My (Foster) Dog

[mother o' chicks72]

She's a keeper!

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Quote:
I would expect nothing less (than a dog lover to note dog threads). Thanks for not being a dog snob with me there . . . I do walk an edgy line, admittedly on purpose. Yes, my edginess will rile some, and will cause others to laugh, and some to think. Anyway, the smelly poodle (still smells even after being bathed and groomed) is right beside me. Apparently my daughter has the cat on her bed. The poodle must be annoyed (or fearful of the cat, lol).

Good luck with the dog.


Oh, we had a white GSD when I was quite young. Lobo. Beautiful dog.

 

[lockedhearts]

Jamie,
Just wanted to add another perspective.... Our Giant Schnauzer, Gordy, we found him the day our Cocker Spaniel passed away. I had gotten Simba , Cocker when he was 6 months old, he was 14 when he died from cancer. I knew he did not have much time, but still it was very hard for me, he was my buddy, we consoled each other after I had my Blue Heeler put to sleep. Gordy came in to our home a few hours before Simba left it. Gordy was very quiet and went and laid down in the Dining Room.

After Simba left us, Gordy's personality started to come out, he has a lot of things he does that speak , Simba!

What I am asking you to consider, I know you say it is hard to accept another dog so soon after losing your other one, but perhaps, just perhaps, things have worked out this way for a reason........

Your Foster is a lovely dog, I have always had great admiration for GSDs , my Grandfather had a couple when I was growing up. Maybe, she needs you just as much as you need her

I know in my case that is how it was.......

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Lockedhearts--thank you so much for taking the time to share, I really appreciate it.

Today has actually been a day when I have been looking at her whole personality. She's already starting to gain weight, eating really well. But its more clear to me, after today, why she was given up. She had been a kennel dog until she was four months old then went into a home that wasn't prepared for her. Shyanne's got some definate food aggression, and she's also possessive of her food dish and even things that "might" be food LOL. I have to say its mild, but it's there. I gave her a cow hoof tonight to see how she would act with that. She put it on the dog bed then paced in front of the dog bed making sure she knew what everyone was doing. She's not particularly obvious about her food issue with people, mostly other animals -- but I can see the issue escalating with the wrong people.

After I put our dog outside and she went and got the hoof and got under one of our end tables in the livingroom and stayed under with it, no chewing on it, but the possessive behavior concerned me. She also got mouthy with Hannah tonight, no pressure with her teeth, but she has obviously been allowed to do this. Sad that at 6 months old this very intelligent dog has the manners of a 10 week old puppy. She learns new things fast, but her habits such as mouthing aren't going to go away very quickly. She's such a soft dog that I do not want to push her too fast.

I have yet to know for sure...my mind tonight wasn't very positive about her. I really don't want to deal with this right now. If this were a clients dog that would be great. But for some reason I just don't feel the urge to take her on...at least not right now.

I have a few weeks to figure things out. I have to be patient with myself and her. Ultimately she'll have a great home.

 

[BorderKelpie]

I know you will do what is right for her and you. Do not feel badly if you don't keep her. If it's not meant to be, don't push it. I know you know that already. I am just thankful that you are so willing to give her a new chance at a proper life, with you or someone else. Thank you for that. The work you are doing with her will enhance the lives of everyone that will have contact with her.
She's a lucky girl.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

When we adopted our cattle dog, while we know nothing about her background, she appeared to have very little socialization, and was not house broken at 3, so was probably outside only. She never showed food aggression, except for curling a lip at our cat once early on..nothing after one verbal correction, but, being a heeler and an untrained one at that, she was extremely mouthy. But, she was also a very, very soft dog, who you could not raise your voice to without having her completely shut down. After many months of gentle guidance (and huge bruises, and ripped clothing...not kidding, she had zero mouth control), I can honestly say she is the most trustworthy and amazing dog I've ever owned. The resource guarding is more worrying to me. I've seen it go both ways, where some dogs (and breeds, I'm not sure if it is just personal experience, but I've seen it most often in the rotties), are easily trained of it and it's very controllable and predictable. In a few dogs, it almost seems to have been an early warning that the dog was not sound genetically, and have seen dogs, and just owned a dog (ended up showing up, along with dog aggression, then completely unpredictable aggression due to rapidly degenerative epilepsy, both grand mals and partial complex seizures), where we should have listened to our instincts early on that something was greatly amiss. That was a very long, drawn out, and painful experience. So basically, I know you are a great trainer, and Shyanne is in excellent hands. No matter what, she will be given an excellent chance to find a permanent, loving home, and a feeling of security that helps with these issues. But, definitely don't ignore what you are feeling either. You have a family and other pets that need guaranteed security, and you know better than anyone when you will feel comfortable taking a new dog on full time, and what dog that will be. So trust yourself, just as I know this sweet girl will trust and learn from you.

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

I have some positive comments on Shyanne to share

I thought I'd better put anything positive here, because I don't want to be one sided. I think it also helps for me to go back and read what I have said about her over the past few days. So this is as much for myself as anyone interested in my thread.

My husband usually gets home about 5:30pm and when he came home two nights ago I was making dinner. He came in and it was a little chaotic because Shyanne was socializing with us. She got really excited from Eric coming home. So he was trying to fill me in on a few things about his day, I am in the middle of making dinner, our daughter was complaining about being hungry. LOL Shyanne was bouncing around in and out of the kitchen. This is when I said to myself "oh how I miss the manners and training of Foenix". Because, of course, Shyanne doesn't know the command "out of the kitchen" -- both my dogs know this command and would comply nearly 100%.

*sigh* So right then and there, to keep my sanity, I had to give her a lesson in "get out of the kitchen". Our kitchen has two entrances both of which are wide. So I had to patrol it, using body blocking and hand signals to keep her out. She finally lost interest and did get out of the kitchen. I didn't really notice anything really clicking in her brain, but Oh well, I had to get dinner done so she could wait. I didn't think much about it after that.

Until...last night. When the repeat thing happened. Dog was out of her crate, Husband came home, daughter in the kitchen "helping"

. Wouldn't you know that Shyanne stayed out of the kitchen on her own. Even when Eric came in the door, she got excited, but did NOT enter the kitchen. She'd come right up to the threshold, and stop there, wagging her tail. I gave her several peices of cheese to reinforce her behavior and she did so well, I was really amazed. I didn't even ask her for that behavior. And sometime between the slap-hazzard lesson the night before and then she had processed and understood what I was asking her to do. This couldn't have been a coincedence because she was very precise about where her feet were and even under heavy distraction she didn't come into the kitchen. I was really pleased!

 

[KlaHaYa Gardens]

Jamie,

I'm glad to read of the positives you are experiencing. In these cases of dogs, they often need to be given a bit of a grace period to show their better side. They are learning to trust and love you . . . but you already know that.

I had a thought the other night, I forgot to share. . .

When you mentioned the food guarding behavior and not wanting to deal with that right now, I understood, but I also thought Hmm, I wonder if Jamie didn't know anything about that particular issue out of her expertise, if this would even be an issue that would bother her? Most people wouldn't know better, therefore wouldn't notice, therefore wouldn't be bothered by it. Just a thought for perspective.

Wishing you all the best!

Warmly,
KlaHaYa Gardens

 

[carolinagirl58]

She is going to make a great dog for some lucky family. I know what you are going through with her too...part of you wanting to keep her, part of you wanting to let her go. Last fall I found a beautiful young rottie on the side of a very busy road that I travel daily. I figured she belong to someone and wouldn't be there the next day. But she was....and then the next. Like she was waiting for whoever dumped her to come back for her. I finally decided that she was on her own so I coaxed (dragged) her into my car and we went home. I have a female pit bull who is dog aggressive to other females so I knew going into this that I would not be keeping this dog I named Jet. Besides...I had already decided to get an Anatolian Shepherd for my sheep and just did not want another big dog right now. Jet was so insecure. She was a gorgeous dog, obviously very well bred and young (less than 2). But she had no confidence and was very sensitive to loud noises, harsh voices and fast movements. She also seemed very sad. She had been neglected for a while. She was full of fleas, had a few ticks and very underweight. I don't think she had been abused, I think she was just put in a kennel and forgotten. She didn't even know how to go up stairs. I had her for 5 months. I got her weight back up, taught her basic obedience and got her confidence levels up. I got her shots and had her spayed. And then I got her into the Southern States Rottie Rescue so she could get her very own forever home. The day she was transferred to her foster home was so difficult for me. I knew that I could not keep her, and yet a big part of me didn't want to let her go either. But I knew that she and my Pit would never get along and if they fought, it would be very ugly. I knew that she deserved a better home than I could offer her, so I let her go. Her foster family has decided to adopt her and she gets to be a house dog with an 11 year old boy of her very own.

You are giving that lovely dog a chance at a better life. The training and socialization you are giving her will make her more adoptable. Hopefully she can find her own forever home.

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Quote:
You're right

If I was ignorant to the behavior it wouldn't bother me. But resource guarding is a potentially dangerous behavior and shouldn't be ignored. I see some improvement of the guarding today, she only barked at our Papillon once during breakfast and she seems more relaxed.

I have a feeling that she might work the resource guarding out on her own after she knows that she doesn't have to guard. The insecurity might go away. But more often than that, it doesn't go away on its own.