Archive for December, 2008
Puppy Personalities Shining Through
Puppy personalities are really starting to come to the surface. Here’s my description of the puppies’ personalities thus far:
- Dancer and Cupid – A tie for most energy, most nippy and most rascally! They will be a lot of fun but will need to have their energy burned off daily I predict.
- Vixen – a close second for energy. SO sweet! Will cuddle and when she wags her stub of a tail her whole body moves back and forth! She is adorable looking! My friend’s favorite.
- Dasher – will settle well and likes tummy rubs. One of my favorites.
- Donner will be the last one standing when my son is playing with them. He’s the one he is teaching all the tricks to. A medium nipper, will stop if you squeal. Will be a very beautiful (more…)
Annie gets new people
Today I confirmed with Annie’s new home that she is indeed going home to them in a couple weeks. It was a bittersweet phone call for me. In this short time I have become very attached to her. She would definitely be easy for me to adopt myself if I had room in my heart. Still, I know it is best for her to go. I know that she needs and deserves a family of her own that has more time and love to give her.
In these past few weeks she has really calmed down. She rests more easily and cuddles with me on the couch every night. She loves getting tummy rubs and she will (more…)
Pups Get Some Fresh Air
We took the puppies outside today for the first time! The weather was warmish (temps in the 50’s!) and wet but they all took to exploring immediately! They loved it and I felt proud of my instinct to wait until now to introduce them to outside. Their noses took over and everyone of them explored the snow. A couple pooped immediately (yeah!) and most ate snow and ran around. It was fun but short lived. They were all wet and shivery within 10 minutes so we went back inside and they promptly fell asleep.
How to Introduce Two Dogs
It seems that the adoption process for Annie is going well. She met her potential new pack mate and they got a long swimmingly. This led me to think about my thoughts on introducing dogs to one another and I have advice on how to do it and what not to do. So here it is…
Make sure that both dogs are not wound up so don’t take them out of the crate and put them nose to nose with another dog they’ve never met. Ideally, walk them both together first for as long as you can. If this is going to be a match for life, by all means walk them at least an hour. If it is just an introduction to a new neighborhood friend then a shorter walk will suffice. But you want (more…)
Puppy Socialization
With the holidays there has been a lot of opportunity for the pups to play with many different people – kids and adults alike. This has been really good for them. The first time they met others outside our family they were shy and subdued. But now that they get the idea of how much fun people can be they are digging it! So, if you know who we are and want to come by to help with this socialization project, please do not hesitate to call us up!
For the past 24 hours they had a super marathon of play with our cousin Kendall. She and Ryan played for hours with them and were convinced that they had taught them many things including how to give their paw (both front AND back paws!), how to go down the Little Tikes slide (LOVE Little Tikes toys- great for kids, great for puppies!) and how to dance. I’m not sure how much of those lessons the puppies retained but I do know that the puppies learned that playing with kids is WAY fun and interesting. (more…)
Happy Christmas to all
Particularly in these cold winter months, making foster homes available to shelter pets while they are placed in permanent homes is so very important. If you are unable to provide this service to the animal world and still want to help, we encourage you to make a donation to you local animal rescue. We volunteer through H.E.L.P. which serves the Chicago suburbs. To donate to H.E.L.P., go directly to their donation page where they will gladly accept your generosite.
Happy Christmas to all from Annie and CanineFostering.com.