A Very Big Update

My original plan was to get a puppy in May...then, I decided to get an adult and I got impatient and started fostering in February. Well...I guess I caught puppy fever, because look who arrived today:



Ryan, as I've named him, is one of a litter of 5 male puppies that came into TDBCR. There is another tri, a split face, a black and white, and a dark brown pup. I think they also had a red and white sister who was sold before the puppies came into rescue.

Ryan was put on a flight this morning at around 7:00 am and I picked him up at 12:15 pm (hour time difference, though, so he was in transit for about 4 hours I think). When I picked him up, he was lying in his crate happily chewing on a bone, and when I opened the door he came right out and bounced/rolled around on the grass outside.

I am completely in love with my little Ryan and he's only been here for 9 hours! Come to think of it, that might be why I'm completely in love with him :P So far he hasn't had a chance to do anything wrong - no accidents (lots off pees and poops outside and lots of praise for that!), no chewing anything but his toys, and no crying. I'm sure the crying will start tonight when he realizes he isn't with his brothers anymore.

Abby isn't sure what she thinks of him yet. She'd really like to play rough with him, but he is too little to play like that so I think Abby is pretty frustrated. She keeps getting really excited and racing full speed around the yard and taking flying leaps over him, while he lies on his stomach chewing a toy and wagging his tail. She keeps pawing him in the face, but he doesn't seem to mind that. She hasn't corrected him for anything yet - she just warned him to stay away from her bone and ball. She did roll him once while trying to play and then she looked completely shocked when he screamed.

Ryan is next to me passed out right now...oh the cuteness! He's got so many freckles all over his nose and the tiniest ears in the world. He weighs about 7 lbs and is between 7 and 8 weeks old.

We went to the school field tonight and Ryan flopped around with a stuffed toy while Abby played ball. A family came to the playground with a Golden and 2 girls on bikes, so Ryan got to meet them. He seems to be nice and outgoing and runs right up to everyone. On the way home we met a girl with her cat on a leash, so Ryan met the cat too. It was a perfect cat to introduce a puppy to - he was nonchalant about a puppy sniffing him. Ryan was a bit unsure of the cat but some liver treats took care of that.

I'm going to have to work really hard to bring him everywhere for socialization since there are way less dogs and people around here than there are at home (and I'll be here for Ryan's whole critical socialization period). I contacted someone about puppy classes who is supposed to be really good. I'm also planning on taking him (and Abby) to lots of agility trials and maybe flyball trials to meet other dogs and dog people. We live right by the university, and I can bring him to work sometimes so that will be good for meeting people.

I just took a break and played with the dogs, then took Ryan out for a pee before bed. He is now screaming his head off in the ex-pen. This will be interesting - my first puppy :D

Exams and moving

Well that was a rather long break in blogging! Last term I wrote more during exams, but this term I was way too stressed out to even consider updating. I'm almost done now, though, so I finally have time for a little update.

Will/Max is still here, but somebody is coming to meet him tomorrow. Fingers crossed! My plan had been to update here with his progress, but that obviously didn't happen. I haven't had a ton of time to work with him, either, but he is definitely more comfortable these days. He still likes to stay in my room most of the time, but he now loves going to the field and he isn't afraid when the girls play ball. In fact, he has decided that chasing them is a lot of fun, so he gets put on the leash during the fetch sessions and he gets to run the rest of the time. I found out in the last week that he knows "up" and "lie down". He still drags a long line, but I can get him to lie down and he'll stay there while I go to clip his leash on. He's also much more likely to come back to my side now when I call him (as opposed to running the other way, like he did in the beginning). I switched him to raw a few weeks ago, and that's going well. He loves his food, and he is getting over his fear of plastic crinkling since his food comes out of a plastic bag every day.

There's one week left before I drive halfway across the country for my summer job. I'm going with my roommate, who is (very very sadly) going to have to transfer Mia to a new foster home. I've come to really love Mia, and it's going to be so sad not to have her around anymore. Abby will miss living with dogs, too. Maybe I'll find my 2nd dog this summer. I sure hope so!

The dogs have had a great time during this exam period. For the first week, we were bringing them to a new park every morning for an hour or so. That was a nice break for me too because the same field day in and day out gets pretty boring! This past week, when the stress levels got higher, we were taking them down to the beach (it doesn't take long to get there and they tire themselves out pretty fast).

Today, Abby and Will haven't been out yet since I had my hardest exam. But that's ok, because it's time for agility class and a long hike tomorrow!

Abby and Max first play

This is when Abby and Max (Will) first 'played' on my bed. Abby wasn't sure that she wanted to wrestle with him!

Some progress

Today we took the dogs to the beach and I let Will run while dragging a long line (I learned my lesson on Sunday!). He had so much fun with the girls! I had fun just watching him, until a stupid out of control Lab came running down the beach and tried to leave with my finger. Ouch!

Then this afternoon, Will played with a toy! He's been gnawing on the rope toy ever since he discovered it. He is full of beans today, and has been trying to get the girls to play nonstop. He even came out of my room willingly and walked down the (very scary) hall to the back door. He also discovered the joys of a stuffed kong, and took a few treats even while at the beach. Yay Will!

Will has arrived!

Wilson (called Max on the website) arrived Saturday afternoon. I think this blog is going to be primarily dedicated to him for awhile (sorry Abby!) because I'm hoping that he'll make a lot of progress in the next while.

When he first got here, he was a terrified mess. All he wanted to do was find a corner to hide in as fast as possible. When I showed him his crate, he was in there in a flash and he had no intention of coming back out. He had a little drink while I was watching, but I could hear him drinking a lot more as soon as I left the room. He didn't want to take any food from me, so I decided to wait until the next day to let him try taking food from my hand again. He ignored all the other dogs (a puppy was here overnight until her permanent foster home could pick her up, so things were a bit hectic) and pretty much went right to sleep in his crate. I had to drag him out for a pee by the leash that I'd left attached to his harness.

We went for a hike on Sunday, and I made one of the worst decisions ever and let him off the leash. He'd cheered up as soon as we got to the woods and actually had some bounce in his step. His tail was still tucked, but he was a bit more responsive. So...I let him off. He was fine all the way up - he stayed with the group (6 people, 7 dogs). He was having so much fun. He was chasing the other dogs, initiating play, wagging his tail and smiling. When we turned around, I decided to put him back on the leash. Hah! He was having none of that. Whenever any of us so much as looked at him he turned around and ran off into the woods in the other direction. He continued to stay with us, but he kept his distance. I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to catch him. As we got closer to the cars, I stayed back from the group and hid behind a rock at the side of the trail, hoping to spot him following the group (at this point we hadn't seen him for 10-15 minutes). Eventually I gave up and went to stand in the middle of the trail, just in time to see him making his way up from the wrong path. He'd come running down after us, and turned the wrong way, and then realized his mistake, I guess. We were *so* close to losing him completely! He followed me down the path, but whenever I looked at him, he either stopped or turned around and went the other way. Finally he was walking just a few feet behind me, so I stopped and crouched/lay on the path, looking down and away from him, and told him to "come". He snuck up to my side and I was able to get him by the collar and put his leash back on. Phew! 2.5 hours or extreme stress, for him too I imagine! Poor terrified Will.

Yesterday evening he perked up a bit. He decided that he likes Mia, and he actually played with her! He bounced in the yard a few times with her, and played a long game of bitey-face. He played with Mia again today, and with Abby a few times. He's very cute when he plays, especially because he looks so happy!

Last night he slept on my bed, all cuddled up next to me. Then this afternoon, when I got home from class, he came out of his crate himself to lie on the bed next to me. He won't come to me if I'm looking at him and calling him, but there is definitely progress being made. He is so scared of every movement and sound in the house. I'm hoping he'll get used to my room, and we'll progress from there. He also started taking canned food from my hand last night and today.

When we went to the field today, I had him on a long line. Abby and Mia played fetch, and he kind of ran around them and back and forth, very low to the ground. Every so often he'd stop and lie down when they stopped, then he'd get up and keep running back and forth. It was kind of neat to see. I wonder if he lived on a farm before, since he seems so out of place in the city.

I'm going to try and get some better pictures of him tomorrow. He's a very good looking boy!