toblerone
Well-known member
Hi....
I had posted here a few weeks ago about how we were considering adopting a puppy mill dog. Thought I would let you know how things were at the end of the first week.
Basically everything is going better than we could have hoped. He's completely integrated into the group with Gadget and Sasha. All three of them sit on the mat together next to the dining room table when we eat. He and Sasha play vigorously several times a day. He sleeps well at night, and continues to sleep on the bed with us. I guess we are less frightening when we are under the covers. We've had a couple of bathrooming mistakes but these were due to our inattentiveness. We really haven't had any problem with marking but we'll see how this goes when he's introduced the the second floor of the house this weekend. He's eating well and we've just about finished transitioning him over to his new food with no sign of stomach upset.
He's very interested in us, at least as a source of food and treats, but not in terms of any physical attention. I have been able to get him to let me stroke him on his chest, under his chin a couple of times but we're not pushing this. He has gotten up on the couch, but not when we were on it. We have done nothing about leash training and won't until after the vet visit.
He did growl at me last night. He had to go to the bathroom and then did not want to come back out to bed. I attribute this to the fact that it was the middle of the night and I was not as slow as I usually am in approaching him or telling him that I was going to have to pick him up. I'll certainly be more careful in the future.
He goes to the vet next tuesday and we have someone coming in about 10 days after that to help us with some training techniques. She uses primarily clicker training with "second-chance dogs" and has focused on fear aggressive dogs. We'll see what we learn on this. She's coming to our house so this should minimize some of stress on Wyatt.
My older son and his fiance were over with their dog last night and this also went quite well. He has also greeted some other dogs and people through the fence and seem quite okay with this. My son thought that he must have had his tail broken at some point. It appears there is a good-sized lump at the base of his tail and when he doesn't have it flying like a flag it drops straight down. If this is the case, and was the result of some human-inflicted trauma, this could go along way in explaining his strong aversion to being touched anywhere along his back, particularly his hindquarters. I wish I could offer him some physical affection; he looks like he could use it, but we're going very, very slow in this area.
Anyway, everything is going quite well. He's asleep in the dog bed at my feet right now! If you are interested in seeing a photo of him you can check out the Lucky Star website. He's the last listing in "adopted" section.
Margaret
I had posted here a few weeks ago about how we were considering adopting a puppy mill dog. Thought I would let you know how things were at the end of the first week.
Basically everything is going better than we could have hoped. He's completely integrated into the group with Gadget and Sasha. All three of them sit on the mat together next to the dining room table when we eat. He and Sasha play vigorously several times a day. He sleeps well at night, and continues to sleep on the bed with us. I guess we are less frightening when we are under the covers. We've had a couple of bathrooming mistakes but these were due to our inattentiveness. We really haven't had any problem with marking but we'll see how this goes when he's introduced the the second floor of the house this weekend. He's eating well and we've just about finished transitioning him over to his new food with no sign of stomach upset.
He's very interested in us, at least as a source of food and treats, but not in terms of any physical attention. I have been able to get him to let me stroke him on his chest, under his chin a couple of times but we're not pushing this. He has gotten up on the couch, but not when we were on it. We have done nothing about leash training and won't until after the vet visit.
He did growl at me last night. He had to go to the bathroom and then did not want to come back out to bed. I attribute this to the fact that it was the middle of the night and I was not as slow as I usually am in approaching him or telling him that I was going to have to pick him up. I'll certainly be more careful in the future.
He goes to the vet next tuesday and we have someone coming in about 10 days after that to help us with some training techniques. She uses primarily clicker training with "second-chance dogs" and has focused on fear aggressive dogs. We'll see what we learn on this. She's coming to our house so this should minimize some of stress on Wyatt.
My older son and his fiance were over with their dog last night and this also went quite well. He has also greeted some other dogs and people through the fence and seem quite okay with this. My son thought that he must have had his tail broken at some point. It appears there is a good-sized lump at the base of his tail and when he doesn't have it flying like a flag it drops straight down. If this is the case, and was the result of some human-inflicted trauma, this could go along way in explaining his strong aversion to being touched anywhere along his back, particularly his hindquarters. I wish I could offer him some physical affection; he looks like he could use it, but we're going very, very slow in this area.
Anyway, everything is going quite well. He's asleep in the dog bed at my feet right now! If you are interested in seeing a photo of him you can check out the Lucky Star website. He's the last listing in "adopted" section.
Margaret