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…)
All is well
Everyone was walked and relaxing. The puppies were happily playing on their bed after a big meal, wrestling quietly, chewing each other’s ears and slowly falling asleep. I was working on the computer and Annie was chewing on her Kong. I was feeling good about myself, thinking “I am so good, everyone has been taken care of and all is well.” I hear Annie drinking heartily and smile to myself about how happy she sounds when I realize, “hey, her water bowls are in the puppy room and the door is closed…” I look and see her drinking from the toilet that really needs a cleaning (yuck)!! Oh well.
Puppies everywhere
Puppies puppies everywhere! They all walk around the room now, exploring, playing and peeing. Every time I enter the room I have to laugh as they all stop and look, just like little kids you burst in on and startle. They look like they’ve been caught doing something wrong.
They are well into the solid food now and are taking more and more from me, and less from Annie. This is good as she wants less and less to do with them. Tonight, for an hour during feeding time, they had a babysitter! My friend, Maria, came by and played, fussed, and held them all. When I came down to clean up the meal mess they were all zonked out. They continue to enjoy human contact, wagging and crawling over one another to get to the people who visit them. There are going to be a lot of visitors soon. We plan to post their pictures on Petfinder next week. Look for them either by going directly to Petfinder or through the HELP website . They will be named after Santa’s eight reindeer – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comit, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen. The brown one is Blitzen.
Signs of things to come
As I was cleaning up the puppy room before bed half of the group was wrestling and the other half was exploring. Walking around my feet, chasing the mop, and peeing and pooping on the nicely cleaned floor. I must have mopped that floor three times before I gave up, turned off the light and let the pups do what they will. They are paper trained, but they also pee and poo on the floor too…so maybe not so paper trained after all. Sigh. This is the beginning of the busy time. If I can keep myself in the moment, it isn’t too bad. But if I try to project outward a few weeks I get overwhelmed. This is going to be a challenge, trying to keep everything sanitary.
I cut the pups toenails again, boy they had gotten long! Everyone was very good about it and stayed relatively still. (more…)
Learning the ropes
Annie’s tail bandage is holding, so the chronic happy tail is no longer bloodying up the walls of my basement. The one from the vet dropped off almost immediately, but mine has held for two whole days!!
Annie continues to be a joy, learning many commands. So far she sits on command, drops her Kong (!) to the word “drop,” knows her name and comes when called. The only problem is that she doesn’t seem to really understand the whole entire concept of not eliminating in the house. But she is learning. She clearly knows when I am NOT happy with her, and slinks around with her happy tail way down between her legs and goes and hides in her crate. All this just because I said in an old lady shaming sort of voice, “OH Annie! What have you Done??” when she pooped near the door while I wasn’t watching.
Chronic Happy Tail
Since Annie has been with us, the tip of her tail has been a topic of conversation. When she wags, it whips around and smarts quite a lot when hit by it. As she has grown more comfortable in our home, she wags more and more to the point where the tip of her tail bleeds. Upon closer examination, it seemed as though a piece of bone was exposed, which we thought was why it hurt so to be whacked by it. Odd, though, that it didn’t seem to phase Annie a bit when she smacked it on a wall or similar object. She never seemed to lick it, or show any signs of protectiveness of her tail. So we began to think perhaps the wound caused nerve damage?
Kristin called the vet to have her examined. When she returned she said Annie suffered from “chronic happy tail“, to which we all laughed. But in fact, that is exactly what the vet wrote on Annie’s chart! Seems that she had developed a callus that needed to be trimmed and bandaged to heal properly. So that’s where we are – our foster dog has chronic happy tail.
