New Girls' Arrival

My friend met me at the transport and together we were there to welcome the 3 new foster girls to Washington.  In the past we have always had to reach in and get a poor scared dog out of their crate and the dogs are either terrified by that and growl and snap or else they try to make a run for it.  Recently I was bitten pretty bad and I knew I had to figure out a better way to safely get the dogs into their crates for the ride home.

I really, really despise pulling a scared dog out of a crate and this trip I knew that little Sierra was a pretty scared little gal. Since I wanted to find a way to get her out of the crate without force we used an idea my friend Lynn had and surrounded her transport crate, our crate and me with an ex-pen and opened the doors of both of the crates. This gave us an enclosed albeit cramped 4x4 foot space to work the transfer in.

Since the transporters need us to move through handoffs quickly so that dogs further north can get to their foster homes, at one point I thought I'd have to lasso her with a slip lead to get her out. Luckily, right around when I thought I'd have to do that she decided to come all the way out and instead I was able to just shut the door of the transport crate. When she decided she wanted back in a crate she jumped into our crate to feel safe and we closed the door. Mission accomplished with the least amount of trauma possible. Check out the video my friend shot of the whole transfer.  One thing I realized after watching the video is that it felt a lot longer when I was in that pen trying to orchestrate the transfer than it actually was. I would have guessed it had been about 5 minutes or more but it was less than 2!

Next we transferred Maggie May and she was easy-peasy. After a few seconds she ran out and I was able to pick her up and snuggle a bit before she was recrated. She is a teensy tiny 5 pound little Chihuahua-Terrier mix and super cute. I'm sure she'll get adopted in no time once she's on the Web.

Maggie May meeting me: a little scared but still willing to approach me

 

And then it was our foster girl Kasha's turn. The difference between her and Sierra was night and day. She tore out of the crate and jumped into my arms, covering me with kisses. So we put her in a martingale collar (since she's so chubby she doesn't have a neck) and she got to take a short walk in the rain for potty time and then it was my friend Julee's turn for kisses and loves. She definitely LOVES people and is quite generous with her attention. And she's house-trained! How did I get so lucky?!  Stay tuned for more posts about Kasha as we get to know her better.

Kasha looking for some love

 

While Kasha was still nervous as you can see by the flattened ears and tucked tail nub, she intinctively turned to the humans to manage her stress which is a wonderful thing since it means she can quickly start to feel soothed and settle in.