Meet the newest family member

[Elizabethn]

Mr. EN recovered without incident. I have been reading some really good stuff I found online by a guy who started a dog rescue organization, does training, etc. and who has some success testimonials about supposedly "unsalvagable" dogs. He starts with the idea that you must have a bond with the dog before you can do ANYTHING else, so don't worry about obedience first.

I had never thought of it that way in working with a new dog. So I followed a couple of his ideas for bonding, in particular hand feeding Jack almost all his meals for a few days, both me and Mr. EN. We also had lots and lots of lap time. Both these things helped bunches. Jack started making more comfortable eye contact very fast. From there he started sitting on the first ask instead of making every "sit" ask a showdown.

A couple days after that, Jack voluntarily brought a toy to play fetch and tug with. Lo and behold, he knew how to play! We were so excited. He has gone all around the house and found all the toys Sterling hid that we had forgotten :-).

He LOVES to ride in the car but HATES staying in the car, so he will have to stay at home when I go to school. But that's okay. He is doing much better for staying home alone. He "built" himself a bed in a bin of stuff I have near my desk. It's up off the floor and he seems to like that. So I put his doggie bedding on top of that and he loves it.

We are still working on how to behave with the cats. Buddy is totally cool with Jack and they are kinda sorta playing some. Zoe does NOT like doggy play language, and Jack doesn't understand that yet. But we're making progress.

I'm thinking pretty soon we will sign up for an obedience class so he can have some time with other dogs and we can learn some new ways to do stuff we thought we already knew how to do well.