there, and she actually ate some treats that the store clerk gave her.
Then we drove to Piedmont Park, because Springer Rescue had a gathering there at 2 PM. We got there at 1:30 PM and just sat right outside of the dog park gates and I watched the other dogs (didn�t see any Springers inside). Tara attracted some attention when she started rubbing her back on the grass and (happily) barking at the same time. Then after 20 minutes, Tara seemed to be really hot under the sun, so we went to sit under the bridge in the shade. When we started walking back to the car to meet Heather (to give her a spare crate, and also for her to give me some Heartgard), we met several other Springers. I told the handlers that Tara had enough meeting dogs for the dog, and they all were really good about keeping the dogs away from Tara, but a couple times Carol's Reggie sniffed Tara for a brief second and she was okay with it. Also I saw Bonnie, I think she's doing better with her socialization. At least she came to me for treats (with some coaxing), even with all those people and dogs around. And when we met Angie and Larry and Dede and Duffy, Duffy was hyper and got to sniff Tara a little bit, and she was okay with him doing that too.
Tara slept the whole way home. She was fully awake and refreshed by the time Samson got to see her again.
And I just went to the health food store and got some doggie calming herbal tablets, one bottle of Homeo Pet calming remedy, and one bottle of Rescue Remedy. I am going to get a bottle of Comfort Zone spray too before the CGC test.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Anastasia and I got back to my apartment this morning at 7 AM and after two hours of unpacking, I took some flu medicine and went to sleep. Then I woke up around noon and drove to Millie�s lakehouse to pick up Tara. Millie let Tara outside as I parked in the driveway. I�m not sure if Tara was able to see me well, because she looked at me from 10 feet away then slowly walked toward me. But after she realized it was me, then she followed me around. We went inside to talk and to pick up Tara�s stuff. Freckles came near for petting. Tara was overall okay with it, except I did see her raise her lips at him once. Millie said that Tara did go after Freckles twice, both on Wednesdays, and she just held onto Freckles ears, but didn�t cause any damages, and Millie didn�t pull Tara so there was no laceration injury either (just pried her mouth open I guess). She said the first night she crated Tara, and Freckles sleeps on a chair. After that Tara slept on a dog bed if she wanted. One time Tara went up to Freckles and he raised his lips at her and she walked away. But otherwise they were fine together too at night. Also Tara never missed a meal at Millie�s (!), she said it�s probably because she didn�t give Tara much treats, like when I do when I train. She and Craig said Tara is very sweet, and last night Craig let Tara on the sofa and she laid on him while he petted her.
Friday, October 20, 2006
I've made the decision to postpone Tara's CGC test. I was gone for two weeks right after the practice class and there are definitely things we need to work on more before the actual test. And I've been back working at the vet school since Tuesday morning so that leaves, hmm, total day of one day, on Sunday, for practice at the dog park, for the entire month before the test that was planned for Saturday next week. We'll wait for their next session, and practice more in the mean time.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Tara and I went to the dog park this afternoon. It�s right after the home football game ended, so even though the weather was wonderful, there were only ten cars or so there. We saw about five dogs, Tara only met one face to face, a black Lab I think, and she was fine with him/her. And we did a lot of sit-down-stay-comes. I think she�s definitely improving with the extra training, and also I am learning to holler so she can hear me better. I am no longer using the clicker (kind of out of practice now), but still using treats half of the time.
Saturday, October 7, 2006
From Millie: �We are fine....only one "incident". No problem. I have found that she has fleas on her and she is biting and scratching a lot. I am considering another dose of Frontline (I am reading their website now). Perhaps it got washed off in her bath?? For whatever reason, it is not working. I have seen 2 fleas on her and she is chewing more raw spots on her hind end. She was fine with her ears and her teeth. We are walking a lot, sleeping a lot (more in the day than at night (:>))). She is still eating great and all systems are working fine! I am cooking and trying to find out about Frontline at the same time. I hate that she is uncomfortable with fleas! � I told Millie actually Tara did not get Frontline a week ago, just some herbal spot-on I got from Walmart, so I asked her to put some Frontline on Tara.
Millie emailed back and said, �I have frontline for Freckles (which he had before we went to the beach on Sept 21 so I think he is OK....) which is for 45-88 lb dogs. I am going to assume she is close enough for this dosage and I am going to give it to her....it makes me feel better that she has not gotten a dose already....would not want her to overdose (if there is such a thing). Just want her to be more comfy! That herbal stuff is just perfume! This problem is easy to solve...I was so worried that she was allergic to something...that�s a little harder to deal with.
She is a sweetie and just loves Craig (why do all these dogs love him???). We are at the lake for the weekend. We wound up staying in Bham all week which is really unusual. I am getting much more relaxed with her now and enjoying having her here with us.�
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
�We are fine here, she is so cute and sweet....She has raised her lip to Freck a couple of times, but has been really tolerant of him getting in her space (mostly when he comes to me for petting). Freck is oblivious to the whole thing.
She is still chewing herself and has several hot spots that I am treating but I cannot seem to get ahead. I am sure its just allergic reaction to the fleas, even though I am sure they are gone. We are back in Bham house now. We have lots of deer in this subdivision so I am sure that�s where the fleas came from.....
Looks like Ringo will be adopted by a nice lady in North Carolina, retired, previous Springers.......you can imagine how hard for Patty to give him up, but she has started a new job and feels that a stay at home mom would be great for him.....
Tara misses her mom and says enjoy your trip and come home safely!�