Not only young at heart

I was able to catch Gidget playing with her daughter, Prim this afternoon. She does this a lot but usually when I get out the camera, she runs for the hills. Just wanted you to see how spry she is for an old girl.

She isn't liking the cold weather we're having. She loves to burrow into the blankets on the sofa to get warm and spends as little time outside as needed to get her business done, that is, if Prim will leave her alone long enough.

Not much luck at the adoption event

Gidget and I went to an adoption event this morning. It was at a music store (about an hour away). They had several litters of REAAAALY big puppies. (These guys will probably top 80 pounds when they are grown. Huge things.) Several of the puppies were adopted. Gidget and I stayed until early afternoon and I finally decided that there weren't any people out looking to adopt an older dog so we came on home. Everyone was interested in puppies. She was a good girl but I thank all she wanted to do was come home. She's sacked out now on her bed.

We'll just keep praying that the family that are meant to be hers finds her. She's such a wonderful dog. I may call retirement homes that allow pets after the first of the year and see if I can put some fliers up there or ask if they know anyone who is interested in getting a nice, mellow dog.

Gidget's going to an adoption event

Gidget and I are going to go to an adoption event today. We're hoping that someone is looking for a special girl to join their family for Christmas. We'll sure miss her when she goes but she needs her own people. I'll try to get some pictures today and post them. In the meantime, here's a video of Gidget playing with Prim (I think she's starting to get on her nerves:-).

Prim's outing

I have been taking advantage of my husband's vacation time this week to have him take us out in public. He wanted to go to the auto parts store and I needed to pick up a new pair of eye glasses and get some more packaged doggie treats so we made a morning of it. Prim doesn't mind the car at all. It seems to be open spaces that bother her. When we went to Petco, I didn't take it slow this time. I just got out of the car, walked right in and did our shopping and right back out again. She was shaking and tried to climb out of my arms a couple of times but all in all, I think it was a positive experience.

Earlier this week, we purchased a (used) RV. We've been saying we were going to get one for a few years so that travel with the dog (now dogs) would be easier. We decided that our present situation warrants getting one so we did. We need to find a storage facility and there is one not far from our house. While we were out, we stopped to see what kind of options we had (and how easy it will be to park there:-) Prim handled it pretty well. When we went into the office, she let one woman (the other one didn't seem interested so I didn't offer) pet her and seemed really comfortable with her (she doesn't seem to have anxiety about people, it's just environments that seem to bother her). We had to get in a golf cart to go see the spaces and I almost didn't go. Besides being cold and windy today, I was hesitant in case Prim tried to jump out of my arms. She did remarkable well. She was shaking but it was cold and windy and I was uncomfortable. I wrapped her up with my jacket to try to keep her warmer.

As soon as we got home, she peed outside and then fell sound asleep on the sofa curled up with me and Brinkley and hasn't moved since (see photo above).

Gidget loses her stitches

Gidget got her stitches out this morning. She has a slight infection in her incision so she's on antibiotics.  I'm also putting antibiotic cream on the incision. I had thought he might not take the stitches out as I thought it didn't look very well healed. Must have been the infection.

She was limping on her right leg this morning. She does that occasionally. No real pattern to the limping. Not usually early morning but during the day some times. I asked the Vet to check it when he spayed her and he didn't find anything. I asked him about it this morning and he couldn't find anything again. He said it might be behavioral. Not sure what that's about.

We had a Basset Hound when we were first married (over 40 years ago!) who was diagnosed - I am serious - with "alternating leg limp". We'd take her to the Vet and tell him that she's limping on her right front leg one day and her left front the next and then her right rear, and sometimes her left rear. I don't know if there is such a condition or even if he did anything for her. I just remember the diagnosis. Every once in a while, when someone has vague symptoms, we say they must have alternating leg limp.

I'm planning on taking Gidget to an adoption event this weekend. Now that she is "fixed" and has all her shots she's ready to go to her forever home. I may take her to the "kids" event although I'm not real sure what that means. I think she'd be a great choice for a family. She's so well housebroken and well mannered, there'd be only whatever trick training a family might want to teach. No stresses of raising a puppy. I figure she has at least 5 -8 more years and some large dogs don't live much longer than that. And to watch her run and play with Prim, you'd never begin to guess she wasn't a youngster herself.

My husband is off this week so he helped me work with Prim on her socialization. She did so well in the car the other day that I decided I wanted to try taking her out of the car. We went to PetCo and sat in the car for a while. She was ok until I opened the car door and started to get out. She started struggling and tried to get out of my arms and get farther into the car. I sat there for maybe 5 minutes trying to give her treats. She wouldn't have anything to do with them. Finally, my husband told me I was babying her too much. I said I didn't want to overload her but tried standing up anyway. She struggled a bit but not too badly so I started walking towards the store. She was trembling a bit but not struggling too badly so I went in and started walking slowly around. She wouldn't take any treats and was trembling but looking around as well. We stayed in there about 5 minutes and towards hte end she took a few treats from my husband.  She was actually fairly relaxed towards the end but boy was she glad to get back in the car.

I don't want to sound like she is a major project puppy. There are so many great things about her. She is great in the crate and she learns really fast. She is such a lover and will sit on the sofa for hours and cuddle with me (I dont want to do that too often though as she then has a ton of pent up energy that has to be expended later:-). All in all, the only real issue we've had is this business of environments. I'll just keep working on it. I'm very hopeful we'll be able to take a class by January.

We went on an outing

We had to go to a big box home store this morning. I didn't think Prim could handle going in the store but wanted to try her out in the car. We brought Brinkley along for moral support (she seems to handle things better when he is with us). What a good girlie!

(Disclaimer... do not do this at home... I held her in my lap in the front seat - I wasn't driving) I was feeding her high value treats the entire trip to the store. She was taking them pretty well although there was one point that she stopped but for the most part, she seemed under threshold pretty much the entire way there. Once we got parked, I let her explore the car, which she did - well, she got in the driver's seat and chewed on the seatbelt holder and some wires to the iphone thingy that lets me listen through the radio. I gave her some toys I had brought and she played with them a bit them settled down and just relaxed. All in all, I was beyond pleased. Here are a few photos I took.

 

Ok, she does look a bit stressed here. 

Not much going on

Prim loves her big brother.

Things just seem to be going along without much excitement. Gidget is doing really well after her spay. She's playing with Prim (I try to keep them separated but haven't had 100% compliance). What I have discovered is that Gidget will go in the house when I tell her to. I found this out the other day when Prim was mauling her outside when I took them out to potty. I just told Gidget to go back in the house and she did. I was amazed. I hadn't taught her this cue and don't know how she figured it out unless it was something she learned in her previous home. I continue to be awed at how smart she is.

Prim is still showing signs of fearfulness. My trainer thinks it might be either a fear stage or that it is inherited. I continue to take her out in the front yard, sometimes with Brinkley and sometimes alone. She just doesn't like it.  When we were out this afternoon, my next door neighbor was working on his car and came over to talk. At first, Prim ran the opposite direction but fairly quickly came over and actually jumped up on him in greeting. I was over the moon with excitement and gave her all kinds of treats.

The other thing I am finding challenging is cutting Prim's nails. Up until a week ago, no problem. Now all of a sudden she is fighting having them clipped. She doesn't mind me handling her feet, I've done it almost every day since she was born, it's just once I get the clippers out that she goes all squirmy on me. Actually, it's the same behavior that she has when I take her out the front door (hence the need to clip her nails as they are lethal when she's struggling to get down). Wish I knew what was up with all this. At any rate, I bought a different kind of clippers today thinking I might "trick" her but no such luck. Also bought a file but she wouldn't let me use that either so I'm back to clicking and treating for just looking at the clippers, then touching the clipperss and will work up to touching her feet with it while clicking and treating. Baby steps.

I know that Gidget was fairly scared when she first came here. She was very "trembly". but got over it fairly quickly and it didn't prevent her from facing her fears. I always said she was actually pretty brave because she wasn't afraid to face her fears. Hopefully with a bit of work, Prim will be the same.

I had wanted to take Prim places so that she could be socialized. She's missing out on all the prime socialization period. If I can't get her out in the front yard, what on earth would happen if I took her to Lowe's or Petco? Don't want to rush it though and end up making matters worse.

Dealing with our fears

Just wanted to start with a little cuteness:-)

Gidget is doing really well after her surgery. She's being fantastic about not licking her stitches and if she does, she stops when I ask her to. Her teeth are so pearly white. I am amazed at how clean they got them. I'm still feeding her soft food but she seems to be ok. I'm guessing her teeth may have been bothering her as they were loose and chewing on loose teeth has got to be uncomfortable. I'm so glad we got them cleaned and all set. Poor baby doesn't have many left but she doesn't seem to mind at all. 

The vet said he couldn't find anything wrong with her leg so I guess it's just old age. I have that myself and find myself limping or hunched over when I get up many times.  

She's not so tolerant of Prim since her surgery. That's about the only concession I see her making to her discomfort. I am just keeping them separate. Not too difficult. Gidget has learned "wait" since che came. I didn't teach it. She's just picked it up from me telling my dog. She is such a smart girlie. 

We've been working on Prim's fears of the front yard. I talked to my trainer about it this afternoon and she thinks perhaps she's going through a fear stage. I am hopeful. I have been taking her out in the front yard with toys and treats and just letting her wander. She doesn't go far. For several days, she just hid unter the bench on the front porch. She had gotten to the point that she would investigate the cars in the drive and the patch of grass by the neighbor's fence. I had taken Gidget out with her once thinking that her mom's comfort with the area might help her. No such luck. My trainer suggested that I try Brinkley. Well, what a difference. She was only slightly hesitant to follow him at first but really quickly tagged right along. We all sat on the lawn for 10 minutes and she was fabulous. She finally got tired of it and wandered back to the area near the house where she was more familiar but I am much more encouraged by the day's response. 

I am having a challenge with potty training Prim. She has absolutely no physiological schedule. I know to feed her at discrete times so that I can anticipate when she will need to poop. Well, yesterday she went 5 times and today, so far, only once (talk about anal, I am keeping a chart of times and locations of all potty breaks). How can I anticipate? We are doing great with pee but I am struggling with the other. She'll almost always pee when I tell her to go potty. I take her out so many times, I am wearing out the door knob. I know that the treats I'm using for training count towards her intake but I really don't remember having this much trouble figuring out when a puppy was going to need to go. 

Gidget's surgery

The vet just called and Gidget came through her surgery wonderfully. She had to have 2 teeth pulled. She didn't have many to begin with but they said they were so loose they almost fell out so they are only charging me for removing 1:-) She'll also have to go back to have her stitches taken out because she was still swollen from having the pups. I guess they couldn't use dissolvable sutures because of the swelling.

She was so excited this morning when we put on the leash and went out the front door. She thought we were going for a walk. I took her out yesterday with Prim and she was rarin' to go.  I'll need to start walking her once she recovers a bit from her surgery. She's still quite plump.

Prim has decided that she doesn't like the front yard. I'm not sure where that came from. I had worked so hard socializing her with people and places in the house and back yard and with sounds and surfaces but it seems like children, they never act out in ways that you expect.  I have been taking her out and just sitting on the bench on our porch and feeding her treats (when she's under threshold enough to take them. I've been doing this several times a day. It'll take a while but we'll get through this. I don't want to push her too hard but do want to make sure that she learns that the outdoors is ok. I'm just still very surprised by her fears this early. I had taken her out the front before several times and she didn't seem to mind it. And she seems ok when my husband takes her out the front. I can't think if anything I've done that might have scared her. Oh, well. We'll just work through it.

I've started replaying the sound desensitization recording which I had stopped a week or so ago. Just making sure that I am doing as much as I can to keep any fears from cropping up. I had wanted to start taking her for little walks around the neighborhood. (I'd even thought about taking her in her crate to Brinkley's classes for exposure there but that's a long way off. Now I'm just hoping she'll be ready for her own class starting in January.

I gave Prim a bath this afternoon. She started out ok. (Lots of peanut butter smeared on the sink). Got tired of it quickly. Luckily she's a quick bath. I had wanted to get all of Gidget's slobber off her. Now that she'll have clean teeth and breath, it won't be so noticeable when she grooms and chews on Prim. Yea!!! She smells so nice now.

Gidget is gonna get "fixed"

It's finally time for Gidget to get spayed. She'll go in tomorrow and have her teeth cleaned at the same time. I've been waiting for that:-) Her teeth are actually a bit better than they were when she came here. I found a product that has really helped with her breath as well as getting her teeth cleaner. It's PetzLife Oral Hygiene Gel (no, I am not being compensated. Just thought you might like to know what it was:-). I've been really impressed with the results but she still needs a good cleaning. It's so important to her health, not to mention the smell factor.

I'm going to also ask the vet to check her right front leg. She's been limping every now and then. Not sure why. It doesn't seem to be related to temperature (when it got cooler, it didn't seem to make a difference) or dampness triggered (it's not worse when it rains) or even exercise related although I had thought she might have hurt it playing with the puppies the first time I noticed it). Sometimes it seems to be when she's been sleeping and first gets up but it's not always then either. She still runs and jumps so I don't think it's an injury. I imagine it's arthritis but doesn't seem too bad.

Hopefully I'll get the microchip before tomorrow so that the Vet can inject that at the same time. Nice to get everything done while she's asleep. Also hoping he'll trim her nails. I haven't been able to get more than 1 or 2 at a time. She really hates to have her feet handled and I haven't been able to desensitize her.

I was thinking the other evening that if her previous owners had not had to give her up, they might well be preparing to breed her again. That absolutely scares me to death.

My rescue coordinator came by yesterday to give her her vaccinations. She commented on how fat Gidget is. I was thinking how much weight she has lost so just imagine how fat she was:-) She still needs to lose weight and I am expecting the Vet to comment on it. I'm feeding her the same amount I did when she came here and the Vet told me she was too thin. I had allowed her to get way too fat when she was nursing, though. I was so afraid of her not getting enough to eat while the puppies were taking so much from her. Obviously a bit of overkill.

She plays so hard with Prim. It's just amazing to watch. And she'll even lie outside the exercise pen and play with her through the bars. Not a great video. I took out my phone after they had been playing a while but you can get an idea.

Here's a photo of Prim sleeping on the sofa with Brinkley, her big brother.