A Good Week

Kelly’s first week with me was busy. I learned a lot about her.

She continues to love, love, love the house! And she is turning into a typical rambunctious young Shorthair. Last night, I she put her paws up on the counter and cleaned out the cat’s food dish! She met the cat face to face (on leash) and was not bad: curious, but not aggressive. But my cat is really old and slow moving. I am not sure what she would do if my cat ran and jumped like most cats do.

I scolded her this morning jumping up at me as I was eating. I guess I was too stern, because she ducked behind my kitchen table and I had to explain to her that I was not going to chase her down or anything. She is stubborn! She absolutely wants to put her paws all over everything and is VERY persistent. If I want her back in her crate in the dog room and she does not wish to go, I usually have to put her bodily back in. At other times, she walks in herself!

She is doing well walking in strange places, especially if accompanied by one of my dogs. She is, of course, uncertain at times, but at other times, she looks much more relaxed.

Kelly is, however, terrified of other dogs, especially in close quarters. She loves my pack, but I take her to the place where I train and she will growl and snap at other dogs if they are looking at her. No daycare or dog parks for Miss Kelly…somewhere along the line, she may have been jumped.

I will learn more about the length of time it takes her to make friends with dogs other than mine, when she goes to stay with another Eastern rescue volunteer, who has two dogs, while I am away on a short vacation.

That’s all for now!

Eleanor

Kelly..a work in progress

Kelly is so very different from what I expected when I agreed to foster a puppy mill dog. First, she arrived in absolutely perfect weight. She is a tiny, trim 40 lb. liver and white patched and ticked girl, with lighter eyes, measuring a scant 21” at the withers. In time, with proper diet and exercise, she will get her girlish figure back. Second, she is pretty good with people, not shying away from them, approaching them cautiously but willingly. Several friends have been kind enough to walk her a bit for me and she will take treats from people. Third, she rides well in the car!

On Saturday, March 14, five minutes after she arrived in NJ, Kelly was tucked into a crate behind the driver’s seat and speeding on her way with me to a field trial, where my youngest GSP was entered. After some initial crying, she fell asleep for the rest of the almost 2-hour trip and when we arrived, I got her out to see what she would think of the world. To my surprise, although she was nervous and unsure, she allowed herself to be petted and was fascinated by everything. She quickly adopted the car as home and my two dogs as her friends.

When we arrived home that evening, I walked her in to my house on leash. I have a small house, three GSPs and two Shelties and one elderly, blind cat, so house privileges must be limited for any visiting dog. However, I wanted to see what she thought of a house, to get an idea of what we needed to work on. Honestly, had I not known she was from a puppy mill, I would have thought she was just an ill mannered, un-socialized pet dog, because she loved the house right from the get-go. Tail wagging, hard wood floors no problem, stairs no problem, paws on everything so she could get a closer look.

I put her in my kennel run and unpacked the car, then I fed the dogs, then took her on a more thorough tour (on leash) of the dog yard and my tiny abode. She accepted my furry, barking Shelties with no problem and backed right off when my 9-year old Sheltie made it clear she was being a pest. Over the past few days, I have deliberately turned on the ceiling fans, run water, flushed toilets, opened refrigerator and cupboard doors, had the TV on, run the vacuum and she doesn’t care. She shoves her head right into cupboards and looks out windows. She loves going up and down my stairs and took just one try to master the open-backed cellar stairs, which many dogs find scary! And if a door is ajar, she just pushes it open to go see what might be there!

I finally allowed her to be loose in my entire house today, Tuesday, for the first time, because my cat was asleep upstairs in a guest room and I could shut her in for a few hours. After some initial running around, with my youngest GSP egging her on, she climbed into my leather chair and dozed. She does need constant reminders about not putting paws on the counter, and she thinks scatter rugs are best if nibbled at, but she settles down quickly. Her house breaking has been immaculate. She is clean in her crate and does all her business promptly outside either on or off leash. I do supervise her every step indoors and out, because six dogs makes quite a crowd! Interestingly, when she was upstairs today and one of dogs downstairs started barking at something, she ran right to a window, put her paws up and looked outside to see what was going on.

I also just introduced her today to my big fenced yard. It is mud/dirt season here, so play time is restricted to my gravel dog yard, unless I am out with the dog and walk them up to the part of my yard which is less muddy. While she is perfectly confident in my dog yard and back-yard, and will wander around and run after my loud pack, she eventually always wants to run back into the house! She is not cringing when she goes to the door, rather wagging her tail and asking to be let back in. Once in there, she will grab toys, drink water, then find a bed to lie on.. She has the makings of a couch potato!

She has been for walks on both a busy side street and in my cul-de-sac. I have to exercise my oldest GSP and so Kelly tags along. She is generally unsure, but not bothered by cars, nor nervous about funny looking objects, just generally overwhelmed. So we trot along and she just follows my dog. Her leash walking is not bad. I have also taken her to a couple of training buildings, which she handled pretty well. Mirrors and the banging of agility equipment did not bother her. But, I am discovering she can be crate aggressive and can overreact to certain dogs. I figure she has never seen an Aussie or Mini-Poodle and the shapes are new to her!

She eats well, spends the night quietly in a crate at the foot of my stairs, seeming to know it is nighttime. But she hates to be alone downstairs in the dog room while me and my dogs are upstairs and cries up a storm. This will be something we work on, bit by bit. She enjoys pieces of cheese and dried salmon treats, so we have started a bit of clicker training. She has started to jump on me in a happy, not needy way. I allow some jumping, and I pet her and hug her, but I do not allow her to sit in my lap. She is actually perfectly happy to curl up in a chair or dog bed.

That is Kelly. Right now she is alone in the dog room and telling me she is very unhappy that neither I nor any of my dogs are down there. I hear the water bowl being spilled. She can be demanding, too…a typical girl Shorthair!

~Eleanor S. Campbell, Eastern GSP Rescue Volunteer

Kelly News...Day 1

Kelly is doing amazingly well, considering her life to date and her recent long trip. She is nervous and tense, but curious despite herself.

Miss Kelly climbs stairs as fine as you please! She is currently crated in my dog room and was also very content in my outdoor kennel run with dog house, so I have a nice place to leave her, as an alternative to the crate. When she feels insecure, she aims straight for her crate or the kennel run. She has growled from her kennel run at my dogs when she first came home. They were flocking around and she was nervous. I made my dogs stay away from her crate when she was eating tonight. I stood by it and she was fine.

She absolutely wanted to see the downstairs of my tiny house, so on leash, so we walked around the downstairs (which takes maybe 30 seconds!) and when we came to my straight, steep stairs, we climbed up, then , we climbed back down. She was fine on the hard wood floors. Tail up, very confident! Then we went outside again and she peed. She has been immaculate. Done all of her business on leash, a handy skill!

She is not drinking any water or eating any treats, so I smashed Pet Fresh in her Euk and flooded it with water and she gobbled it down, so she finally got some good liquids in her! Her weight is perfect, so I am going to have to feed her tiny meals. One cup Euk plus some Pet Fresh seems like a lot.

Everyone loved her at the field trial. She interacted well with many humans, although her interaction is a bit clingy and needy. She was afraid of two kids – boys of maybe 9 or 10, whom I asked to pet her. She backed off. She was more confident when Price was walking with her, so she needs to be walked without another dog.

I have put a small airline crate at the foot of my stairs. From there, she can be with us when I am relaxing and watching TV. She will also stay there overnight, as long as she is quiet! She will be able to hear me as my bedroom is right at the top of the stairs and I keep the door open. I want her to learn to be alone.

I also ran the vacuum cleaner when she was in her crate in the dog room and she was OK. Eventually, I will turn on the ceiling fans, open the fried when she is with me, etc.

Tomorrow, she goes to Ramsey, where she and Sydney will hang in the car (not allowed inside), walk around when I have the time and am not showing Soleil and Ozma. I hope to have more friends say hi. This tires her out, so she will be nice and quite when I come home. Right now, she is exhausted, which is good, as I won’t let her off leash yet, so she is not getting any good running in.

~Eleanor Campbell, Eastern GSP Rescue Volunteer