Tired tired tired sotired send help
Jan. 8th, 2008 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wordinistaSo! We... have a second dog. Sammy is now named "Sydney" and... is here. And... yeah. I brought Darwin to the shelter for a meet-n-greet, and he and Sydney got along fine, running and playing like they'd known each other for years. So we started the paperwork and... ended up bringing her home last night. (Side note: Funniest and also saddest moment last night was when Darwin had to walk through "the gauntlet," which is basically the long corridor of kennels where the dogs are kept. Imagine no fewer than 15 pit bull mixes barking ferociously at YOU. Darwin's butt tucked up under him and he made a BEELINE for the exit like, "OMFG GET ME THE EFF OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW.")
Point #1: Fatty fat fat. She seems to have a hard time breathing, even when she's NOT doing the stressed-out panting. It's like a labored sort of breathing, which I think is weight-related.
Point #2: OMG no manners. Does not seem to know basic commands (or only knows them when food is involved), and also does not seem to understand the word "no" or anything remotely related to "stop." When she wouldn't do a sit, for me, I put my hand on her butt to guide her down, and she fought me. I ended up having to force her into a sit. Repeatedly.
Point #3: She is the beggiest beggar I have ever, ever seen. I think I know how she got to be so overweight. Seriously, she tried PUSHING her way past me to my plate last night. We had a little talk about that.
Point #4: She wants to play with Darwin. All. The. Time. Does not know when to quit! Darwin apparently has the patience of of a saint, because it was hours before he even raised his lip at her.
Point #5: She has a little cough. She got a kennel-cough vacc. at the shelter, but I think she caught a little cold anyway. (Makes sense, since kennel-cough vacc. are kinda hit or miss.)
Point #6: The shelter gave her a dose of Frontline, but she's still an itchy girl. And when she scratches, little tumbleweeds fall off. She's totally going to get brushed today. She has an appointment with the groomer on Friday.
Now the good things!
#1: She is not fearful. Not of me, not of George, not of Darwin, not of the vacuum cleaner, not of bicycles. Curious, yes. Fearful, no. This is a big plus, because I think it'd be the hardest thing to overcome.
#2: Is sweet, sweet, sweet. Sweeeeeet temperament. Also, my hubby is the apple of her eye.
...I realize that seems like a very short list, but I think those are very important things, while the problem-list is solvable.
We got up extra-early to take both kids for a walk this morning, and then fed them when we got back. Darwin seems to know this means it's "rest" time, but Sydney is walking around a lot still, sniffing things and... getting stuck underneath the futon. I gave them a couple of bones, and ... no resource guarding (which is to say, no "DON'T TOUCH MY BONE" bitching), which is good. I do kind of wish she'd settle down a little, but I imagine that'll be a long time coming. She settles down, but only for a few seconds. And right now she's barking at... something underneath the futon here in the office. I don't even know what.
The biggest problem we seem to be having is this: Every time one of us corrects Sydney, Darwin seems to think we're correcting him, and he's such a sensitive dog, he kind of slinks off into a corner and curls up like we've just scolded HIM. You seriously cannot raise your voice in this house, because he'll lower his head like, "Oh, crap what did I do?" So when I scolded Sydney for... anything, Darwin reacted to it, and it broke my heart to see him slink away from me (especially when he hadn't done anything wrong!).
The crate situation went... okay last night. For a long while now, Darwin has had the freedom of sleeping with the crate door open (sometimes, during the night, he'll go from crate to doggy-bed, back to the crate), and he did NOT like having the door closed last night. Not at all. Sydney whimpered a little periodically during the night, but I told George not to respond or feed into it, and she eventually stopped. Her heavy breathing also got better when he set up a box fan by the crate (we figured all that extra weight makes her extra hot). Neither of us slept very well. I don't think Darwin did either, since every time I woke up, HE was awake and looking at me like, "How COULD you?"
I'm a little worried I've bitten off more than I can chew. She's only a year and a half, and I can't remember if that falls into the "terrible twos" category or not. I'm trying to remember when Darwin drove me particularly insane, but I think that was more around the year-old mark. Mom and George both are confident that I can whip her into shape.
...
And she just had an accident. *sigh* I don't know if it's a pee accident, or if she's marking. But if she's marking, we're going to have a serious problem here. Darwin doesn't mark, hasn't started lifting his leg, and that's one behavior I don't want him to learn. Particularly IN THE HOUSE.
I just want to go to sleep for a week and wake up and have two perfectly trained Aussies. Is that too much to ask?
...
Evidently.
Point #1: Fatty fat fat. She seems to have a hard time breathing, even when she's NOT doing the stressed-out panting. It's like a labored sort of breathing, which I think is weight-related.
Point #2: OMG no manners. Does not seem to know basic commands (or only knows them when food is involved), and also does not seem to understand the word "no" or anything remotely related to "stop." When she wouldn't do a sit, for me, I put my hand on her butt to guide her down, and she fought me. I ended up having to force her into a sit. Repeatedly.
Point #3: She is the beggiest beggar I have ever, ever seen. I think I know how she got to be so overweight. Seriously, she tried PUSHING her way past me to my plate last night. We had a little talk about that.
Point #4: She wants to play with Darwin. All. The. Time. Does not know when to quit! Darwin apparently has the patience of of a saint, because it was hours before he even raised his lip at her.
Point #5: She has a little cough. She got a kennel-cough vacc. at the shelter, but I think she caught a little cold anyway. (Makes sense, since kennel-cough vacc. are kinda hit or miss.)
Point #6: The shelter gave her a dose of Frontline, but she's still an itchy girl. And when she scratches, little tumbleweeds fall off. She's totally going to get brushed today. She has an appointment with the groomer on Friday.
Now the good things!
#1: She is not fearful. Not of me, not of George, not of Darwin, not of the vacuum cleaner, not of bicycles. Curious, yes. Fearful, no. This is a big plus, because I think it'd be the hardest thing to overcome.
#2: Is sweet, sweet, sweet. Sweeeeeet temperament. Also, my hubby is the apple of her eye.
...I realize that seems like a very short list, but I think those are very important things, while the problem-list is solvable.
We got up extra-early to take both kids for a walk this morning, and then fed them when we got back. Darwin seems to know this means it's "rest" time, but Sydney is walking around a lot still, sniffing things and... getting stuck underneath the futon. I gave them a couple of bones, and ... no resource guarding (which is to say, no "DON'T TOUCH MY BONE" bitching), which is good. I do kind of wish she'd settle down a little, but I imagine that'll be a long time coming. She settles down, but only for a few seconds. And right now she's barking at... something underneath the futon here in the office. I don't even know what.
The biggest problem we seem to be having is this: Every time one of us corrects Sydney, Darwin seems to think we're correcting him, and he's such a sensitive dog, he kind of slinks off into a corner and curls up like we've just scolded HIM. You seriously cannot raise your voice in this house, because he'll lower his head like, "Oh, crap what did I do?" So when I scolded Sydney for... anything, Darwin reacted to it, and it broke my heart to see him slink away from me (especially when he hadn't done anything wrong!).
The crate situation went... okay last night. For a long while now, Darwin has had the freedom of sleeping with the crate door open (sometimes, during the night, he'll go from crate to doggy-bed, back to the crate), and he did NOT like having the door closed last night. Not at all. Sydney whimpered a little periodically during the night, but I told George not to respond or feed into it, and she eventually stopped. Her heavy breathing also got better when he set up a box fan by the crate (we figured all that extra weight makes her extra hot). Neither of us slept very well. I don't think Darwin did either, since every time I woke up, HE was awake and looking at me like, "How COULD you?"
I'm a little worried I've bitten off more than I can chew. She's only a year and a half, and I can't remember if that falls into the "terrible twos" category or not. I'm trying to remember when Darwin drove me particularly insane, but I think that was more around the year-old mark. Mom and George both are confident that I can whip her into shape.
...
And she just had an accident. *sigh* I don't know if it's a pee accident, or if she's marking. But if she's marking, we're going to have a serious problem here. Darwin doesn't mark, hasn't started lifting his leg, and that's one behavior I don't want him to learn. Particularly IN THE HOUSE.
I just want to go to sleep for a week and wake up and have two perfectly trained Aussies. Is that too much to ask?
...
Evidently.
