Friday, January 09, 2009

See What's New

Posted by Mandy at 8:51 AM
I made a trip to the pound last week to do a rescue mission on a Doberman. He had been there for around 4 months and no one would adopt him. I got in touch with a great rescue group in Oklahoma that has agreed to take him! I went to pick him up to do a behavioral assessment and decided to just bring him home with me.


At the pound he was a bit nervous, but showed no signs of aggression. He loaded up into the back of my van with ease and rode quietly the entire way home. Once getting here he let me get him out and lead him around the yard. I put him on a run leash (not being sure how he'd act with our other dogs.) and he found the dog house, hulled himself inside of it (it was raining) and immediately started snarling, growling, and barking aggressively at Clayton and me. YIKES! He had a quick change of personality! I had to come inside and think of how to handle this dog. I had to figure out what the problem was.


I went back out with him the next day and made a slight bit of progress when I discovered that he would not growl at me if I had food. The next day it was nice and sunny outside, so I spent the day with him. I figured out that his problem was not aggression, but fear. I avoided eye contact with him, and walked almost backwards towards him (giving the minimum amount of energy to him) and I kept a large walking stick with me to help me appear more powerful. IT WORKED! He came right out of the doghouse, sat beside me, and has been a completely different dog since. He loves us now! He loves to be walked, he loves to have a good scratch behind the ears, and he even likes the other dogs! (he hated the other dogs at first.. again.. just afraid of EVERYTHING.) How funny to see a dog that most people would be completely afraid of, be completely afraid of everyone and everything around him. Poor guy.. he has so little life experience. He's made awesome improvements already, and I know that this rescue group is going to get him an amazing home! The guy that's going to foster him and I have been in touch and I'm so happy to see that he uses the exact same training methods as me. I'm so happy for Foster! (that's the Dobe's name now.)




While I was there to get Foster, I had to snatch up a puppy that looked a bit sickly, too. Madison has named her Casey and she's just a floppy, silly, bouncy kind of girl! I'm not sure what breed to list her as... obviously a mixed breed, possibly a hound of some sort? Anyone got an idea of what this big pawed, floppy eared, long legged girl may be?



Her belly was VERY bloated when I got her and I noticed you could see her spine and hip bones - she's very underweight, despite regular feedings at the pound. WORMS. I wormed her and by the next day she looked much better. Her stomach size decreased by at least half, and today, she looks normal. She's eating like a crazy dog so I'm sure her face and body will fill out soon. I hate how their faces have such a alien like, deformed look when they go without food or are sick like that. We'll have her all beautiful in no time!


These are the new additions at the Moss house! Spread the word about Casey to anyone that you think might like to have a fun-loving pup!

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