Adopted! Serra Has A New Home

Little Serra is a sweet, sweet girl and she found a great home that she'll be heading to this weekend.

Serra

She'll live in West Seattle where she'll get plenty of walks and attention. Her new parents know all the dog friendly places in town and plan on taking Serra with them everywhere.

Hanging out with the pack

So have a happy life, sweet Serra! You are a great little girl who brings joy to all who meet you.

The Off Button

A lot of times you'll hear me and other Rat Terrier fans talk about Ratties as a terrier with an "off button". That's because while they can be crazy and full of terrier energy if they are getting the exercise they need, they can also just chill out in the house if nothing interesting is happening.

Serra kicking back on the warm deck

Serra is no exception to this rule. While she loves to chase her tennis ball and romp around the yard, if I'm working on the laptop she is typically snoozing at my feet or on the dog bed next to where I work. Even outside she eventually will slow down and rest in the sun.

Resting on the dog bed next to where I was working on my laptop

Certainly, a few of my foster dogs have been missing this "off button". Most of them where either Rat Terrier/Jack Russell mixes or some of them were full Jack Russells. But for the most part Rat Terriers love a mix of energetic fun followed by lazy snoozing in patches of sun. I'm not dissing Jack Russells but I have lots of friends who rescue Jacks and they will be the first to tell you that Rat Terriers are sweeter, calmer versions of their very smart and often delightfully naughty dogs.

Taking a nap between my feet while I work on the laptop at the table

Chima and Serra: Buddies?

Today after just 5 days Chima and Serra were actually playing together this morning! It was just short little 10-20 second wrestling matches but there were probably 5-6 of these interactions over the course of an hour this morning while I drank my coffee and watched. While it's not big news that two dogs might play together, what I want to highlight is how careful management up front can make or break the relationship of two dogs.

About the 3rd or 4th short play time this morning. Chima was getting a tiny bit overwhelmed so came over to play at my feet.

Chima is very wary of new dogs and up front I always limit her exposure to new fosters so she can slowly take them in and realize they aren't a threat to her before I ever let them spend time together without careful supervision to make sure things are staying positive. There have been times when I haven't been as diligent and an early on fight set the tone of how their relationship would be. Chima has a long memory. These time it meant that the entire time the dog was in foster care I had to keep the dogs separated for the most part meaning extra crate time for everyone and a lot of stress overall.

As I watch their interactions, I can see things start to relax between the two dogs and slowly let them have more time together. I won't kid you - up front it's a lot of work and kind of a pain in the butt to have to be so "on" all the time and constantly alert to how the dogs are in that moment. But it will save a ton of heartbreak and work in the long run because first impressions last with dogs. If things go badly in the beginning and interventions don't take place it will set the stage for the way those two dogs' relationship will play out.

I know I'm like a broken record on this topic but over and over we hear from people who have dropped two dogs together without any careful introductions and then are upset - usually with the new dog who is also getting used to new people, new home, new schedule. The dog gets labeled as aggressive, alpha, mean, bad, etc., none of which are true. We need to be diligent to set our dogs up in a way that they will be successful.

Are Chima and Serra best buddies now? Nope. More like tolerant siblings who sometimes play and sometimes argue about things. It's still going to be my job to manage their time together (although not as intensely as I did initially) to make sure things continue along a positive path.

Chima uses her sly, space invader move to get Serra to give up her nylabone chew.

Chima even was able to do her sly move to get Serra's toy this morning. She slowly gets closer to the chewing dog. Sniffs their face, etc., and keeps slowly invading their space until they either tell her off (which Sal will do) or get tired of her and drop the toy to go do something else. This video shows how she succeeded with Serra.  She later tried this with Salinas, to the point of laying her head down on top of Sal's head, and Sal completely ignored her and continued to chew on the toy.

Chima attempts to talk Sal out of a toy. Denied.

Serra the Teenager

Because Serra had a microchip the shelter was able to track down her former owners and learn a little bit about her, including her birthday. Serra was born April 14, 2013 so she is just a year old! And her personality shows it. A one year old dog is basically a teenager and Serra still plays like a puppy but she likes to challenge the adult dogs and often will push Tilly, Chima and Salinas to see how far she can get. The answer is farther than you would think.

Salinas likes to avoid confrontation so will attempt to steer clear of Serra and that give me time to intervene and distract Serra so she will give Sal a break. Because Tilly is just a little under 8 pounds and is 13 years old and a bit frail I am careful not to let Serra bug her at all.

However, I do let her learn a few lessons with Chima. Don't get me wrong - she's not horribly annoying to the other dogs but she will occasionally attempt to resource guard me or she will get in Chima's face wanting to play and adult dogs are great at teaching a young whippersnapper like Serra what is appropriate.

Attempting to get Salinas to play with her

If she is getting in Chima's face and wanting to play, Chima usually gives her one chance. Serra will jump at Chima and give a little snap near her face and Chima will pointedly look away and shift her body away from Serra and if it was somewhat rude she might curl her lip a bit. If Serra doesn't listen to that and tries again then Chima will let out a roar, charge forward and basically scare the crap out of Serra. If Chima could talk I imagine her saying "I said NOOOOO, GOD DAMN IT!"

Serra doesn't miss that reminder, for sure. And it's working. She has learned that the big kids don't really want to wrestle or play chase with her so she needs to entertain herself and she does just that. Serra is a ball junkie. Any old ball will do. And she has found just about every ball that ever was in our house and back yard with amazing proficiency. She's cleaned out under the deck, down in the shed area, underneath shrubs, etc., and they now litter the yard so she never has to be without.

Serra loves to play with her tennis balls

Being a guardian to multiple dogs is a fine dance of keeping the peace and making sure dogs aren't being bullied or harmed, but also stepping back sometimes (when you know the personalities of the dogs well) and letting them learn from each other. Serra's a smart girl though and she is fast learner.

Serra: Introductions

I know I've posted about this before, but MAN is it amazing what a difference introducing dogs on a walk makes. I've seen dogs go from stressed out barking messes to just strolling along next to each other in 10 minutes. And that 10 minutes can save a person weeks or more of trying to remedy a botched introduction.

Because we have a fenced back yard with plenty of space for the dogs to roam, and because it takes 2 people to properly introduce new dogs on a walk, I often will just have two dogs meet in the back yard where they can move away from each other if they feel they need distance and the dogs can set the speed of the introduction. While this works somewhat, with Chima it often can take two to three days before she relaxes enough where I don't have to be so hyper-vigilant and careful about managing things.

Because Serra seems to have a bit of Jack Russell in her and occasionally charges at dogs to get them to play with her, I knew that Chima would not react well to her so I enlisted my husband and off we went on a walk.

We started off with the dogs on the outsides of each of us. Sometimes we have to start across the street from each other but this time we could start walking together. The key to success is watching the dogs body language so you know when they have gotten relaxed. Then you bring them a little closer together. I also like to have them do what I call stealth butt sniffs. The person walking the dog in front walks at a normal, leisurely pace with the dog leashed next to them. The other person lets their dog get up close enough to get a little bit of a sniff in and then they immediately slow down and create some distance before the front dog has time to get nervous about the sniffing. This gets repeated several times until the dog isn't really interested in more sniffing. Then we switch places so the other dog gets their turn sniffing.

Typically at this point following the sniffs the dogs noticeably relax and are fine being walked side to side. We walk back to our house and instead of going inside we end the walk with off leash time in the back yard - just the two dogs and us. At that point the dogs are old news to each other and other than doing a bit of sniffing they do great.

Serra and Chima, sniffing and keeping calm

This walk I decided to let Salinas out to join Chima and Serra and the difference between her reaction to Serra and Chima's in the back yard was amazing. Chima was relaxed enough that she just lay down after a bit in the grass while Serra was playing and bouncing around. Salinas on the other hand stayed on her feet and did a lot of avoidance of Serra and obviously wasn't that comfortable.

Chima, all chill after her walk and Sal, still working on getting relaxed

Hanging out after introductions to Serra

Are they all best buddies now? Not at all. Serra is a 1 year old dog who is very puppy-like in her play and she tends to get in Chima and Sal's face. Chima is doing her best to ignore this and keep her distance which makes me very proud. When I can tell she's had enough I try to step in and distract Serra but Serra has gotten a few reprimands from Chima to mind her manners. What people need to remember is not all dogs are going to be best friends. Just like the temperament of some people is really annoying to a person, the same holds true for dogs. But they can live together in relative harmony and that is what we are going for here.

The pictures in this post were taken immediately after Chima and Serra's introduction walk. If you want to learn more about how to do an intro walk and see pictures of it, check out this post over on A Day in the Life of a New Rattitude Foster Dog.

Cranky Puppy? There's more to it

Plum is a bit grouchy when it comes to other dogs. And honestly, I can't really blame her. Her story is pretty familiar - a recipe including  a few dogs, a clueless human, and likely a dash of laziness thrown in.

Plum is pretty young. I'd say 8 or 9 weeks old. She's also very tiny. So when she snarled and lunged at a hyper dog as we were getting her walked after the transport, it was a big red flag to me. This was not typical behavior for a dog her age. I learned more of her story and now her behavior totally makes sense.

She was surrendered to the shelter by a person who had brought a very young puppy home to a house with 2 very active 1 1/2 year old male Rat Terriers. She then put this tiny, 3 pound pup down with the other dogs and Plum was left to fend for herself. Talk about overwhelming and frightening!

She quickly learned that growling worked to get them to back off a bit and before long she was growling and lunging when they got in her space.

What did her person do about this? She took Plum to the shelter because she was supposedly not a nice puppy.

Before we judge her though, think about a recent trip to an off leash park with your dog, or a BBQ where dogs and people were invited. If a dog started growling, who got blamed for being the "bad dog" or the "aggressive dog" or the "alpha dog". The reality is that people really aren't careful when introducing dogs or letting them interact. THey just assume that the dogs will all be fine together and do their own thing. And even if the people are watching, very few humans really understand a dog's body language and what it is trying to tell you. What are their ears doing? Are they spending a lot of time hiding under low benches? Is there a long string of dogs playing "chase"? (psst: chase ceases to be a game when more than 2 dogs are involved - at least for the dog at the front of the line) Is anyone getting rolled? Are any single dogs getting "mobbed" by several other dogs in their space? If no one is paying attention or intervening, then growling and snarling or worse are the only options left to a frightened dog.

If the same situation was with a group of young children, no one is going to lie a 3 month old infant on the floor with some 4 year olds and say "you guys play nice!" and leave the room. That's what happened to Plum. Likewise, at the family BBQ if one kid is repeatedly getting shoved by a circle of kids, someone is going to step in and break things up. Well, just like kids don't always "just work things out" dogs don't always "just work things out" and it's our job as their guardians - of dogs or kids - to make sure no one is being bullied.

So I'll step down off my soapbox a bit and talk about how things can be turned around with Plum. There's really good news to this story! Plum is very young and because of that we have time to form some positive associations with other dogs so she can grow up thinking that other dogs aren't so bad. I don't think she'll ever be a dog who loves rolling around a playing with other dogs but she doesn't have to be afraid when they are around.

Yesterday and today I've been bringing a treat bag loaded with fish/venison jerky cut into tiny pieces. Plum LOVES this stuff, as do the other dogs. Then I put Chima and Sal in a "down" and set Plum down with them (remember, she is 3 pounds and they are 24 and 16 pounds). Then I start doling out the jerky. Plum skitters around the dogs, completely focused on the awesomeness that is jerky. Chima and Sal get little pieces too since hanging out with a puppy isn't their idea of a great time and I make sure that Plum isn't walking over the girls or climbing on them so they feel comfortable too. Then we're done and puppy gets separated and hangs out in the kitchen with Tilly who is fine with keeping her distance and at 13 years old, the last thing on her mind is wrestling.

There are just two simple parts to fixing Plum's problem - 1) manage her environment so that there's no chance she's going to have unpleasant experiences with the larger dogs and 2) when she is with the larger dogs, use high value treats to start building a positive association with time spent around dogs.  It is a simple, elegant solution that is not an easy solution. Because it requires lots of repetition and careful management.

Any training takes work but I can guarantee that a little extra work put in now with this 8 week old puppy is going to reap huge amounts of benefit for her future. Think of all the times in her life she will be around other dogs! With up front work she can have things turned around so almost  all those times will be positive experiences.

Stinky Dogs

After someone pooped in a crate on the drive back to our house after meeting the transport and then proceeded to dance in it, it was time for a deep cleaning.

Happily two of the girls were sent on their merry way this morning and had their baths elsewhere but Serra is ours and little baby Plum is with us until Sunday afternoon.

Plum is looking pretty bedraggled after her bath.

Neither girl was very impressed with the double shampooing plus a round of conditioner that they received but in the end we had two very clean girls and had managed to dislodge and wash away any leftover poop chunks from the night before.

"You're going to do conditioner now?! You've got to be kidding me!!" 

Plum went first and was quite stoic about the whole thing, probably because at 3 pounds she's too little to jump out of my doggy bath tub. She has this super soft, longish fur and looked pretty cute all sudsed up.

Serra shaking off

Serra has really thick, course, and kind of curly fur and when she was wet down it got even curlier. Very cute but boy did her fur hold onto the dirt and soap. It took a lot of rinsing and we were both relieved when the ordeal was complete.

"Point me towards some dirt please."

Of course since her bath Serra has done a lot of rolling around in the yard so she doesn't smell as pretty as she did this morning but she still is fresh and relatively clean.

Plum, getting some lap time now that she's all clean and fluffy.

Serra, enjoying scooting around to get some of the "stink" of clean off of her.