Pets

[wurwolf]

Actually, no, he was pre-named. He's 10 so we didn't want to rename him at this point in his life.

How do you know the previous owners weren't MSTies?

Oh shit, I didn't even think of that. I was thinking old west because we have Kitty, too. (Not sure where Todd fits into the theme, though.)

Presumably he's named for Mrs. Lincoln.

No, he's named for this guy.

[Tripe]

Bummer.

On a happier note, behold an unfiltered pic (and taken using an actual film camera no less):

[Tripe]

Have I mentioned how much I loathe those shitty filters?

It may have been mentioned in passing.

[wurwolf]

Well we got the call to go see our foster-ee today (to take our dogs and see if they get along). Problem is our fucking car is broken again (goddamn ignition switch or something keeps reading our keys as "stolen" and so it won't start) so we have to get it towed this afternoon, so if we did get the dog she'd have to be here alone in a kennel, which is not an awesome way to welcome a dog to a new environment right off the bat.

Aw, that's too bad. Sorry to hear that.

[Bob]

Was taking my dog out for a walk last night and some guy had two small white dogs out roaming his front yard and they decided to come running across the street to bark and growl up close to my doberman.   I've trained her to just ignore other dogs so she just pretty much stood there (with her hair up a BIT down her back) and ignored them waiting for the guy to hurry up across the street and get his dogs.

One of them kept snarling and getting closer, so I kind and wagged on left foot a bit and said "please set back" to get it to back up some.   Then that dumb dog looked at me and snarled and snapped.   I looked at my dog and since the dog was bothering her human, she squated down low, snarled her snout and barked loudly at the dog.   The little dog just froze there and did not move until the guy picked it up.  He said "sorry, and tell your dog thanks" as he picked up the two dogs and went home.

[Darth Geek]

Was taking my dog out for a walk last night and some guy had two small white dogs out roaming his front yard and they decided to come running across the street to bark and growl up close to my doberman.   I've trained her to just ignore other dogs so she just pretty much stood there (with her hair up a BIT down her back) and ignored them waiting for the guy to hurry up across the street and get his dogs.

One of them kept snarling and getting closer, so I kind and wagged on left foot a bit and said "please set back" to get it to back up some.   Then that dumb dog looked at me and snarled and snapped.   I looked at my dog and since the dog was bothering her human, she squated down low, snarled her snout and barked loudly at the dog.   The little dog just froze there and did not move until the guy picked it up.  He said "sorry, and tell your dog thanks" as he picked up the two dogs and went home.

Glad to see the other guy was nice about it and not an asshole.

[Bob]

Yeah, he looked kind of embarassed and was talking loudly to his dogs.   They were probably his wife's!

Considering they were snack sized, probably best not to come up to big dogs and hope they don't chomp.

[Coragale]

Yeah, he looked kind of embarassed and was talking loudly to his dogs.   They were probably his wife's!

Considering they were snack sized, probably best not to come up to big dogs and hope they don't chomp.

The little dogs can actually forget how small they are most of the time. Occasionally, I'll take Ein to an awesome dog park, and people will tell me how they normally discourage their bigger dogs from playing with smaller ones, but Ein's holding his own. I take that as a badge of pride, because it's through my intense training regimen of rough-housing and wrestling that he's learned to take much bigger opponents. It's like the freakin' Karate Kid up in this bitch.

[wurwolf]

Cappy is a Schipperke and a small dog who has zero sense of his size, too. It's one of the things I love about Schips -- a big dog attitude in a little dog body.

[Tripe]

And yet every Rottweiler I've ever know has thought it was a tiny dog, including trying to sit on laps.

[LucasM]

We brought home the foster. She'll be here til a week from Monday.  She's beautiful; a lovely caramel brown thing. Probably rat terrier, but I'm not a breeder. She's incredibly timid and clearly not used to being on a leash--she completely balks every time I try to lead her anywhere, goes spread-eagle immediately.

Her name is Gracie (which I also find adorable).

Will post pics soon.

To train her to be OK with the leash, for a while at least, give her doggie treats (the 'quick-eating' kind, not a bone or something) just before... then during putting the leash on.  Wait a bit before you try to move with her on the leash, and give her a treat just before you say something like a questioning, "walk?"  Then, if she goes spread-eagled, put a treat on the floor just a TINY bit out of her reach, wait for her to get it, then put another one down a tiny bit FURTHER out of her reach, etc., until you can get her almost to walking speed.

Obviously you know pets well enough to be talking to her very calmly while you attach the leash and ask if she wants to walk, but the treats may go that extra bit to getting her to associate walks with good things.  [Possibly she was abused by a prior owner while on a leash.]

I hope that helps.


I actually used a slightly similar process to get Lucas to sit still for his nails getting clipped.  I gave him treats right after clipping his nails, so he associates sitting still for that with getting treats.  Now, most of the time, he'll sit upright on his butt on my lap (tail down between my legs), almost like I'm cradling an infant in one arm.  He usually doesn't struggle, he just looks up at my face almost constantly during the procedure (though as soon as I finish the VERY last nail, he squirms a lot to get down).  As soon as I set him down he gets almost a meal's worth of assorted kitty treats (about six to eight each of five different flavors of treat = one very happy cat ).  I also talk calmly to him while I'm doing the clipping.  Held so close to my chest, the vibrations from my low voice probably feels like I'm purring to him.


[EDIT: Heck, my degree in Psychology should be of SOME use to me, even unable to work. ]

[LucasM]

Glad to hear she's doing better.  Developing a crush on someone close can be a great distractor from stress.   Sounds like she's got some pretty good coping skills.

I really hope changing families in a week or so won't disrupt/stress her too much, yet again.

[LucasM]

Glad to hear she's doing better.  Developing a crush on someone close can be a great distractor from stress.   Sounds like she's got some pretty good coping skills.

I really hope changing families in a week or so won't disrupt/stress her too much, yet again.

Yeah.   I'm sad we can't keep her ourselves, but we really can't have 3 dogs right now.  Ideally I'd love to see her get adopted by someone on campus so I can see her as she grows up.

As you might have noticed before [ ] sometimes my focus is so intense on one thing I miss others right beside them.  I was so focused on the little pup that I didn't say how sorry I was for you and your wife to have the time to get attached and then have to give the new houseguest up again.  At least as adult humans you can cognitively understand the 'why' involved... but that doesn't cut down on the feelings of loss.  I'm sorry that you have gotten so attached and have to give her to another family.  I also hope she lives close so you can see her again.

[Bob]

That's where I picked up my Doberman from last fall......a temp house that had her for a few months.   The 4.5 year old dog had a nice temp house before ending up here. 

A very important place she had.

[LucasM]

Glad to hear she's doing better.  Developing a crush on someone close can be a great distractor from stress.   Sounds like she's got some pretty good coping skills.

I really hope changing families in a week or so won't disrupt/stress her too much, yet again.

Yeah.   I'm sad we can't keep her ourselves, but we really can't have 3 dogs right now.  Ideally I'd love to see her get adopted by someone on campus so I can see her as she grows up.

Well, sounds like one of the other residential faculty is going to take her. So it'll be nice that she'll be on campus. I'll miss her little ears perking up on the couch whenever we walk in, and I'm sad that she won't be able to play with our dogs, but I'm glad she'll have a forever-home.

That's great that she'll have a permanent home, and in still-familiar terrier-tory.  Maybe you can arrange 'play dates' with your dogs and her since she'll be close by.

And it was wonderful that she had the experience with you all to help her come out of her shell.  I'm sure she'll treasure that time you spent with her, as much as you will.