Adopted! Klee is heading home

We had Klee in foster care for quite a while considering she is a puppy. The reason was that initially she had to wait to be spayed since she was recovering from a head injury. Then her new family had a 2 week trip planned so she stayed with us until they were back.

But the time has finally arrived and we will be sending sweet Klee off to her new home over on the Key Peninsula tomorrow evening. She will have a mom and dad who are home most of the time as well as a furry sister who is close to her age. Both girls had a ton of fun with each other during the home visit and I'm pretty sure they will be best of pals in no time. None of the dogs at our house like to roughhouse with Klee other than Chima and Chima's size and intensity were a little too much for her so I'm sure it will be very exciting to finally have a dog who is a closer match to her in size, energy and play style.

So goodbye sweet Klee. Have a long, happy life!

Helping with Yard Work

Salinas checking in the fern for any interesting critters

Typical view of Chima: - burrowing underneath plants to check for anything worth chasing or snacking on

It was a bit drizzly on Sunday but still, the temperate rain made for good weather to weed and cut things back. The dogs found this fascinating since the ten plus large Western Sword Ferns needed to be cut back carefully which made for lots of yard waste for them to dig through. It also opened up a lot of areas around the deck for them to check out but I do think Chima misses the ferns since they made great places to tunnel through. No worries Chima - they'll grow back to normal in no time.

Salinas and Chima check out the fern I'm cutting back. I think all the dogs where a bit horrified that I was ruining their best tunneling areas.

"Why?!"

Frodo didn't like all the dirt and mess so he quickly went back inside to watch the work from the comfort of the back of the couch. The girls enjoyed it though, and since it's that time of year where yard work is a constant chore to keep things under control, they will get many chances to "help".

They also spent a fair amount of time sniffing and climbing on the wood pile. Klee just used it as a puppy jungle gym.

But Salinas was all business, digging around in the wood to check for any intruding rodents

March Barkbox Review

We love our monthly fun surprise when the Barkbox arrives. This month's was especially fun thanks to some great squeaky toys and treats.

March's box had a breakfast theme

I can't ever really review treats from what the dogs thought of them because all of the dogs at my house think that any food is GREAT!

If they reviewed a new treat it would go like this:

Chima: More, more, MORE!
Salinas: Love it! Awesome! HEY - Did Chima get more than me?!
Tilly: NO FAIR!!! (Tilly is on a special diet and mourns the loss of trying out new treats)
Frodo: Most excellent! May I have a fourth helping?
Klee: Treats, treats, treats! I love treats! More treats! Whoops, sorry Sal. (after she jumps on top of Salinas in puppy excitement)

So I can only say that these treats both had wonderful, healthy ingredients and the dogs sucked them down when offered a sample. I've fed the Hare of Dog treats before - they make an all rabbit treat (and when I mean all, I mean ALL of the rabbit and only the rabbit.)  It's a great choice for dogs with allergy issues.

The squeaky toys this month were wonderful. Made of suede and stuffed with coconut fiber, they were tougher than your average plush toy but still, not something that would hold up to a precision power chewer like Salinas or Frodo.

Chima broke in the toy as she always does - full on rolling around attack, complete with growling, groaning, and pouncing. Salinas settled in with the bacon and got right to work on scissor mouthing that thing open. She didn't get to play with it for long since I wanted it to last more than the 2 minutes it would take for her to cut it open.

Chima gettin' her crazy on

Chima - this is when she pauses, daring the toy to move so she can beat it into submission. After the pause to build anticipation, she kicks it, chases it down, and then commences with the toy beating

Salinas, chewing the side of the bacon with dainty, quiet precision. For all Chima's loud and wild show, a toy in Salinas' paws has a much shorter lifespan.

Frodo seemed to really like the fact that they were leather and spent a lot of time sniffing the toy in between chews.

And Klee? Well she was just so excited to get a turn with the bacon that she couldn't stop running around with it in her mouth long enough to squeak it.

Not sure who will score the bull bladder chew but they've had these before and love them. Not quite as durable as a bully stick but apparently equally as tasty.

If you are interested in signing up for a Barkbox you can use this link to sign up and get $5 off your subscription and earn an extra box for Frodo and his pack.

How to Spend a Sunny Day

After a ton of soggy weather we've actually had some beautiful days. This is much appreciated by both me and the dogs since no one likes to stand out in the rain during potty breaks. In fact, Chima downright refuses to stand out in the rain.

So what do they choose to do once we have sunshine? Do they romp and run? Roll in grass? Nope. They chew on things. And then chew on some different things. I'm not sure why they find it so amazing but right now fir and alder cones are the chew of choice along with the occasional stick. Oh well, at least they are having fun.

Salinas, Chima and Klee on the hunt for the perfect cone

Klee loves to chew up the little alder cones

Salinas spends a lot of time looking for the perfect fir cone

Beat The Heat

Klee had to wait 5 weeks after her head injury to have her spay surgery and that put her right at the age where she was about to have her first heat cycle. So we've been biting our nails, hoping that we'll make it to the surgery date.

When she started humping our arms we knew that we were running out of time. Each day was a little celebration that we had made it one day closer to the spay. (Can you tell I really don't like dealing with dogs that are in heat?)

Well, I'm happy to say we made it! On Sunday Klee went into the vet ready to be safely spayed. They changed the anesthesia just a bit but she did great.

Salinas and Chima give Klee a post spay sniffdown

I'm not sure she's in as celebratory a mood as we are, though. She spent some time kicking back and Chima and Salinas had to give her the sniff down now that she was missing her girl parts.

Klee resting up at home after her surgery

But she'll be bouncing back quickly and is now all ready to be adopted!

Rain, rain, go away

There has been so much rain lately that our back yard makes squelching noises when you walk across it. None of the dogs like the rain much and Chima actually full on refuses to go out and has to be re-crated after multiple attempts before she will let me walk her on leash, off the deck to pee. If I don't leash her there's a good chance she'll just pee on the deck under the eaves of the house where it's dry.

So imagine all of our excitement last Friday when the sun broke out for enough time that the yard dried out and the dogs could actually play.

Salinas sniffing the daffodils

Klee had a case of the zoomies and Chima and a running puppy don't go well together so Chima and Tilly ended up having a separate play time after this photo session.

Klee explored one of Chima's favorite hunting spots - the Kerria shrub. Note the tunnel system that Chima has bulldozed through it.

Frodo's response to all this time out in nature was the same as always - dirt avoidance and asking me if he could just go inside and maybe play some nice clean Nose Work games or something. 

Frodo: "Are we done having fun yet?"

Working on Brave

Klee is pretty nervous when it comes to new places but once she settles in she's a typical full tilt puppy - ready for play and tearing around. Since she is now completely comfortable at our house I decided to stretch her horizons a bit.

She needed to visit the vet to have her microchip inserted. I thought that might be all she was up for and I'd give her something yummy to chew on for the ride home but after the vet she seemed in good spirits so we drove to my work, a natural pet store, so she could explore.

The parking lot was pretty worrisome so we took it slow and she set the pace. It took a couple minutes to get inside, but that's okay. Inside she continued to be a bit worried but perked right up when she saw my co-worker who she had never met, Mia, and tore over to her for some attention. After that her tail started to come up a bit and she proceeded to give the store a sniff down.

"Do you think this is a good color on me?"

So many good things to sniff! Duck feet, lamb ears, cow hooves, alligator bones, bully sticks in every shape and size... And then all the bags of food and the best - CAT TOYS! So many feathers waiting to be destroyed.

Feet, and ears and hooves, OH MY!

Klee picked out a 12" braided bully stick

But instead she got a 4" bully spring - better size for a 9 pound puppy

I think what she was most interested in was the store cat, Sorcha. They stood twenty paces apart and proceeded to have a stare down and very little would distract either of them. I could tell that given the chance Klee would definitely chase a kitty and even when she was a bit nervous, she could not let the cat thing go. Sounds like a kitty in her future home may not be a good idea. After about 10 minutes we made our purchases - a lamb ear and a small bully spring for the drive home. Nice work, Klee!

Standing at alert and ready to chase that evil store cat, Sorcha!

The Case of the Crappy Crate: Klee Works on Housetraining

When Klee first was dropped off at the emergency vet she was unable to stand, star-gazing, with a very serious head injury. They didn't think she would make it but she was given pain meds and then it was watch and wait.

She was a little better the next day so she was moved to the shelter hospital where she could continue to be observed. This meant she was in a crate sized area. In fact, in the first photo I saw of Klee, she was in this space and this was where she spent all her time in the shelter since she was just there in the medical annex about 10 days.

Klee in the corner of her hospital enclosure

It's great that she didn't get stuck in a dog run while recovering from a head injury, but this also meant that she was pooping and peeing in a fairly small area. Not good. I mean, it's obvious that it's not good to hang out next to one's toilet, but the other problem is that the dog learns to get over that natural instinct to not live where they poop. It makes house training more difficult. Not impossible but definitely more difficult.

Unfortunately I didn't help things when Klee arrived, because I put her in a crate that was pretty roomy for a 9 pound dog. Add to that rainy weather that is not ideal for house training and you end up with a crate full of poo. And did I learn after the first crate poo? Nope, she went on to poop several times, overnight, during the day while I was at work - basically practicing the behavior before I got off my lazy butt and made some changes to her crate.

Finally, earlier this week I dug out the never used metal crate divider from the nether regions of my garage. This handy square of metal mesh with hooks on two sides can be put into a wire crate to make the depth of the crate smaller. I wanted to give her enough room to turn around and lie down comfortably, but not enough room for her to move to one side of the crate to poop and the other side to sleep. That meant the 24" deep crate was cut in half to make it Klee sized.

"What the heck happened to the rest of my crate?!" 

"Hmm... Not sure I like what you've done with the place."

Getting a feel for her half sized crate. She's not impressed.

And in case you are feeling sorry for poor Klee, squished into 1/2 a crate, Salinas is demonstrating that even she, the size of 2 Klees, can fit inside. She can't lie down but she can squeeze in.

Of course, that was the easy part. The not so fun part is I also needed to more than double the amount of trips that I'm taking outside with her - rain or shine - and then ALWAYS have a handful of high value treats in my pocket for when she actually does go outside. The goal is to not let her have the chance to have any accidents inside. This really sucks for me because it means I get to stand out in the wind and rain along with Klee and watch to make sure she has done her business.

So what are the results of these changes we've made? Her crate has been poop and pee free for the two days/nights since the change was made and she's caught on to the treats after she pees or poos so she is going outside much quicker now.

I think the most important lesson I've learned in dog training is that about 99% of the time if there's a training problem, it's the human who needs to be doing more work - not the dog. This was definitely the case with Klee's house training so I guess I should smack myself with a newspaper for messing up, put on my rain coat and take poor Klee outside for another potty break.

Onward and Upward: Klee Conquers the Stairs

When a pup hasn't experienced something, or hasn't had a positive experience with something, they need their human to slowly teach them that maybe that thing isn't so scary after all - maybe it's actually FUN!

And that is the lesson Klee learned yesterday about stairs. After a little hesitation she had figured out the two steps up each of our 3 levels of decks outside - easy peasy. However the 1/2 flights of stairs to the upper and lower levels of our house were too scary for her to even think about. We would all go downstairs to watch TV and Klee would sit at the top, whimpering. The thing is, she doesn't like to be carried either so she was really stuck.

We started out with treats and a clicker and started out with a combination of shaping and a tiny bit of luring. First I put a treat on the bottom step and when she put her paws up on the bottom step I would click and hand her the treat. When that proved to be super easy for her we upped the difficulty and I put treats on both the first and second step. She stretched her long little body trying to get to that second step and then finally hopped onto the bottom step to get the treats on step two. Click and Jackpot!! She munched her treats and then tore back down to the bottom. We did this one more time and she again got a jackpot on the 2nd stair. After that it was the end of that session. It took about 3 minutes. I wanted to keep it short because all I wanted from this session was for her to get the feel for hopping up a step and then hopping back down. That would build confidence but also start some muscle memory of the action of hopping up a stair. We followed the training session with a play session with me on the ground wrestling with her - something that she absolutely loves and that would burn off any nervous energy.

Standing on step one and front paws up on step two

A couple hours later we had another "stair session". This time she was hopping up and down off the bottom step, excited for the game but a little nervous too. I moved higher up the stairs but still just put treats on the 2nd stair. Well that was super easy. Frodo joined us this session for moral support - well Klee found it comforting to have another dog around but Frodo was just there because I had a treat dish in my lap. Frodo thinks puppies are both horrific and wonderful: horrific because they are unpredictable spazzy messes but wonderful because they get so many treat filled training sessions.

Closer to the top

Well now she had the hang of it. Up and down she went, each couple tries one step higher until before she knew it, she peeked over that top step and realized she had made it to the top floor! This was a reinforcer in itself. She had never been on that level of the house - just the lower 2 levels - and she tore around, investigating the bedrooms and bathrooms. Exciting stuff for a seven month old pup!  And then without even thinking about it, down she ran, to the bottom of the steps - and then up again - and then down.

Just two to go!

What a great thing to witness! A fear that had been keeping her separate from places she wanted to explore and people she wanted to see had been turned into a super fun game! I am SO proud of this little pup. My hope for her is a new home that will ease her into life like this, turning the scary unknown into happy experiences.

This video shows the result of her two training sessions. When I called all the dogs downstairs, down Klee came, just one of the pack. And when Troy got home from work he was treated to the sight of little Klee, right in the middle of a thundering pack of four terriers, tearing up the stairs to greet him.

Patience Pays Off with Fearful Dogs

One thing I can't stress enough when working with fearful dogs is to let them make choices whenever possible.

I've fostered a lot of fearful dogs and the more I've been using force-free methods, the faster the dogs' progress happens. When a dog starts to learn that you are going to let them make some decisions as to where and when they move their trust in you grows quickly and their willingness to try new things, like walking on a surface that is new or exiting a crate, speeds up.

Klee has been a great example of how well this works. When she first arrived Klee was afraid to move through open space and darted from hiding spot to hiding spot. She was terrified to leave her crate or to leave the house.

I noticed that she was much braver around the other dogs so I would open the door to her crate, move to the far side of the room and sit on the floor, pointedly avoiding eye contact. Our first attempt took 5 minutes before she left her crate in the entryway of our house and moved cautiously into the living room. This is tough for us control freaks who want things to happen at the speed we set. It pays off though, I promise. My the second day of doing this after I opened her crate and started to walk away, she was out within 30 seconds and tearing across the room to jump in my lap.

It has been super exciting to watch this little pup blossom. Because her brain is still healing from her head trauma, she needs lots of sleep and it makes sense that she doesn't have the same puppy energy that one is used to seeing in a 7 month old dog. However, in the last couple days I've actually seen some romping and when I got home last night after several hours away she actually went into that full on puppy "OHMYGOD! You were gone forever!!!!" dance when I opened her crate up.

Other break throughs: after initially being too stressed to even look at a treat left next to her in a crate, she now has decided that treats are da BOMB and we have started some training work. She learned her name and now we are working on recall, focus, and sit. Initially I had wondered if she would have some learning deficits from the brain injury. No worries there - this girl can learn and she can learn quickly.

I don't have video or photo of her showing off her brave work on crossing crate and door thresholds so apologies for that. But what I do have is this precious shot of what happens when you take the time to really work your dogs' brains - exhausted dogs who are ready for some snooze time.

Dog Communication: Klee has a big volcabulary

Most dogs have a full library of body gestures that they use to let other dogs and humans know that they are feeling a bit unsure about a situation. Unfortunately most humans don't know much beyond if a tail is up or down.

When a dog is using this type of body language around you they are communicating. Respect that! Listen to what they are telling you and give them some space and time to feel more comfortable. If there is a dog, person, or environment that is stressful to them, give them a break for awhile.

Looking away purposefully, and shifting body weight away from what is making her nervous, in this case, a sniff from Salinas in a rather boxed in location

Lip and nose licking, tail tucked, and hips tucked a bit

Here are some great examples of some of Klee's body language when she first arrived. Everything was new and a little nerve-wracking for her so she got lots of breaks in a crate that the other dogs didn't have access to either physically or visually. As she felt more confident she didn't need as many breaks from regular house life with our motley crew.

Paw raised: an appeasement gesture

Ears flat against head, weight shifted back and tail tightly tucked

Furrowed brow - worry lines

More Introductions: Meeting Buddha

Most new foster dogs are pretty unsure about the Buddha statue that sits on one corner of our lower deck.

Hmm... not too sure about this guy.

While Klee was fine with meeting the other dogs in the house, meeting Buddha threw her a bit. 

Sneaking up from behind to give Buddha a sniff

She's still a bit leery of him but we're sure after a few more days of watching him, she'll see he's not so scary.

Klee Meets the Pack

It can be overwhelming for a new foster dog who lands at our house and needs to get to know all the dogs. It can take awhile to meet everyone when I keep the pace slow so as not to overwhelm the new dog or take chances of a bad introduction happening with another dog from pushing things too fast.

As usual Klee met Tilly first. Tilly is great with other dogs, has very clear body language, and is very clear with other dogs as to what her expectations of their behavior is. At thirteen and just 7.5 pounds, she manages to keep everyone in line without stooping to any tyrannical behavior. Klee really likes Tilly and likes to rest on a cushy pad next to Tilly's favorite dog bed - a cat house. Since Klee is respectful Tilly doesn't mind this in the least. 

Next intro is usually with Frodo. After making sure the new dog doesn't have any ill intentions towards my sweet but awkward Frodo-boy, I usually do outdoor intros with him. He's super fast and if he doesn't want the other dog near him all he has to do is take off. Klee thought he was an okay guy and after the initial sniffs the two of them wandered around the back yard together. 

Intros to Chima and Salinas can be a little more complicated. But Klee is not a pushy dog so there wasn't much for the girls to take offense to and her introduction to them was past and pretty easy. Everyone did their circling and butt sniffing for awhile and then Chima and Salinas were back to looking for fresh fir cones to chew on. 

Getting to know Salinas

Getting to know Chima - tail up and feeling a bit more confident!

So everyone has been happily introduced and they are doing well together. Now I look forward to watching how their interactions develop as Klee builds confidence and the other dogs get used to having her around. 

Just hanging out with the big girls

Introducing Klee!

Typically we have a new naming theme each year. This year I had gotten lazy and hadn't thought up a new theme so Abo ended up having a New Mexico name, even though he was a 2014 dog. Well, now we've figured out our theme and it will be artists!

With that in mind, we are happy to introduce our newest foster, Klee.

Klee is a sweet little Rat Terrier mix puppy who's about 6-7 months old. She has a bit of a sad story though for a dog so young. Someone brought her into a vet's office saying they had found a dog on the side of the road. She wasn't walking and seemed woozy. Upon examination the vet determined there was some cerebral swelling but she didn't seem to have any fractures that you would expect to see if a dog was hit by a car or something.

So she was taken to the shelter and placed in their hospital unit to be watched. Over the course of the next few days she was up and moving around, the swelling was gone, and by a week after being found she was moving around normally with no apparent stiffness in her hips and now limps that might be seen if there was bone or joint damage. Whatever caused the swelling will likely remain a mystery. The vets do think it was the result of some type of head trauma but whether that was from being dropped or from a vehicle impact or something else, we will never know.

New Rattitude has pulled her and she was spayed and vetted last week so she'd be all ready for her trip to Washington at the end of the week.

Klee is named for Paul Klee, who was a German-Swiss artist who painted in the early 20th Century and was an instructor in the famed Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture. His lectures on color theory were incredibly influential on modern art and he was considered a top design theorist in Germany until pushed out by the Nazis in the 1930's. His art was labeled as "degenerate" and 102 of his paintings in public collections were seized.

Ad Parnassum 1932

Senecio, 1922

Klee's art can't be classified as one style and has been associated with Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism, and Futurism. He and his good friend, Russian painter and color theorist Wassily Kandinsky, are two of my favorite painters.

Insula Dulcamara, 1938