Meal time for K

Upon K's arrival, here's how we started feeding her.  Us sitting on the ground, her baby gated in the kitchen and gently tossing her kibble one at a time.  This again is all about relationship building - this was her first meal with us, you can see she's worried - notice how her body looks tense.  Also me talking to her isn't soothing so, for now I try to stay quiet and no staring directly at her while she's eating.  Notice I say try to stay quiet... easier said than done!

 

One thing I've noticed, I tend to talk to the dogs in a higher pitch, louder voice that at times is more sing song. My husband is quieter in tone and not a sing song type of guy.  When he talks to her, she doesn't tense up and in fact she will move closer to him.  Huh, more info to take in and for me to adjust my ways with K helping her move forward.  Another good example that all dogs are different. You have to pay attention and keep an open mind for what does and doesn't work well for a particular dog.  We can have a framework but, we need to be flexible in adjusting it.

 

 

Yumm!

What a girl needs...

is space, time and the ability to make choices!  K is not ready to receive touch from us and, with that said, there some basic reasons we need to touch K.  An example is getting her leash on to go out and potty.  So for those experiences I start by having her baby gated in the kitchen which is a small space - I don't want her loose in a big space because I do not want to chase her.  First of I probably couldn't catch her and secondly having me come after her is not a way to build trust!  In the kitchen we are able to calmly and quietly move towards her and hook her leash.  She gets a high value treat after the leash is hooked.  This does stress her out - she freezes and looks away.  So once she's leashed, we leave her leashed to reduce the unpleasant experiences.  Once she trusts us more we will work on teaching her that it's fun to wear her leash but, we are not to that point yet.

When we do need to take K out potty and the leash is still on, we walk towards her  (not looking at her) and calmly sit down near the end of the leash, gently pick it up and gently stroke the leash towards us.  We then slowly and quietly  walk her to the door and out to go potty.  She does better when we are not looking directly at her. This is true for most under socialized dogs - the pressure of our stare on them is too much.  So if you see a dog that looks worried, soften your gaze/ look a way.  It makes a huge difference for the dog.

 

Again, we are leaving her leash attached to her collar through out the day.  We make sure to have her within eye sight so she doesn't get stuck should her leash get caught on a piece of furniture.  If we can't watch her, the leash is off and she's gated in our kitchen.  So, yesterday K was able to explore parts of our house which she was curious about.

She does much better about coming close to us if D'light is around.  Below you can see her leashed and that I gently toss treats her way.  She comes as close as she wants (her choice) and you will see a stress yawn as she's getting closer to me. 

This is a wonderful trust building game for a under socialized dog.  Notice the treat is tossed, she can decide if she wants it and if she wants it she can move away, taking off the pressure of getting close to me - again her choice.  Then deciding if she wants to come back. We did this game probably 3-4 times yesterday throughout our house.  Each sessions was very brief as you will see below.  Right now it would be asking too much of K trying to get her to take the treat from our hand so this game gives space and again gives her choice.

And while this may not look like a lot of work, it's a lot for K and really any under socialized dog.  Her brain is working and making choices.  Not to mention she's still adjusting to a new environment with new people and new dogs.  So, this is our work right now - the rest of the time she's able to relax and just hang out.

 

We are working at creating positive experiences with K and it takes one day at a time.  We are already seeing some trust occurring which is super.

K's first day in foster care

K is typical of an under socialized dog - she's fearful of her surroundings and clearly doesn't trust people who haven't earned her trust.  Can't say I blame her a bit!  So yesterday she spent a good amount of the day baby gated in the kitchen with no pressure or expectation to interact with the humans.  This allowed her time to take in the noises and smells of our house.  It also gave her the choice to wander around the kitchen or hang out in her crate.  She's clearly stressed, again this isn't a surprise and we are not forcing her to do anything.  K can eat or drink if she'd like to and she has some bones and toys to play with or chew on.  When we come into the kitchen we drop a high value treat on the ground and do what we came in to do and then leave.  She has the choice to take the treat or not.  

K is very skittish and right now is not interested in out touch or attention from us and that's perfectly fine.  With a dog like K it's imperative that the human agenda not be pushed onto her.  We are excited to have her in foster care but, she doesn't know us or trust us so again, we have some relationship building to do.  This could happen fairly quickly or it will take time - that's for K to decide.

 

I can't imagine K in a shelter setting and it's not surprising she wasn't adopted.  Again I'm thankful to our volunteer in California who pulled K from the shelter, helped her get over her nasty upper respiratory infection and then got her up to Washington.  I have no doubt that K will warm us and she's a perfect candidate for foster care.  So stay tuned as we begin our journey with K! 



She's not real fond of the camera - this on full zoom



New fosters in Washington

Very early this morning, the other northwest state coordinator and I met the transport to pick up the four new Washington rescued ratties.  All the pups overnighted at my house and they are all great little dogs.  This morning I'm off to meet and hand off 2 dogs to their foster parents. Then the fourth little rattie will be tranpsorted by a wonderful past adopter, over to Yakima to her new foster mom.

You all have read about K but wanted to let you know we have 3 other ratties that arrived lasts night.

 

 

NASH

 Nash is a sweet natured, playful little one year old tan and white Rat Terrier mix who was found as a stray and taken to a shelter. He's friendly and loves everyone he meets and we are sure he's going to love the house full of dogs that he will be living with in Snohomish, WA while in foster care. Watch him hanging out with his foster siblings on his foster family's blog. 

 

SABRINA

Sabrina is a 2 year old sweetie who was so happy to be sprung from the shelter. She's great with other dogs and we're told she's very friendly so we're sure she's going to find a forever home pretty quickly. Sabrina will be headed east to her foster home in Yakima, WA. To follow her adventures in the Yakima sun be sure to check out her foster mom's blog.

 

DALLAS

And last but not least is Dallas. This 4 month old puppy was a stray who has been recuperating from his time in the shelter at a temporary foster home. He's feeling much better now and has enjoyed playing with the dogs and people in his home. He'll be fostered in Marysville, WA and you can follow him on his foster family's blog.

More about new foster girl K

Meet K, she's a tiny little blue tuxedo coated rattie!  She's roughly 8 pounds and is about 10-12 months old. She was rescued from the Central California ASPCA shelter where she had come down with an upper respiratory infection and was struggling in the shelter setting. She's been in temporary foster care in California for a little bit because she was too sick to transport.  But, she doing well and we are very excited to meet K.

 

 You may be asking "What is up with the fancy picture?".  The shelter K came from is doing everything they can to market the dogs & that includes having a volunteer professional photographer do photo shoots with the shelter dogs. Even with this added feature dogs & puppies are still needing rescue: too many dogs, not enough adopters and not enough space. With that said we are happy to save the dogs we can save and that includes K! 

Are you wondering about her name? Our naming theme revolves around Washington wines so K is named for  K Vintners in Walla Walla, WA.  One of our favorite wineries!

 

K is currently on transport as you read this so, stay tuned to hear about this little rattie gal.

 

Two new beginning today!

Gramercy is heading to his new home today.  His moms are beyond excited to finally have him home with them.  Gramercy has such an amazing story and we are thrilled to have been a small part of his life.  So, happy new life Gramercy, it will be beyond your wildest dream in terms of love, care and adventure!

 

And with Gramercy being adopted, his mom's have saved two dog!  They adopted Gramercy who needed his own family and by adopting him, it opened up a foster spot for another dog in need.  So they have also helped  rescue sweet K who will take Gramercy's foster spot.
 

Later today, this beautiful girl will be catching the transport to Washington.  Stay tuned tomorrow to read more about her. You'll find out what's up with this amazing picture of her and her name.

K

Gramercy getting primped!

Gramercy hasn't had a bath since early March (prior to his surgery) and with him going home, I told him he needed smell as good as he looks!  Gramercy wasn't in total agreement with me....



Oh the dreaded bath - Gram does great but, this is not in his top 3 "fun things to do"



"Enough with the pictures, lets get this over with"

 

As you can see a bone can make everything better.  This is one of the first times where Gram won't look at the camera.  No doubt giving me the cold shoulder for giving him a bath!  But as with everything Gram related, he gets over it fast.

 

Run rattie run and some grunts thrown in! Gram in on the tail end of some activity restriction.  By June 12th he is off all restriction.

More fun and there's that pink elephant!  D needs to not stand in the middle of the running lane.