Happy Holidays and Big Thank You

Happy Holidays and a big Thank you to all those who have adopted and/or helped, abandoned animals

Another fun filled afternoon with shelter dogs

I was able to spend a good hour and a half today walking shelter dogs. This little Shih Tzu is Drew, a 1 year old male. He was a stray and has been at the shelter for a few days without being claimed. How could someone not know he was missing, unless no one cares. If he is not claimed, in a few more days he will become available for adoption. He is so sweet, and loved being held in my arms. For the most part I am a big dog person, but this little guy just tugged at my heartstrings. If you are interested in him you could contact the shelter and place a hold on him http://www.humanesocietyofthepalouse.org/

















The Black lab with my Blue Merle Aussie is Lady again. We had a nice hour long walk through town. My dog has this" why are you taking my picture, you know I am camera shy" look on his face"






































The black and white guy with his tongue sticking out is Augustus, my new favorite. He doesn't usually have his tongue sticking out but the dogs have been cooped up lately and it's been hard to get decent photos of them with them being happy to be outside and all, so this wasn't a half bad picture, so I included it. He's on the large size of medium sized dogs, very sweet and well behaved considering he has not yet been neutered. If he's this nice pre neutering, he'll only become more calm and nice after. He needs to put on at least 5 lbs.
Augustus is typical of my favorite type of dog, sort of plain, non-descript but with a heart of gold. I love these big easy going guys, unfortunately I am only half of the household decision making process or I would have 5 dogs, but one often makes compromises in relationships, so in a way, the compromise is what keeps me coming back to help more dogs

Dog walking in winter- some new dogs

We finally had a lull in the heavy snows and I was able to get back to walking the shelter dogs, which is always such a joy for me. This little adorable black and tan guy is about a six month old puppy. Someone has placed a hold on him and he will probably be adopted out soon but I thought it would be nice for him to get out and get some love , attention and exercise. He did well on the leash and I was pleased that my dog Cash the blue merle Aussie was very in tune with me trying to keep the puppy calm and walking nicely as he wanted to play and romp with Cash but I wasn't up for a tangled leash, animated play scene, enveloping me on the icy sidewalk so Cash was very good at understanding my intentions, and keeping the puppy in line. The other shelter dog is Lady, the black lab who was well behaved, came to me when I called her and was just a tad wound up as a result of the shelter dogs being cooped up in inside kennels during the snowy weather, but under more normal circumstances seems like she would make a lovely well behaved pet. Much like people, the dogs get cabin fever too, and need to get outside and have fun. Lady the black lab is available for adoptionhttp://www.humanesocietyofthepalouse.org/Available%20Animals.html as well as another big black lab Harley and an assortment of other adorable dogs. I see so many dogs named Harley, funny I never see many named Davidson! My new favorite is Augustus. I was unable to take him out because he has not been neutered yet but he is a sweet medium to large sized maybe Australian cattle dog,white German Shepherd looking mix that loves attention and is mellow and practically human in his responses. I hope to get a photo of him soon and be able to walk him if he is still at the shelter

the "Peace Accord" on the sofa

I was at a dinner party the other night with some dear friends. I was talking about dog behavior and my friend said something along the lines of "It's so interesting to see a glimpse of what humans are like by studying the behaviors of dogs" I never thought of it that way before, that maybe we can learn how to act by seeing how dogs/pack animals resolve their disputes. As I watched the progression to family harmony from the introduction of a newly neutered male dog into my home and pack with a well entrenched 10 1/2 year old neutered male dog that we have had since he was 2 years old, I started to wonder if there was some sort of metaphor/model for human harmony as well. At first it seemed like I had one frightened new dog with some residual testosterone and one old dog who's home territory was being invaded. The newcomer was frightened, , half starved-25% underweight, had been tossed around from place to place with nowhere to call home, came close to being gassed, until some nice people rescued him and set about to finding an appropriate home for him. The old dog was very comfortable in his home territory, laid claim to the upstairs, the sofa, and strategically placed dog bed next to the outside view and had a long history with his people. The new dog finally had a nice comfortable safe place to call home where conditions such as food and comfort and threat level were in his favor. I guess he started liking his new home and feeling protective of it. "See that comfortable couch that I like to lay on? It is now mine. I never had one before and you, little old dog, seem old, weak and complacent. I've had to fight for survival and now I want to ensure it, get it? so it's mine and you stay away from it" This seemed to be the conversation between my new 2 year old Aussie shepherd and my old Blue Heeler. The Heeler was like" Hey wait a minute bub, this is my home territory and has been my sofa for years, who are you to invade and claim it?" I was somewhat of the Peace keeping Mission on the sofa. I would watch as they sorted out their differences. One time I tried to coax them both onto the sofa with me as mediator but my husband said no, "don't do that , let them work it out on their own" I had one long week of daily fights. Nasty sounding fur flying but not much actual damage to either dog. I figured that the new dog needed a lot of exercise in order to calm down. He also needed to know that his food bowl would be full, and that his needs would be met. The old dog needed reassurance that he was still important, that life would improve with this invasion- he got canned food instead of dry kibble every morning. Life was changing, but hopefully it could be a win win for all involved. I would have a new walking and dog training companion, the old dog could semi retire to guard duty in the car and house and occasional nature walks. The new dog would have a warm safe fun comfortable home, meaningful work to do, and his physical need for exercise would be met.For awhile, only the new dog would get on the sofa, and shoot dirty looks at the old dog in order to keep him away. I would intervene and make sure that the old dog was treated well and got attention and comfortable accommodations. As the new dog started to relax and settle into our routine, one day about 2 months after acquiring the new dog I saw both dogs on the sofa with me of their own accord. The old dog was brave and comfortable enough with the new dog to risk the retaking of his old territory. I sat and marveled at the progress we made. Then gradually both dogs started getting comfortable with allowing the other dog to feel a part of the home to freely move on and off the choice pieces of real estate, to share the attentions of their people and their environment and live as one family. Their are still mini power struggles, working out pack positions and duty roles. It seems that time, and minimum interference on my part and both dog's needs being met and the people as moderators to ensure that violence doesn't break out, and then both dogs have somewhat their own safe territory to retreat to. The old dog can go upstairs while the new young dog is somewhat afraid of the stairs. The new dog likes the chair with three comfortable protective sides surrounding him. I'm not sure how many parallels can be drawn between dog behavior and human behavior, dog's don't seem to have the big egos like humans have and are somewhat more tolerant of their species with less attention to their lineage as in not descending into "I am an Aussie Shepherd and you are a German Shepherd, therefore we are destined to disagreement." I'm glad my friend gave me a glimpse into another way to make observations about both dog and human behavior.

* I'd written this awhile ago, and both dogs are getting along just fine now.

Halloween,sheepdogs, and strange events

Halloween night we were sitting in the living room watching reruns of the old Simon and Simon detective show( 1980's television reruns) on netflix . It had been a long day of wood cutting and stacking and late fall garden chores so I just wanted to veg out in front of the t,v with a glass of wine, and the old man likes Simon and Simon because one of the brothers in the show lived on a boat and my husband is obsessed with sailboats lately. The dogs had had a long walk earlier and were laying down relaxing too. The lights were off and the t.v. was on when I heard this strange sound as if a body was being dragged across the floor. I'm thinking" what the heck is that?" as it is Halloween night, we are watching detective shows and I'm getting a tad spooked. I get up to check things out and notice that Cash, the new Australian Shepherd is in my husbands office. I look at him with a " what are you doing in here?" expression, and notice that there is a big plastic bag of my sheep fleece next to him. Now I know that my husband is very picky about what goes in his office and I couldn't imagine why he would have put this huge outside trash can sized bag of my sheep fleece in there and I asked him" did you put my giant bag of fleece in your office?" and I get a " no why would I possibly do that" back from him and I remember hearing that sound like a body being dragged across the linoleum floor and " bingo" Can you believe that this 45 lb sheep dog had dragged a huge bag of fleece into the dark office to have his way with it! I remembered that last Friday I had gone to my knitting club and left the dog alone in the car with my giant bag of fleece and when I came back there was wool fluff all over the car. It was as if he got bored and entertained himself by teasing apart the giant fleece which is actually what needed to be done in preparation for carding. So I suppose he was at it again, bored, and decided to take what he perceived as "his giant bag of fleece toy" into the office in order to play with his secret stash! I really need to get this boy some sheep or at least start him on agility training or sheep dog training. The Australian Shepherd is a little more intense than my Australian Cattle dog who when young, was very smart and not particularly high energy or high maintenance as long as he was with his people. This new dog is a little quirky, I still haven't figured him out quite yet

Cash's first day on the job, do you think he was nervous?

So here we are with my new dog Cash, the Aussie Shepherd, and two of the shelter dogs. I wanted to see how he was going to do, walking and helping to train the shelter dogs and so far he is fine with it. He got along with the dogs and despite his lack of leash training, although he is good off leash, he was able to walk comfortably and help set the pace and relaxed tone. I think he will do just fine in his new role of helping to train and make comfortable the shelter dogs. Both these dogs seemed quite relaxed with Cash although it took some doing to get decent photos of them as they kept turning in different directions, so I kept taking shots as we walked hence the photos of the dogs relaxed in the street as I was not so relaxed but watchful and hoping to get a good photo while shepherding two dogs and my camera hand to safety. The big black dog, Honey was an unusual sort of case. Most shelter dogs can't wait to go for walks, and stay out of the noisy shelter. Honey got about 3/4 of a mile away from the shelter and then made an abrupt turn and kept pulling me back in the opposite direction that we were trying to walk in. At first I thought that perhaps she was spooked by the two male joggers behind us on the bike path so I pulled the dogs aside and told them to wait, but the joggers just passed by and the dog wasn't bothered by them but kept turning back and pulling me. I then thought that maybe she was trying to tell me that she recognized some landmarks and perhaps wants to try and go "home" to wherever she has lived before. I just decided that trying to wrestle a big lab mix who was determined to go in the opposite direction, wasn't going to be fruitful so we turned around and walked back to the shelter. As soon as we headed back she relaxed so I'm guessing that she liked the shelter, felt comfortable there and familiar with the staff and regular feeding. I was thinking," strange, she looks well fed and happy otherwise, why was she so scared to be away from the safety of the shelter?" We took Honey the big black lab out again, a week later, and she was really worked up and pulling while I tried to get her out of the shelter gates and I was using my stern training voice when one of the shelter employees said " you do know that Honey is deaf don't you?" " Actually no, this was the first I'd had heard of it" so that bit of info threw me for a loop. The last time I took her out she seemed fine, listened to my commands and or body language as well as that of my dog Cash's body movements, and we had a nice walk before she tugged and wanted to turn back. Maybe being hearing impaired made her more insecure when she got too far away from the shelter, often times it is the dogs who are super frightened or have been abused that are more comfortable in the shelter than outside of it but for most dogs they prefer to be out walking around.

The yellow Heinz 57 variety dog is Jake
Jake seemed pretty relaxed around Cash as well

Pascual in need of reform school?

I have to admit, that even our dog children from time to time, get into trouble no matter how well they are raised. My friend and I often take our rescue dogs out for long walks around a reservoir where there are little camping areas that are available for public use. The campground
areas are often filled up on the weekends in the summer time. This summer we were walking and basically at the end of our walk. My friend and I were in the parking lot with her dog and my new dog and she says to me" where's Pascual?" I looked around and called his name, which usually causes him to show up immediately but, no Pascual. I walked over to the bridge because sometimes the dogs stand in the water underneath the bridge to cool off. He wasn't under the bridge. This was really unusual behavior for him as he never strays far off the hiking path and he's usually never far from me or out of reach of my voice. I called once again"Pascual" and all of a sudden, he comes sneaking out of the bushes with a big piece of baked chicken in his mouth! I quick figured out what had happened, and as I was bursting out laughing and trying to tell my friend what had happened while taking the fully baked piece of chicken out of his mouth and Pascual is looking at me like" do you know the trouble I went through to sneak that piece of chicken, and you're taking it from me? why it was masterful" and I'm trying to rush everyone into the car before the drunken, angry, camper I'm imagining comes running after us and I don't even have any money on me to pay for the chicken, and I'm laughing so hard that this little old dog was so sneaky in his escape through the bushes, as I've often seen him skulking around the furniture in the house trying to outwit other dogs so he could steal food out of there bowls, but I never expected him to do it in public! So we quickly made our getaway, my friend and I laughing so hard. As my guilt started to rise, I said" I really don't know if he stole it or someone gave it to him" as despite my fears, no one actually came out of the woods and yelled at us, and I was reminded of the time in Portland Oregon when I was dog sitting for my friend's yellow lab mix and walking up in the Hawthorne Blvd. shopping district, and my friend had the strange, bungee style leash which I never understood the purpose of; a leash with spring coils in it, and someone was walking past us eating a slice of pizza and the dog jumped up and I pulled back on the leash and got no resistance, and the dog was able to snatch the pizza right out of the guys hand as he was lifting it to his mouth, and I was terribly embarrassed, and apologetic, and explained that I was only dog sitting and not familiar with that type of leash, and again I had no money on me to even pay the guy for the pizza but he was very easy going and told me not to worry about it. So hopefully my karma was washed clean this last winter when I found a $100 dollar bill on the floor at Walmart at Christmas time and kept thinking that it must have been someone's special gift money so I turned it in to the store manager who said someone came around all upset and desperate because they had lost their money so I apologize for my dogs behavior and hope that somehow things get evened out in the world, but needless to say I watch the dogs more closely now, and Pascual, like any good hunter, keeps going back to that campsite, his happy hunting ground!