Pearly's on the website!

Pearly's bio up on website

Pearly is shopping for her forever home. You can see her bio here.We've talked to a few possible adopters, but the more I talk to people the more I'm defining what would be a good match for her. Even though she's a puppy, still, she's bossy. So many dynamics to consider. I don't have a lot of experience with female dogs, even though my first collie was a female and she got along with other dogs, I don't remember her being much of a diva, although we were pretty much attached at the hip. We lived in the country where she was able to run loose, so she probably drained a lot of her energy.

Pretty much on a daily basis, Pearly and Brett get into a squabble. It's not serious, but one of them starts it and the other fights back, which is easily stopped by me, but it's still happening. They even do this sometimes at the dog park. It's just the two of them, no other dogs. Pearly gets along great with the other dogs. She loves to run and is absolutely joyous when another dog takes off running. She will come from the other side of the park to chase that dog if she sees a runner. Brett will then plow into her and she will lay into him. I don't blame her.

Thus, I have decided Pearly probably needs to be an only dog, unless the adopter is willing to work with this possibility. Having more than one dog is like having multiple children. They get into fights. My own to get into it once in a while, but not often. I have two males. I think two females in one house is more volatile.

Pearly is still a very sweet dog. She loves to half climb in my lap and will stay there until I make her get down. Snapped this picture last night of her and Brett, proving they do get along most of the time. She actually plays with Brett more than Woodson.

Dog Park test

Pearly's Big Day

Pearly is a lot like a human toddler. She gets into everything and wants something to be happening all the time, even if she has to make that happen. She pushes up against Woodson initiating play constantly. All three dogs will play, and when mine stop, that's when Pearly gets into other stuff. Yesterday she dragged the bathroom rug into the hall. She chewed up a bandana that said "Rescued by Love".

I needed to drain this restlessness out of her, but wasn't sure if she could go to the dog park, yet, with her spay being only a week ago. Her stitches are fine, she's licking, but no redness and she hasn't pulled any out. I was watching the Packers' game, getting up to check on her every so often, or when they were in the same room with me, I'm constantly saying, "stop it', 'enough', etc. Finally, it's almost halftime and the Packers have lost their back-up QB, and the back-up to the back-up just threw an interception in the end-zone. A college friend posted on his facebook page: Imagine coming to a Packers' game and being asked to play quarterback! I literally laughed out loud, jumped up and shouted "let's go!"

The dog park is probably less than a mile from my house. I layered up, t-shirt, Pullover and jacket, grabbed a hat and gloves, loaded the dogs, Pearly is almost jumping into the Jeep on her own, and actually did jump in for the trip home. I love that my dogs teach the fosters how to do everyday stuff. 

As I usually do with a new foster, I kept Pearly on the leash while Brett and Woodson took off into the park. Our dog park is wide open, completely fenced and I can see the entire area if I stand in the right place. I let Pearly off her leash after giving her a minute to access the area and she took off running. She was polite to the other dogs there and, of course, wanted to play. She dealt with Brett's obnoxious bossy roughness that I find annoying. Brett is an Aussie/Catahoula mix and he grabs while herding, and has no problem just plowing into another dog. Some dogs will turn around and start fighting with him, which, then, Brett fights back. He does better if I stand away from any groups of people. 

I've maybe said it before, several times, but I love watching the dogs at the dog park. Pearly was no exception. She clearly enjoyed herself. Woodson is always the first one to let me know he's done and ready to go home. After about a half hour of chasing and playing and once he does his perimeter check, he comes up to me and wants to jump up on me, then just kind of hangs around me, wandering off but coming back. Brett always goes off and comes back constantly. He'll go with Woodson on his perimeter check but always comes back before Woodson does. On Sunday, both Woodson and Brett were ready to go, but Pearly was still off doing her own thing, with no sign of slowing down. I was able to brush her out earlier as she's still shedding her undercoat. She finally came up to me and I said, okay, time to go. I was pretty cold after 1.5 hours. 

We got home and I thoroughly enjoyed the next seven hours of passed out dogs!

Pearly Update

Pearly Update

Pearly's spay surgery slowed her down big time. I took her in Monday morning and picked her up Tuesday afternoon. She was so happy to see me, and was so annoyed by her stitches. Got her settled in at home, with instructions for KJ to keep an eye on her and headed for the pool. She acts like she's trying to run away from herself. She keeps darting to the other end of the house, then sits down and starts to lick her incision. Which we have to stop her from doing. I have a cone I can put on her, but she's fine so far. 

As we were leaving the vet on her exam day, we were in the lobby setting up her spay appointment and a man came in with his mom and her cat. He was probably in his 20's. Pearly about ate him up, acting like he was her long lost friend. His mom asked me if her previous owner was a man, and I said, yes, actually, which then made perfect sense why she was so excited. I've never had this happen before.

I took this picture of her last night about 15 minutes after giving her a pain pill. I noticed her trying to stay awake, tongue hanging out a bit. She plopped over right after taking this.

I will be getting information to the bio person and taking more pictures. 

Notes: 

• Pearly is a very sweet dog, but definitely still a puppy at a year old. She's housebroken, but has had a couple accidents, which is more my fault than hers. I have to be very patient with her when we're outside. She can take a long time to do her business at times. There are times when I can't wait, thus the accident. That said, she is getting quicker as we settle into our routine. Being young, there is just so much to investigate when we're outside and she is more interested in what's going on, than she is in going potty.
• Very tender and loving when receiving attention.
• She definitely needs to be crated, at least for now. I've been feeding her in the garage, away from my dogs. She shows no aggression when I set her bowl down. I will put my hand in her food and mix it up in my fingers just to show her I can do this and it's nothing to worry about. When she's done eating and I haven't let her back into the house, she gets into stuff. Little stuff, like pulling a plastic bag off the grooming table, or digging in an open box. I crate her when we're gone and won't even test her on being loose at this point. She'll dip into a wastebasket right in front of me.
• She would probably chase motorcycles or buses, if she was off-leash.
• She needs leash training. Can pull pretty hard and very determined to get her way about getting to where she wants to go, not where I want to go.
• Loves to play with my dogs!
• Possessive of the bone she came with. I put it in her kennel, so she has it and my dogs can't steal it from her. 
• Extremely interested in the cats. She will try to corner them and chases them if they run, but hasn't been aggressive toward them. There are times when they allow her to be nose-to-nose with them.
• Friendly with strangers and thinks everybody wants to be involved in her fabulousness.
• Tolerated brushing.

Hannah Update

Hannah update

Hannah has been in her new home for a week now and they sent this update. The first sentence is exactly how she was when she first arrived at my house.

Hannah pretty much acts like she's lived here all along!  We have one sofa that she naps on, and have purchased a large crate for the bedroom.  We have allowed her to lie on the bed if one of us is there sleeping in.  She loves that.  Like most dogs I've had, she likes to have her belly scratched, and will roll over and wait for that.  We've taken her for several walks around the couple of cul-de-sacs here.  She is very interested in all the new sights, smells, and sounds.  Especially other dogs.  She does like to communicate loudly when she hears or sees another dog.  She certainly has a deep bark.

She likes our yard.  We've taken her out every day and get her excited and running in circles.  She is a speedy girl and loves to play!

We've also introduced her to several of our neighbors.  She greets all with a tail wag, and a happy smile.  She really does love seeing people.  We had her on her leash on Saturday during Trick-or-Treat in our neighborhood.  She thought all of the kids and adults coming and going was pretty nice as she was fascinated by the different costumes.  Our Vet stopped in with her two boys, and they and Hannah did play.  She was very calm with them (ages 7 & 5), and showed no signs of agression of any kind.  She also seems very interested in TV if there is any kind of action on, especially if it involves animals or dogs.  We had the Animal Planet on the Sunday after we met you, and she saw some puppies.  She cocked her head from side to side, and then began to bark at them.  Very funny!

We did take her to our vet last week just to have bloodwork done to establish a baseline, and to check on a possible urinary tract infection.  We thought she may have a UTI because she was frequently licking herself.  But the test showed no UTI, so her licking must just be a habit.  She does have elevated liver numbers about 3X normal, so we've started giving her a milk thistle tablet, which the vets all say can stabilize the numbers.  Hopefully it will help lower it.

She has settled in pretty well, and is getting used to our habits and our house.  I think she'll enjoy being here.  I know we are certainly elated to have her.  The year without our dogs was a pretty lonely one, so her presence has really filled that space.

Pearly's First Day

Pearly's First Day

Her full name is Pearlyhawk. Does anybody know where that comes from? If it's a character from something I'm not aware. Her coloring is so close to Woodson, I'm going to have trouble telling them apart when looking from behind. She's very sweet, gentle and friendly. Already discovered a few things.

• She gets carsick
• She's bone aggressive
• She will most definitely chase bikes

She started her life in Minnesota a full year ago, moved to Iowa, and then moved back to Minnesota last spring, to a horse ranch. The ranch already had two dogs, and Pearly, of course, figured it was her job to herd the horses, since the Golden Retrievers were not.

Terry drove to Mankato, picked her up and then drove her to my house. We were concerned about Terry wanting to keep her, as she has been a transport failure before, but Terry's house is full, and she drove straight to my house, not stopping at home. Terry discovered Pearly had returned her breakfast in several places in the back of Terry's car.

I walked her around the park a bit, then brought her in to meet the boys. Brett and Woodson are so welcoming to these fosters. I haven't had one yet, that wasn't welcomed with a 'who are you? C'mon in!" I kept her on the leash for the first few hours. She is housebroken, but there are so many smells and places to explore in a new house. And she hadn't taken care of any business outside. She did do that on the next walk, so I then let her off the leash and so far, so good.

I have a chew bone that the boys share. Pearly is NOT interested in sharing. So that has been put up for the foreseeable future.

During halftime of the Packer/Viking game, I took her out again, and was walking her down the sidewalk when the local Morman boys came down the sidewalk on their bikes. Pearly let loose barking furiously. They apologized. I apologized. She settled back down. I told KJ later to make sure you have a good grip on the leash when you walk her. She's better on the leash than some new fosters are, but she pulls, and is really used to being loose, I'm sure.

She's going to be crated while we're gone, for now. We'll see how things go. She hasn't had any vetting, ever, so will be starting from scratch on that. They sent a huge bag of the dog food she's been eating, so that's really nice. I'm hoping she can make it into someone's family by Christmas!

Hannah Adopted and Foster #21

Hannah adopted and #21 coming in this weekend

I'd been talking and emailing potential adopters for Hannah the past several weeks. They'd been out of town, and then driving back from the east, so we planned an Oct. 19 meeting in Eau Claire. Through our conversations we had concluded it would be a good fit. They previously owned a sheltie, and while Hannah is a collie, she has some personality traits found in shelties, such as circling and being a bit on the hyper side. While talking to an MWCR volunteer at a coffee meeting earlier in the month, she felt that was also common in female collies. My first collie was female, which was a really long time ago, and all my dogs since have been males, so I'm really not very familiar with female traits anymore.

Back to Hannah. I don't like to pressure any adopter into feeling they have to adopt my foster dog. Because of the traveling, I told them they had a choice, after meeting Hannah. I'd be prepared to let them leave with Hannah, or give them the usual 24-hours thinking time. Or I was perfectly fine if they decided, after meeting her, it wasn't a good fit. We want the adoption to be a successful one. 

Hannah gets out of the car and does her usual scoping the area to see if she needs to regulate anything. J. calls her name and she leans up against him for pets, then before I even noticed, she was begging S. for the treat she was getting out of her baggie. S. makes doggie biscotti. She gave me some to take home that I had to label dog treats in the fridge, because they smelled so good. I'm pretty sure they came to the meeting planning on adopting Hannah and she definitely solidified that with her begging! When it was time to leave, Hannah jumped right into their truck, sat down and was ready to go! Heartwarming.

Over the weekend, we were working on bringing in an 11-month old from Mankato, and it looks like she will be coming into the rescue. I have a very small picture. Her name is Pearly. She's on a farm and herding the horses. Belongs to the son, who has moved back home. That farm already has two goldens  that don't herd. She will need to be spayed and have some updating for shots. Will probably get her Saturday or Sunday.

Hannah update

Hannah Update

Just a quick update on how Hannah is doing. I'm trying to connect with a possible adopter, but schedules have not lined up, but they will.

Hannah continues to do well. I'm leaving her loose in the house when we're gone and so far so good. We keep the garbage locked, and as I type this, I'm realizing I forgot to lock the pantry cabinet, so hopefully nobody gets in there, as I also left Woodson loose today. He chews shoes, so we made sure no shoes were left out. They can't grow if we don't give them chances, eh? My old collie, Thor, was so good in the house. I'd like to get Woodson to that point. I think it was Jazz who would nose open the pantry door, as there is no actual latch. We put a child lock on it and that keeps it closed, but I didn't lock it this morning!

Hannah also continues to do well at the dog park.  Still haven't met a dog she doesn't get along with. My other dog, Brett, can play really rough, and they had a bit of a squabble, when Brett got too rough and Hannah let him have it.

I've been brushing her when I can and her coat is getting really soft. She doesn't like the backend brushed, so I try to swipe it a few times when I can.