Meet the newest family member

[Elizabethn]

This is Jack. He's a mini poodle, came into our county shelter as a stray from a rather seedy community. I have a strong suspicion he was dumped. He came home with us yesterday. This pic was after I took the clippers to him. He looked a LOT different before that! Proper grooming will have to wait a couple weeks till he's recovered from the "big snip."

I'd been going to the shelter every other week or so, trying to help the universe connect us with the next dog. Many nice dogs, no connections. Then came this one :-).

[Elizabethn]

Oops, sorry for huge pic....

[GentleWarrior]

oh what a cutie!

and a wise face.

[nats]

he's lovely!

[mosaic]

what a sweetie!

[Reilly]

Too cute!
Pets are truly a treasure.

[MakersDozn]

yay en i glad yoo got noo dog

i glad he got oprashun

mabee i meet him sumday

david hoos 5

[BayDolphin]

That is a very sweet doggie!

[Emma19]

Jack is adorable and a lucky boy!

[Elizabethn]

Well, Jack went to PA with us for Christmas and we all survived :-p. He has a few issues and we did more bonding by traveling together. He wowed his grandmom, until he and Mr. EN had an altercation that involved Mr. EN bleeding and Jack on his back in the universal canine submit or else position. NOT pleasant. However, all is well, or will be once Mr. EN finishes a ten day course of antibiotics. (He was not seriously injured, but it still got a bit infected, and one must be aggressive with such things.)

We learned a lot more about Jack's foibles, though. He went into poodle hysterics when he saw us packing/loading the car, both when leaving from home and from the hotel. He would not calm down until he was in the car. That hints to me of how he might have lost his previous home. He has an upper limit for stress and then goes hyper. I think that's how he and Mr. EN wound up in a tussle, but since I didn't actually see it, I don't know for sure.

I've been doing some reading online about bonding with rescue dogs and found a few tricks, such as hand feeding, to help it along. That seems to work well with him.

This evening after we got home and got the car unloaded, Jack brought me a toy and played fetch for the first time. He had been cooped up in the car for five hours, was bored silly and desperately needed some fun, so he initiated it. I was THRILLED. We're getting there.

[MakersDozn]

hay en

i sorree jack bytd mr en

i hopn mr en feel betr soon

i hopn jack feel sayfr soon 2

david hoos 5

[Elizabethn]

Thanks david hoos 5 :-). Mr. EN got pretty annoyed at having to keep his hand elevated all day LOL. It looks about the same, but that's okay for this point in the treatment. Tomorrow it should be looking better.

[The People]

helo there. two say hmph. not cvouse she dont like doggee. she jest want one we not aloud to have. we gots 2 kittews an in this aptrment no dogges there here.

[Serenity]

Hi cute Jack..poor Mr EN I hope he gets better cuz that must hurt but Jack probly didn't mean to hurt him. I love rescue doggies.

[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.