Chima and Chile: Friendship Can Take Time

Chile went home on Saturday and his new name is De Niro. He's doing great but before he left he and Chima finally decided the other wasn't so bad.

Chile isn't the most coordinated of dogs and when he was excited he tended to jump wildly and super high in the air, landing on whatever was next to him. Often it was Chima next to him (hoping for a treat) and Chima only puts up with having a dog jump on her one time. If he did it a second time then she would get after him. This made Chile pretty wary of the big girl, and I can't blame her as she can be quite imposing when she's irritated. Add to that the fact that Chima loves to bark and growl while she plays and Chile was not too sure about her.

But on Friday it seemed a truce was finally called. Chile finally understood Chima's style of play and they had quite a fun time tearing around. At one point I was worried that he didn't want to be chased but when I stepped in to break things up and distract Chima, he ran past me trying to engage her again so I let them play.

This happens quite often at our house. Dogs that have not been overly fond of each other slowly grow on each other and after about 4-6 weeks decide they aren't so bad. I tell this story because so often people base whether two dogs are right for each other on a single awkward meetup in an unfamiliar location. When the dogs aren't falling all over each other, they think it's not a good fit. The fact is, if there isn't outright hate and irritation from the beginning, there's a good chance the dogs can live in harmony. How often do you upon meeting someone for the first time decide you want to be best friends and do everything together? Pretty rare. So we need to give dogs the time to develop relationships with other dogs that we give ourselves to get to know other people.

Later the following episode played out that was classic Chima. Chile was having a grand old time rolling around and chewing on Nylabone rings. Chima figured that they must have magically evolved into a fun toy and she wanted a piece of that action. She's not a bully so she doesn't steal toys from the other dogs but she sure makes sure they know she'd like a turn. No barks or growls but just a lot of space invasion and waiting patiently. Chile is onto her though and wasn't concerned in the least by her hovering.

Chima is wondering how this toy suddenly became so great and how she can get hold of it

Chima, attempting to clearly communicate to Chile that she wants a turn. Chile's response? "Whatever"

Clearly this was going to take awhile and her crowding move wasn't working so she decided to get comfortable while she waited him out

Tilly Time

My older girl Tilly spent the first 6-7 years of her life in a puppy mill and try as I might, I haven't been able to fully extinguish her desire to mark regularly. As a result she spends a lot of time in the kitchen which she has made into her Tillydom. When I am having some uninterrupted play time with the dogs though, she comes out to join us.

She doesn't really play with the other dogs but she spends her time sniffing everything. Like Chima, Tilly enjoys a good sniffabout more than anything so off she goes, checking the perimeter, finding every spot that has been peed on in spite of the enzyme cleaner I pour by the gallon on our carpet. After she has done a complete sniffdown of the room she sniffs the dogs.

Chima and Tilly

Chima, Chile and Tilly in a sniff-go-round

Chile is an excellent photobomber

But what to do when everything is fully sniffed? Head over to someone's cozy crate for a snooze.

Tilly settling down into Chima's big crate for a nap

Christmas Day Toy Massacre

Everyone, house dogs and fosters alike, got a sack full of toys on Christmas morning along with bully sticks and bones.

Everyone was excited to join in and try out each others toys and there were lots of death shakes and gutting of plushies.

Frodo's world was rocked by a Kyjen Squawkie Talkie and we finally had to put it away for awhile because he was getting so worked up over it.

Chima seemed to love all the plushies equally and she spent a lot of time shaking and rolling around with each of them.

Salinas is more into chewing and gutting than shaking so she spent her time pulling the mane off the lion knot toy.

Chile was too busy scheming about stealing other toys to really take time to play with his own.

Tilly even got into the spirit and dragged all her toys onto her heated bed for some chewing.

It was a fun Christmas day filled with plenty of fun and yummy things for all the dogs. After playing they had breakfast topped with wild salmon. Everyone wanted seconds but they'll had to wait for dinner until they got another helping.

Adopted!: Chile

Little mister found himself a home which is the best present any sweet homeless pup could be given.

Chile will be moving to Boise, Idaho after the New Year to be with his new dad and his new fur brother, a Rat Terrier named Al Pacino. Chino loves to play so it sounds like Chile will finally have a dog around who is willing to play with him.

So it's a very merry Christmas for Chile and an even happier New Year.

Snow Day!

On Friday we woke up to about 1/2" of snow. Because we are so close to the water, we don't get snow that often so it was a bit of a novelty. It is quite possibly the first snow that Chima, Salinas and Chile have seen so I wanted to get some video.

Chile was unimpressed and tore around the yard in his usual manner so no good photos or video of him. Salinas didn't like the cold and hopped around on 3 legs to have minimal body touching the ground. Chima hadn't had her breakfast yet so she decided she might as well eat the snow.

By the time I was back home from work the rain had washed away all the snow and that was it. Instead we had wind which had blown down some fresh branches and fir cones to chew so they were plenty happy with that.

Toys, toys, TOYS!

Our monthly BarkBox arrived and it was cram packed with great stuff this month: two toys, two boxes of treats and a bully stick.

The December BarkBox loot

Chile, Chima, and Frodo inspect the goods

The dogs got to join in on a a very fun play time with the new stuffed animals and it was a great time for all. Salinas and Frodo pretty much just stole things back and forth from each other but Chima was the one who REALLY got into it. When she gets a new plushie it is hilarious to watch her go to town killling it.

Chima being goofy

Chile was loving the toys too but he took his somewhere safe where it wouldn't get stolen.

Chile decided to play with his toy somewhere safe

Chile and Chima weren't sharing the new toys much so I brought out a bunch of other favorite plushies so everyone had a toy.  Here you see Salinas checking out a Skinneeez Skunk.

But all good things much come to an end. I could tell the dogs were getting a little over stimulated and Chile began hoarding his toys on the chair and was so busy watching for thieves he wasn't playing anymore. I gathered all the toys up and that was the end for the night.

If you want to get a BarkBox in the mail use this link and it will earn our foster dogs an extra Barkbox. I believe for the month of December you'll get $10 off your subscription too. It's a pretty good value for what you get in each box.

Tug Time

Chima and Salinas aren't always happy about playing with Chile since he has been known to get overexcited and bounce so much that he lands on their head occasionally.

Today during some supervised play time they ended up playing a game of tug which was pretty fun to watch. Good job gang!

Chile and the Rule of Three

Patricia McConnell did a great webinar called "Increasing the Odds of a Successful Adoption" and in it she talked about the "rule of 3". The idea was that when working with a rescue dog it is going to take time before you are seeing the real personality shine. So at the 3 day, 3 week and 3 month points (or thereabouts) after a dog comes out of the shelter into a home setting one will likely see some changes. If you are interested in learning more I believe you can still listen to the Webinar through the ASPCA Website.

This concept has been true for Chile. At the three day mark he really started interacting more with the dogs but by the 3 week mark I am actually seeing that his underconfidence in the way he interacts with other dogs really sets him up to get picked on. It's minor things but the poor guy always ends up being the odd man out unless I step in and manage interactions and redirect the other dogs at times.

Of course we are working on helping him gain confidence and doing the extra work of carefully monitoring all interactions between the dogs. If one of us can't be with them then they are separated. The reality is it takes very little to trample down the spirit of a shy dog so that makes it doubly important to make sure all of his interactions are positive.

Don't get me wrong, he's friendly and sweet and loves his people, but he also would love to play with other dogs and sometimes sets himself up for being picked on. That's why we are working with him.

With his placement we'll be looking carefully at how he and any other dogs in the house interact together. Some people think this is overkill, but my end goal with the dogs that come through my house is to help them overcome the fears and anxieties they've been living with and give them a start where they can be happy and  successful and that means making sure all members of the family, furry or non-furry, are a good fit.

Chima and Chile

Chima has been the one hold out when it comes to Chile. Everyone else thinks he's a great little guy - well, Salinas tolerates him because he listens when she tells him to back off.  But Chima has this new found connection with me and we are working on her sharing me with new dogs. It just takes time and a few days of managing their time together and she moves past it but initially she struggles a little. And since Chile really is a lover and always wants to be in my lap, she's had a hard time with that.

We had one scuffle because Chile was hanging out in Chima's crate chewing on one of her favorite toys but otherwise she has just been sizing him up.

Well today this happened:

Yep, she actually let him not only lie near her but let him lie ON her. Looks like she's starting to accept him. I'll still be very careful when they are together because anytime two dogs are getting to know each other it's very important to keep things positive and if the dogs seem to be getting uncomfortable, redirect them and give them a break from each other.

The Snuggler

I've shown you that Chile likes to play a lot. Well, here's proof that he has an "off button."

This little guy absolutely loves cuddle time in the evenings and likes to wedge himself in with the dog pile on the couch and catch some zzz's. Chima and Salinas are a little perturbed that he's moved in on their lap space but they will get over it. In fact their snoring lets me know that they already have.

Going...

Going...

Gone.

Can you find all three foster dogs, snuggling with me on a cold winter night?

The Tilly Stamp of Approval. Literally.

When Tilly takes an interest in a new dog she has a little awkward stamping, hopping dance that she does to try to entice the dog to play. Tilly seems to have two greetings for new fosters after sniffing them out - she either snarks at them if they try to come near her or she does her little dance if she likes them. It freaks some dogs out since her dance is pretty "in your face" but Chile understood that it was all in good fun and joined in the dance. Well, it still made him a bit nervous but he played along. This led to much giggling on my part since the dance went on for a good two minutes.

Tilly with her favorite foster ever - Gus. Gus was not a Tilly fan but Tilly followed him everywhere trying to get him to play. We had to give Gus regular "Tilly breaks".

Here's the video so you too can join in on the laugh:

Getting to know Chile

While we love all our foster dogs, it's always a wonderful thing when we get a dog with such a sweet and easy temperament as Chile has. He wants to play but won't be pushy about it. He wants to snuggle but won't try to wedge other dogs out of the primo spots. Just an all around great little guy. 

With his handsome ticking and dark eyeliner, he's a striking little dog

I don't think he's probably ever lived in a house before so we are starting out having him wear belly bands to counter any attempts at leg lifting. He's only been here two full days and is already getting the lesson that potty time happens outside. He does get to be inside without his belly band sometimes but that is only when I know that I won't be distracted and am spending time down on the floor playing with the dogs. 

LOVE his underbite - he perpetually looks like he's pouting a little bit

We don't know much about his history beyond what the shelter noted on his intake history. He was picked up by the county animal control officers in the middle of a busy highway that runs through Hanford, California. The intake officer noted that he was thin and dehydrated on arrival at the shelter. After that the little guy spent a month in the shelter but there are so many dogs there that without rescue groups helping, it's tough for them to make it out. Luckily this shelter has a director who's pretty dedicated to working with rescue groups to get more of the dogs in her care moving on to a better life. Her hard work and dedication has greatly reduced the euthanasia rate at her shelter. New Rattitude's Lynn Bonham was told about Chile and some other Rat Terriers there at the shelter and together they were able to find rescue spots for most of those dogs. 

He loves to play, but if very focused on people too and regularly checks in

As a new arrival to our house he's had to endure some pretty invasive sniff downs by Chima and a little snarking from Sal when he wanted to lie right next to her on the couch but he's taken it all in stride. Frodo is so impressed with him that he's even lowered himself to acknowledge a foster dog and took some time to play chase. That's high praise from the Frodster.

Chima giving poor Chile yet another sniff down

Frodo and Chile

The only thing I've noticed Chile needs work with (other than just perfecting the basics of being a house dog) is to build his confidence. He cowers a little if someone leans over him and is quite nervous about being picked up. So he will need a family who understands that positive based training is the only way to work with him. Set a dog up to succeed and they go far and Chile's a smart boy so this definitely holds true for him. In a gentle family dedicated to helping Chile grow, he is going to exceed anyone's expectations for him because he's such a great little dog. The sky's the limit for this little one!

Introducing Chile!

We've got a new foster arriving late Friday night - a sweet gentle twelve pound guy we've named Chile. He is said to be a playful boy but is initially nervous meeting new people. Once he knows the person is safe though, he's fine.  We can't wait to get to know him and Chima better hurry up and decide to play with him because my guess is this sweet boy will be adopted in no time!

Chile can be pronounced the Spanish way, "Chee-lay", or the anglicized way -"Chill-ee" and is named for perhaps my favorite thing about New Mexico - the New Mexican Chile and the New Mexican food it graces. In September this year we attended the Hatch Chile Festival in Hatch, New Mexico and these photos were taken there. The farmers had racks of ristras for sale and mounds of 40 pound bags of green chile. Here's a  Webpage that tells all about the New Mexican green and red chile, how to roast them, how to make ristras, the difference between "chile" and "chili" when you are in the Land of Enchantment, and more. New Mexico Chile For Dummies

Ristra for sale at the Hatch Chile Festival

Bags of green chile labeled "M" or "H" for mild or hot

Green chile in a roaster