Photoshoot - First Attempt

One of the things that a new foster parent needs to do with their foster dog after they arrive is get some good pictures of them to post on the New Rattitude Website, Petfinder, etc. It's good to get a variety of shots - dog standing, close up of head, lying down, outside, inside... You get the idea.

It's very tough with puppies though because they never stop moving unless they are sleeping or pooping - neither of which make the best poses.

The majority of Magill shots look like this

So in an effort to wear Magill out I went "fishing for puppies" with our Tail Teaser toy. This is a great way to keep a puppy moving and they love to practice their stalking, chasing and pouncing on the furry, squeakie tail that hangs from what looks like a horse whip or something.

As expected Magill loved the toy and ran full speed for about 15 minutes chasing, jumping and catching the fluffy toy. As a result he did slow down enough when he wanted to lie down and chew on the tail that I was able to get some cute photos of him. Of course they are all outside shots and he pretty much is chewing on the nasty, slobber soaked toy in all of them but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

Finally slowing down a little

"Wait. What's that?!"

And he's gone

The best I could do for a body shot. If he's standing he's usually running and my camera just isn't fast enough (nor is the photographer)

Silly boy

And my favorite serious photo. 

Magill's First Day

Magill spent most of Sunday in the car for the 2nd day of his transport so by the time he got to us he was ready to go, go, go!

Most of my Magill photos look like this. Little dude is NEVER still so getting photos is a challenge unless he stops to pee or sleep.

He explored every corner of the yard at puppy pace (i.e. full speed) and sometimes his body is moving so fast his legs can't keep up so he somersaults and then is up and off again. The other dogs, ages ranging from 6 to 13 years, are less than impressed by him. Frodo and Sal did their best to just avoid him. Chima immediately yelled at him to chill out when he ran into her and Magill decided to avoid her when possible. Rigby seems to be having the roughest time though. He bounced around a lot before coming into foster care and gets really clingy with his humans. We had a bit of him trying to resource guard me - nothing major but he clearly is struggling with having to share me.

The tan boys: Frodo, Magill and Rigby - Magill did great meeting the boys and took a liking to Rigby initially, although Rigby is not especially fond of him

Trying to hang out with Rigby

Introductory sniffs

First impressions: Magill is a high energy, busy puppy who is going to need an active home willing to walk him, play with him and take him to puppy kindergarten. He is crazy smart and very much loves to please people so training will be a joy and will be a wonderful way to keep this intelligent little guy's brain busy. He is really confident, not shy at all with new people and pretty good with other dogs. We did have some resource guarding of his crate area (he wasn't in it but Rigby was sniffing at it) and he and Rigby have both been resource guarding me from each other so we'll be working on that. He will need a home without shared walls because he can be vocal when he feels he isn't getting his way.

Meeting the girls

Poor guy - this inspection was overwhelming so I made them give him a break

Magill sneaking in for a stealth sniff - he found both Chima and Sal a bit intimidating 

Bottom line is he is a great dog but one that really needs humans who will put the time into keeping him active, engaged, and learning new things.

Introducing Magill

We learned about this little guy who was in a crowded shelter and well past his "safe hold" date. The shelter employees and volunteers did a great job actively getting the word out about him and I decided that since he was young and would likely be adopted quickly we'd take him on as a foster.

Following our Beatles theme we've named him Magill - from the Rocky Racoon lyrics "her name was Magill and she called herself Lil but everyone knew her as Nancy." Troy has already decided that the poor boy's nickname is Nancy.

Like all terrier puppies, Magill is fully loaded with energy and attitude and loves to play. However, he hasn't gotten much socialization so we will be working on that with some fun, treat filled adventures.

The best guess for his age (based on his teeth) is about 14-16 weeks old and he currently weighs 9 pounds. My guess is he will be around 12 pounds as an adult.

The little guy arrives Sunday evening so stay tuned for future posts as we get to know him better.

More Food For Rigby

We now know that Rigby is fine eating beef and turkey so we are adding some more veggies to get some lower carb options to mix in with his meals. We added steamed green beans a few days ago and then starting in the next couple days will add zucchini.

It's great that he can have beef because now I plan on giving him bully sticks to chew on while I make the dogs' dinner which will help clean up his teeth.

Our dog Frodo got to share the green beans with Rigby since he was needing some fiber this last week thanks to eating part of the squeakie toy from last month's Barkbox.

Beef: It's what's for dinner

Rigby did great on his trial of turkey and yellow potatoes. He finished up his antibiotics 4 days ago and we aren't seeing any resurgence of inflammation so this morning I started his next protein trial: beef.

He still gets his turkey and potato mix for meals but now I am starting adding beef grind - a mix of muscle meat, organs, and bone - to the combo. Just a little at first while his body adjusts and if all goes well we will increase the beef and decrease the turkey.

Rigby now with clear skin and missing most of the weird brown staining on his front legs. All that is left seems to be his toe area. 

While his skin isn't 100% better, it is so much better than when we first started on this journey. His belly skin used to be crusty and thick with the look of elephant skin or something. It was wrinkly, hot, damp, and an angry pink colored rash around his groin area. He had hyperpigmentation in his belly spots too - a side effect of long term inflammation. At first I even thought it might be skin cancer because of how the spots were raised and not an even color - very weird, and not something that I had seen before.

It was tough to capture the coloring and texture of his skin with a camera but this was a photo from late February and the brownish red color of his skin went past his ankles, partly up his leg. 

Now his belly and groin are a normal healthy pink. The dampness and hyperpigmentation is gone, as are the crusty spots. There are still a few areas of thickened skin around his ankles  but for the most part people wouldn't know that he had skin issues. His coat is soft and shiny and he sheds less than my personal dogs do! I'm super happy that we've made so much progress.

He'll go back to the vet in a couple weeks to test his skin to make sure the bacterial infection is gone. Otherwise our plan will be to keep testing different foods so we can slowly grow the list of foods that we know he can safely eat as well as continuing his three times weekly baths.

Happy Birthday, Rigby!

Mr. Rigs turned 10 today! He celebrated with plenty of fun time in the back yard and a nice delicious fresh turkey meatball.

It's bittersweet because so few people will consider a 10 year old dog. Everyone wants a puppy but this guy has so much to offer and is such an amazingly sweet guy. And look how young he looks!

While we don't mind fostering him because he's so easy, I sure would like for him to find him his very own home. He deserves to be someone's top dog. So don't move on because he's 10 - take another look at a pretty amazing dog. I promise you he is worth it.

Salty Dog

Rigby and I are determined to win the battle with his skin infection and as I said in my last post, he's been eating just turkey and potato to see if he has any food intolerance to those. We are just a few days into the trial but I can say that he has no inflammation at this point and his skin around his groin and armpits finally has a normal, soft texture and doesn't have the warm, moist, clammy feel it used to have. Yay turkey! His doctor says she likes to see at least 2-3 weeks on the food just in case the intolerance has a slow build, but we are thinking positive as we continue his turkey/potato food trial. He thinks it tastes amazing and loves getting little turkey meatballs for his treats.

I've upped his baths to three times a week. I know that daily baths would probably be best but I know myself well enough to realize that I would last less than a week if I tried to do a daily bath. Better to try 3 baths a week, knowing I can stick with it.

On Tuesday I had a great conversation with his vet and one thing she thought would be a good idea to try was to do a nightly foot soak in warm epsom salt water. His feet are definitely the most affected part and have a brownish pink color to them with scrunge between the toes. Epsom salt is great for decreasing swelling, but it also helps fight bacteria.

I call this the "how could you?!" look

While he doesn't think the foot bath is wonderful, I think he's just relieved it's not a bath and so he stands there in the tub with a long suffering look on his face and we listen to 99 Percent Invisible or Radiolab podcasts to pass the time.

After the paw soak I dry his paws and then immediately soak them again - this time with a colloidal silver solution. Then he gets his freedom and I just watch to make sure he doesn't lick his paws for awhile until everything dries.

Sometimes I put a blanket over his feet to help him stop licking them. He finds this ridiculous and a bit rude but humors me. 

I'm not going to lie. It's a major pain in the butt - both for Rigby and I - but the good news is that this is not something he'll need all his life. We just have to do it until we get rid of the infection and after that I would guess a weekly bath would be fine. The food control will have to be all his life, however, as time passes and we try different foods slowly but surely the variety of foods he can eat will grow.

Our next step in this process will be for Rigby to stop in at the vet's on Monday to have his blood drawn for a full blood panel. Often skin problems can be related to thyroid imbalances which would be an easy fix. Adrenal problems can also be a cause. Whatever the case, it will be good information and will give his future adopters a good baseline blood work up to have to compare against future panels as he ages.