Friday, October 27, 2006
I am now cleaning Tara's ears once every six days, and her ears are doing just fine. I think all the previous ear infections were due to her previous owners not cleaning her ears, not from allergies. If only they cleaned her ears, she wouldn't had to take all those antibiotics and prednisone for all those years.
Tara has had two new chewed spots on her legs since we got back to Auburn after my trip, but none that started in the past week, and the old ones are healing nicely.
We've been practicing basic obedience commands at home everyday, and it's going very well. Now I speak the words loudly so Tara can hear them, but I think she's doing better with them too with all the practice. The downside is that she's back getting lots of treats (Millie didn't give her a lot of treats), so I think Tara has gained a little weight. I do decrease the food I give her at meals accordingly. Also, since we were back, Tara's been really good about her meals, missed only one in the past two weeks.
Our plan today is for me to work in the morning, and then Tara and I go to the Halloween costume contest at Petco at 2 PM. Well, I had some trouble with the gas tank and didn't get home until 2:30 PM. But we still went to Petco for some socialization. The costume contest was over, and Tara only met a Basset puppy. The puppy came over to sniff for a brief second before her owner pulled her away. We also practiced a little bit of basic obedience at the store too. Tara gets distracted (and maybe nervous?) when there are lots of people and dogs around. She doesn't get the classic stiffened up, but she does stop eating treats. But we practiced in an empty aisle and she was really good following the commands.
Then we went to the local dog park. It was a nice afternoon so there were a fair number of people there (fair number by Auburn standards, not Atlanta standards). Tara got to sniff nose to nose with an adult Basset called Delilah, a yellow Lab, a Golden, a large Shephard mix. Then I decided to walk Tara on the side field, and I let her off leash there. It's funny, once she's off leash, she never took her eyes off me, stayed within 15 feet of me, and came immediately when she was called. But I could tell she was so happy when I let her off leash and pranced around a little bit. Then on the side field, we met a Rottie mix. When I saw them coming, I immediately put leash on Tara, but she was okay sniff nose to nose with the Rottie (when they came near, I realized the Rottie was off leash too). As we were about to leave the dog park, we met the Basset puppy again! The one we saw at Petco earlier. The puppy's owner was a little surprised also that we met again, and Tara pulled toward them. I thought, I don't understand why all the sudden she likes a puppy, but it turned out Tara was walking toward the owner for petting. The owner kept saying Tara is so cute, and Tara got some petting that she enjoyed very much. The puppy was curious and happy and wanted to sniff Tara, but I did a little body block between them and petted the puppy at the same time.
After we got home, I dropped off Tara and I went back to Petco to sign up for obedience class. When I was at the dog park, I realized I just have no time now for regular controlled socialization training for Tara. So the easier way is just for us to go to obedience class. The class starts tomorrow night. Same instructor that Brenna and Keely used.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Tara�s DHLPP vaccine expired on September 26, and she hadn't gotten a Bordetella since January 2005. I'm not into over-vaccination, especially not to immunosuppressed and/or senior animals (Penelope died from lymphoma, and she was over-vaccination by my decision; one of the possible triggers of lymphoma is over-vaccination; Anastasia hadn't had combo vaccine since she was two years old, and the only reason I keep her rabies current is because it�s required to get the health certificate when I travel with her). So I didn�t really want to vaccinate Tara for DHLPP, and I asked Heather which vaccine does Tara need to stay current on as an ESRA foster.
Here�s Heather�s response, �I tend to give the bordetella every 6 months. Here, we have to give rabies or titer for rabies every year, but if hers doesn't expire till 2008 then she doesn't need it now. On the DHPP, my old vet now recommends for my own dogs that they get it every other year since they've had it every year. The new vet recommended I give it to Chloe today at her annual or titer her since I bring so many sick dogs here so I said OK. I will probably titer her next year and go from there or just not do it. For ESRA dogs, we usually say to update the DHPP, however, for a senior, I often don't do it if we have a known vaccination record, because it would be rare that she doesn't have enough antibodies now. So, I wouldn't do it.�
I have complete list of veterinary procedures that Tara had, and she had been vaccinated every year. If Petco requires the DHLPP vaccine, I�ll ask them if they would take the titer test result instead. Like Heather said, I�m sure Tara has enough antibodies in her.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
After our campus walk this afternoon, I took Tara to the pharmacy school with me, so I could check on my experiment before taking Tara home and then come back to work more. At the entrance we met a fellow grad student, she has a veterinary degree from Sri Lanka. She has seen me with a couple of my foster dogs before, and told me before that her favorite breed is Cocker Spaniel, so she likes Springers a lot too. She bent down to pet Tara, and within two seconds she asked if Tara has cataracts. I guess it's very obvious. And then she asked if Tara's getting eye drops, and I said no (I'll ask the vet next time). She asked me if Tara's spayed, and I said yes, and she said okay that's why she's gaining a little weight. I don't think it's from the spay, just I am feeding her too much treats... And she checked her ears (all clean of course). Tara got a good petting session from the meeting.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Tonight we went to first obedience class. This time, when I registered for class on Saturday, I actually asked the clerk if I need to bring the dog for the first class, and she said yes. When we got to class, Karlene (the instructor)'s Gemma came up to sniff Tara. I was a little worried that Tara would bark at Gemma, but just like Keely and Brenna, Tara was totally fine with Gemma. Karlene breeds Labrador Retrievers, and Gemma is her foundation dam (now retired from breeding, but still competes in obedience and field events, not sure if Karlene still enters her in conformation), six years old female chocolate Lab. Gemma is motherly and has this calming effect with other dogs. There were six sets of owners there and three of us brought dogs. Karlene said the clerk was supposed to tell us not to bring dogs to the first class.
We introduced ourselves. First one was Willow. Her owner is an elderly woman, and she said Willow was found as a puppy during Katrina in MS, and they took her to a rescue group in MO. The woman's daughter got the puppy for her mom and brought the dog down to her. So I guess Willow is about one and half years old. The rescue group told them Willow is probably a Golden/Great Pyrenees mix. Willow had on three collars, a choke chain, a flat buckle, and the leash attached to the prong collar. The owner said Willow has a lot of behavior issues (digging, barking, pulling on leash, chewing; actually most of it sound like typical puppy stuff to me). Karlene said the prong collar can be a good tool but the one on Willow was fitted too loosely. So Karlene tried to take it off. But she was having a very hard time, so she asked Willow's owner how does she take it off, and the owner said the collar stays on all the time (!), and the only time the collar was ever off was when she had the dog in at the vet's office for spay surgery, and they took the collar off for her. Karlene was a little miffed and told her that prong collar should only be used when training. Anyways, finally they got the collar off, and when Karlene was trying to tighten the flat collar (after she attached the leash to it), she had a hard time also. Anyways, the owner kept trying to tighten the collar for the rest of the class.
Next was a young woman, she said her husband is in military in Iraq and her dog (young mix breed) has started to act up now her husband is not around. She said the major problem is when she calls her kids, the dog would come rushing too, knocking her kids to the ground. She didn't bring the dog to class today.
Then I introduced Tara, and Karlene told the class that I've been in her class before with two of my fosters before.
Then a family of four with an American Eskimo. Mom and Dad, Gregory (about nine), and Lauren (about six). Both kids are very well behaved, Gregory listened intently like his parents; I don't think Lauren understood what Karlene was lecturing (she fell asleep about an hour into the class), but she kept very quiet during the one and half hour class, sitting on her dad's lap. Their dog is Hoogie, a female three years old. They just got the dog from the mom's sister a week ago. When Karlene went up to pet Hoogie, she snapped at her. The family said she does that sometimes to strangers and to them too, but they said the sister told them she did not do that at the sister's. They said the sister's family did not train the dog at all and just let it run loose in the house all day (no socialization and no obedience training, but the dog is housetrained). Karlene is a little concerned and said she will work with them more, but she said maybe it will get a little better by itself also, after Hoogie feels more settled into her new home.
Then two roommates, one with a JRT and one with a Boston Terrier (both about a year old I think). They didn't bring their dogs to class either.
Karlene said 8 dogs registered for the class, so I guess two more will show up at the next class. All three dogs in class today were kept apart, until we know each other more. But Gemma did go up to each dog and sniff. All the dogs were fine with her.
Then Karlene did walking loose on leash, using Willow as demo. Willow did really well and did not pull at all. Then Karlene wanted to use Tara as demo for luring to sit. She said to me, Tara probably already knows sit, and I said yes, but I also added that Tara is hard of hearing, so Karlene didn't use Tara for the demo (she didn't want to confuse the class with hand signal).
Willow did go up to sniff Tara at one time, and they were okay. Tara was overall pretty good in class. She did whine and kept trying to go up to Hoogie's dad for petting (they were sitting next to us), so I just kept feeding her freeze dried liver treats and chopped up string cheese to keep her next to me and stay quiet (she did whine a couple times). But overall she was really good. Next time I might try exercise her a little bit before class to see if that helps, but probably not too much that she would be tired to the point that she gets annoyed at other dogs sniffing at her.
Karlene took us for a store tour, with Hoogie�s leash in her hands. Hoogie did pretty well following Karlene around. Willow's owner was able to keep her sitting while we were standing around as Karlene explained some of the items, but the elderly woman was having a hard time to keep Willow from putting. Actually they stopped in the middle of the aisles several times, because the woman was afraid she was going to get pulled over and fall.
Then we went back into the ring for Karlene�s final comment for this class. Karlene still had Hoogie with her, and then Willow and her owner sat down next them. Willow went up to sniff Hoogie, but Karlene told Willow�s owner to keep Willow away (if the dogs get into a fight, I�m not sure if Willow�s owner can hold her back), and Willow�s owner had to �hug� her dog to keep her away from Hoogie. Hoogie struggled and slipped out of her collar and ran out of the ring. Luckily after the dad put Lauren on the ground, he called out to Hoogie and she walked toward him and let him pick her up. The mom said he�s the only one in the family who can do that, because he had a dog before (I guess she and the kids never lived with a dog before), and that Hoogie seemed calmer now. Karlene said it�s because Hoogie feels secure being held by the dad.
Tonight I got off early from the vet school, so I took Tara to the trick-or-treat event in downtown Auburn; they blocked off the downtown area to car traffic (okay it's only one block long, but that's all of downtown Auburn), so kids could come to get candy from the vendors, and also they had the football players come sign autographs. This is the first time I went to this annual event. At first we kept to the outside, not knowing if the police would tell me to keep the dog away from the kids. Anyways, I sat on the sidewalk to watch the musicians, and saw two dogs within the first five minutes, both wearing costumes (I had put the Superdog T shirt on Tara as we were walking from the campus parking lot, but she tripped on it so I took it off), so I started walking Tara through the crowd. We passed by hundreds of kids of various ages in costumes, and Tara was fine with them. She got pettings from a kid and once from an adult. She did appear a little anxious at times (in front of bar-turned-haunted-house, no lights outside and lots of kids lined up outside), but not so much that I was worried about it (she gets a little anxious anyways when we walk on campus at night on brick sidewalk, even with nobody around; I think she just prefers concrete sidewalk over brick, and we had to walk on the brick outside of the bar because there were kids all over the concrete part). It was a good experience for both of us. We also got a balloon. In the photo is Tara in the Super Dog shirt.
Today I received an email from Liana about an applicant interested in Tara. The applicant is an elderly lady. She sounds really nice, but we both agreed that Tara's needs might be too much for her lifestyle and physical ability.
Sunday, November 5, 2006
Tara and Anastasia and I went to Callaway Gardens this afternoon. The weather was perfect, not too cold, and not too hot (did not sweat after long walk). Tara whined in the car when we were driving toward the gate, I think she was nervous because she didn't know the new place. But the ladies at the front gate were really nice, they said Anastasia is pretty and gave Tara a Milkbone. The fall foliage is beautiful this year, due to the abundant rainfall all year long and the quick drop in temperature a month ago.