Getting ready to head for home

Langley will be living with his new dad in Redmond for another month or so and then they will retire to their house on Orcas Island. Langley is going to love being able to RUN, RUN, RUN in the fenced acre he'll have. His dad was nice enough to send me some photos of where he and Langley will be retiring and I am jealous! It's absolutely beautiful.  I did warn him he might need to add some protective fencing for his beautiful garden. Langley can be a bit like a runaway train when he gets going.

Looking up towards Langley's new home

Looking down the drive

Pocket beach near Langley's new home on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington

Because most of my foster dogs get adopted in a month or two, I'm not used to having to track vaccinations, etc. for a foster dog. While his DHPP vaccination is good for 3 years, his first Rabies vaccination was just a 1 year vaccination so he needed a 3 yr Rabies booster as well as an annual Heartworm test so he'd be ready to go home. 

Langley was watching the bottom of the door since you could see when people walked by.

He actually did really well at the vets. As you can see in the photos he was definitely anxious and he struggled to focus on me when I talked to him and tried to catch his attention. However, considering some of the past visits that Langley and I have had at vets, this was downright amazing in comparison. It helped that he didn't see or hear any other animals while he was there. He spread the love around standing up at the counter on his hind legs and looking over to get the veterinary assistants' attention so he could dole out kisses to everyone. He even gave Dr. Sutherland kisses while she was taking his temperature, which I thought was quite generous of him. 

You can see by his panting and tense face that he was quite worried about being there, but he stayed true to his nature and was sweet to all humans, in spite of his stress.

When we got home he bounced back by the evening and was doing great. Now that Langley himself is ready to go home, I've got plenty of work this week gathering his items to go home with him, filling prescriptions, picking up a bag of his food and most importantly pulling together the "Book of Langley" which will have all his vet records, behavioral vet consult plan, tips and info about working with him, a dictionary of all the cues/behaviors that he knows....  I've got a busy week ahead of me if I'm going to have him ready to head home on Friday.

Loving Langley

I've waited fourteen months to write this happy/sad post. You see, our long term foster Langley, aka Langster, aka Crazy Train, aka Langalanga Ding Dong, has been adopted.

Asking for a belly rub - one of his favorite past times and a reason I have so many photos of him lying like this

Over the last 14 months Langley has had about 6 or 7 applications, I believe. Families with kids, people with small animals (snack food for Langley), guys looking for an off leash dog to take to work at their outdoor job with them (which would last about .3 seconds as they watched Langley tear down the road after a bird), and then an adopter who seemed like the perfect person/personality but the place they were in their life around housing was not a fit for our anxious boy. I was tougher than normal on the applicants because it was so important that they saw past the beautiful exterior that Langley has, past his supermodel legs, to the inner beauty but also the special needs he has. Because of his anxiety and compulsions he needed a calm, quiet home in a calm, quiet neighborhood, with calm, quiet, and most importantly patient people. With that in place Langley could not just succeed, he could shine. 

Working on relaxing around foster Chihuahua Bo.

Ready to work: Langley loves our impromptu training sessions and really enjoys learning new things. We play lots of clicker games and learned many a trick to help him have ways to refocus his attention when he was feeling anxious.

Our home has never been a good fit for Langley. We knew this and did our best to rearrange our life and our home so it was a better fit. But in the end, I knew that a lot of Langley's anxiety came from living in a home that had random dogs coming and going, lots and lots of dogs, and a pretty variable schedule. I could give him the impulse control learning games, the positive reinforcement of behaviors he needed to be a house dog, and a person who was dedicated to doing their best for him, but in the end, I knew that my best was still not going to overcome the issues of Langley having to live in a houseful of outspoken terriers.  He needed to be someone's main focus, and in this busy house with so many dogs sharing my time that wasn't possible.

With a patient dog who Langley trusts, he can do quite well. Here he is in his Thundershirt playing with former foster girl, Neah, who was fair, had no fear of Langley's wildness, and refused to let him bully her. She is a strong, confident girl with a very terrier tude.

Langley was also pretty good with puppies as they didn't catch and rebuke him for his social gaffes like adult dogs did.  This little girl, Apple, had him wrapped around her paw (when she didn't have her mouth wrapped around his.)

I'm very proud of the distance Langley has traveled in his ability to manage his compulsions and to look to humans for guidance. Learning to calm oneself is something that even we humans struggle with when faced with scary places and situations. Getting angry at a dog for being out of control in the face of fear and anxiety is ridiculous and wrong. Instead teach them impulse control. Teach them self soothing behaviors they can turn to when nervous. Teach them that you are a person they can trust to look to for assurance and guidance. And above all, be patient and understand that fear is an emotion, no matter how illogical the fear seems.

And the "most patient dog" award goes to.......Frodo! Our personal dog Frodo really struggled around Langley over the past year. He did his best to adjust to life with the wild man, and learned to hoard his favorite toys down in the recreation room where he was the only dog who had access to them.

Langley visiting with our son Hunter when he was home from college. Langley adores Hunter and went through a fairly anxious adjustment when he went back to school.

At the park practicing focus and self control: There are lots of geese at this park and it was a good place to practice the cue "check in" that I use to get Langley's focus back on me. Here there was a new dog entering the park so we were about to head home.

Another favorite past time: watching birds and critters through the window. We let him do this for short periods of time but allowing him to do it for long periods would feed his compulsive behaviors and he would start to unravel emotionally.

He has taught me so much about myself and in my quest to help him relax I've become a learning theory junkie, attending all sorts of seminars and classes and completely overhauling my understanding of dogs and how they learn. After 14 months with Langley I am smarter, more patient, and my yard has never been more clear of dog turds. 

Attempting a group photo session with the other foster dogs, Salinas and Chima. They were pretty new to the house and as you can see Langley isn't too sure about sitting so close to them, especially since he learned the hard way that Salinas does NOT like to be humped.

I rarely cry when my foster dogs go home now - after fostering 80 or so dogs, I've learned to protect my heart from the goodbyes. But I will be crying off and on for the next month or so as I prepare for goodbye and then adjust to life without Langley. 

Tomorrow's post: Langley getting ready for his new home...

Langley Tries out the Jolly Ball Junior

Langley loves the Kong Bounzer I bought a couple months ago so I thought I'd try out one of the little Jolly Balls to see how tough it was and if he'd enjoy it too. 

Testing the toughness: pretty sure the handle will be the first thing to go

Nom, nom, nom...: Side by side comparisons of the Jolly Ball vs. the Bounzer

Langley - the stretch model

He gives it the Langley 4 paws up (because 2 is just not enough to show Langley's enthusiasm) and other than the fact that it will lose it's handle soon if he continues to chew it this way, I still think it's a great toy.

Langley and his couch

Other than hanging out with Troy and maybe searching for poop, there are few things that Langley loves more than stretching full out on the couch with a toy for a good chew. The other day he got to both hang out with Troy AND chew on an antler while he did it so he was in heaven.

Langley: A Kong Poster Child

The basic Kongs and Kong shaped toys are pretty classic so we certainly have our share of them lying around the house.

Most dogs will ignore them unless they are loaded with food but Langley will even play with empty ones. He's had a lot of favorite toys during his time with us and among the top are the Kong on a rope, the Kong Bounzer, the Kong Wobbler, and then just the plain old red classic Kong.

Yesterday afternoon he and I were hanging out on the couch together, me with my Kindle and him with a pile of Kongs he had gathered.

Has there ever been a dog as goofy as this one? It is so great to see him relaxed and rolling around on his back with his toys.

The girls even wandered by to check out what he had that was eliciting such an exuberant response from him and Langley didn't growl or snap. He did eye them closely, though. He would let go of his Kong long enough for the occasional rewards he got for being so well behaved when other dogs were hanging out near his toys.

What a boy - a forever puppy face and a forever puppy outlook that can always make me laugh.

Hedge Hunting

Salinas and Chima are always pretty obsessed with their hunting, but today there was a little squirrel in the lower branches of the fir tree that rest atop a photinia hedge in part of our back yard. Instead of their regular pacing and running, they started smashing into the hedge and thrashing around. Oh, and they were screaming at one point too. It let me know this was no ordinary chase in the back yard. They were so close they could taste the squirrel meat.

Here's how it played out:

First Salinas assessed the situation from the outside

Then she went in to see if there was a chance she could shake him out.  No such luck but she sure tried.

Chima provided backup from the perimeter

The shaking and screaming didn't work so up Salinas went...

And then up some more...  But then her mean foster mom  pulled her out and let the critter have time to move up the tree further. What a spoil sport I am.

And here's the video of part of it:

Salinas at the Meetup

Since I'm working with Salinas on being less dependent on Chima, today she went alone with me to the Seattle Rat Terrier Meetup on Mercer Island. It was a perfect day - mild temperatures and while the park was busy as it always is, it wasn't as crazy as I've seen it on nice temperate days.

Arriving at the park, a bit nervous and wondering what  adventure I'm dragging her to this time

She was much less nervous walking over to the small dog area than last visit and I was proud of how well she handled all the strollers and scooters and big dogs that passed by. Last time she spent a lot of the walk hiding out behind me but this time she walked by my side and only once chose to hide as we made our way across the busy park.

Hanging out with Maddie and Maddie's mom

There wasn't a huge turnout, but it actually was nice since it didn't get too crowded. We saw several former New Rattitude dogs there - my sweet foster boy Tofu aka Tofer, and three of Julee's fosters: Reynvaan aka Rain, Syncline aka Maddie, and K aka June.

Getting to know June

And getting to know June a little better

June and her oh-so-handsome brother, Bogart

Other than getting snappy a couple times when other dogs where crowding her trying to get to my treat bag, she did wonderfully. She followed me around mostly, but after the first 30 minutes explored more on her own, getting some good sniffs in with the other dogs. She seemed to especially like June's Rat Terrier big brother, Bogart, who's a pretty handsome guy.

Salinas hanging out with Bogart

So great work for Salinas! She definitely was a little out of her comfort zone, but she handled it beautifully and enjoyed a nice chewy scapula on the drive home as a reward.

Checking in with Troy to see if he has any more treats when we get back to the car

Ready to head home!