February 12, 2012
Well, we made it through our first night fostering and morning. We are calling him Nelson. Here are some of our initial observations, good and bad.
1. He is very friendly, although he very much prefers to socialize with Linda, other women at Petco, and my daughter than males, myself included, with the exception of outside, in the yard.
2. So far he appears to be cat friendly. Macc the cat bopped him and cussed him for the first 30 minutes last night and he did not react aggressively, in fact he cowered at first , then tried to sniff Macc's butt. They are not friends yet, but there appears to be a truce. Macc actually sniffed his Nelson's butt this morning, a good sign.
3. He is crate trained "sort of". He accepts being in the crate, but would rather not be. He has to be coaxed or pushed to go in for the overnight lock down, but does not complain, whine or bark. Happy to get out this morning. We will see how he is when crated in about an hour when we leave for church. (It's only an hour or so.)
4. He seems to feel very comfortable in the kitchen and back porch area (vinyl) but very apprehensive on the carpeted areas of the house. He only went in the living room when called or following the other dogs relunctantly. Last night he was constantly ducking in the living room. We think he was ducking the shadows from the ceiling fan on the ceiling. He also ducks and cowers from any quick motion from above him. I think he was beaten and Linda thinks they may have broken his nose. It is not straight and he has hump in it. May explain some of the ducking and cowering.
5. I think he is fairly intelligent, but has a strong streak of "knucklehead" in him. He is responding to his name in less than a day. He has the come command down great. He responds to down relunctantly. He does not respond to sit, and physically resists when you try to push his rump down. Also is relunctant to take just a "no", it has to be sterner and repeated.
6. May be partially house trained. He had an accident (poop) on the back porch last night. Again, he acted like he expected to be beaten. He had been out about 90 minutes before and just peed, and had not asked to go out before the accident, that we could tell. Told him it goes outside and and no and let him out again (with both Morgana and Maggie) where he peed again. We will see how he does, as we try to pick up a clue for him.
7. This morning would not eat the canned meat chunk dog food which had his pills in it. Acted like he did not know what it was. Did start to eat the kibbles, after picking at it for a while. Looked like he was eating "Old Roy" at shelter. May not have the taste for higher quality food yet. Took the pills with a spoonful of cream cheese eagerly. Must have attempted to train him using cheese as reward. He has no idea what a dog cookie, biscuit or treat is. Won't take them, just licks at them.
8. He has a few bad habits we will have to work on. He definitely wants to counter surf. He tends to try to walk between Linda's legs causing stumbles, cuts me off when walking and acts like a canine road block at the doors. Even after his bath, he still has a very musky "kennel" odor about him. He was not very cooperative with his bath last night.
9. Once Linda started cooking in the kitchen, he stopped trying to get between her and the counter and went to the back porch to lay down. Does not beg at the table. Does not get on furniture except to put his front paws on your leg wanting to be patted. Does not like any loud or unexpected noises. He jumped six inches when the coffee maker came on this morning, and it is not really loud.
10. Lisa - yes he is about the height of Jake. About 2-3 inches taller than Morgana. Shelly at the shelter says he only weighed 38 pounds when he came in. Right now, he weighs about the same as Morgana - about 41 pounds. For his size, he should weigh at least 50 so he is still underweight. Watching Nelson and Morgana run and play in the yard this morning was a riot. Wish I had the camera for a video, but it probably would not have been in focus. I will take and send at least a dozen photos to you today, and see if I can get a video to you, though the laptop does not have the utube program in it and the home computer still is not fixed.
February 11, 2012
The "little setter" is NOT little. Underweight - yes, little - no. We finally got home with him and got through the introductions/ butt sniffing. No major tiffs at this time. We gave them each a 1/3 can of meat dog food, with evening pills. He did not eat all of his, but insisted on pushing Morgana and Maggie out of their bowls. We wll have to work on manners. He also tried a counter surf as soon as he got in the kitchen. Not acceptable and Linda let him know it. Pizzas are in the oven and he is laying at her feet in the kitchen. He is definitely much more sociable with females than males. I just finished putting together his crate. Temporarily in the kitchen. We will find a better place tomorrow. Bath is filling. We will see how he is with that. More to follow.
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