It Takes 8 Months OR The Frozen Dogs!

We have only had rescue dogs.  They have all been wonderful dogs.  The first 2 dogs were puppies when they came to our house.  The last two were 3 year olds--they are "The Frozen Dogs"!

When you adopt an adult dogs, you're getting a dog with a history...one that you may not get any information on.  When I say that, I'm not saying that they are "bad dogs", just stating a fact.  When these dogs come to your house, they'll use their "company manners"...at least for a bit.  We had Lucky for a year before she made a mistake...she was too afraid to.  Sheba spent her first month marking her territory in every room of the house.  I read an article yesterday that might have helped us to avoid some of that...but oh well!

In both cases, though, the dog needed 8 months to settle in.  Don't give up too soon.  If your dog has guarding tendencies or any sort of aggression, please get help.  A returned dog has a much harder time being re-homed.  It is definitely worth the investment to help "Rover" fit in to your house!  Which brings us to the "Frozen dogs".

Lucky was very much like Elsa.  When she was little she had been abused.  For the entire time (14 years) we had her she worried about making a mistake.  She was a truly elegant dog, very empathetic, wanted to be loved.  She tried not to ask too much of us.  It took my husband 2 1/2 years to get her to trust him (a man had been her abuser).  Because she didn't want to be a bother, she was very easy to have around!

Sheba is totally Anna!  She is now energetic, always happy and curious.  Sometimes she's clumsy.  She seems to think  that humans were put on the planet to love her.  If she's lonely at 1 a.m., of course you'll want to be woken up to be with her.  We needed every bit of that 8 months to settle her in!  Now she sleeps at night, I've learned to go for a walk twice a day.  Since she "marked" every room in the house, she does all her business outside.  She didn't bark when we got her, but now Miss Nosey alerts whenever someone is on our property...and she's so proud of herself when she does!  Since this was our year of the empty nest, she is really good company...and instead of talking to myself, people think I'm talking to her.

So...if you're looking at a rescue dog, good for you!  Please read the article linked above.  Then give yourselves 8 months while you watch your precious dog emerge.  You'll be so glad you didn't give up!

Feeling blessed, how about you?

Herd Dog's Gotta Work!

As I have said before, Sheba is our 4th dog.  In FIFTY years (only 3 of which we haven't had a dog) Sheba is our 4th dog.  All have been herding dogs.  This time is different...and I finally figured out why...

Dixie had 3 kids to supervise.  She was also pretty laid back.  We were probably pretty entertaining for her.

Casey had 2 kids to supervise.  She actually herded 2 labs and a German shepherd out of our yard once.  Another time DJ tried to go through a gate (when he was not quite 2) and this little dynamo blocked him every time until I could get there.  She weighed a mere 9 lbs...but she was quite a girl in those days!

Lucky was a couch potato.  She watched your every step...but it had to be a big deal for her to move off the couch.

Sheba was supposed to be less active.  She was for a little while.  As I mentioned in a previous post, she has now settled in and we're seeing what I believe to be the "true Sheba".  True Sheba is not so quiet.

Unfortunately for True Sheba, we are old.  There are no children to chase.  She doesn't particularly like other animals.  What True Sheba likes to do is to supervise her humans' work.  It's kind of a herd dog thing.  They work WITH their peeps.

In the "World According to True Sheba", work is NOT sitting on the couch with your laptop, figuring out SAT tips.  Work is--

• gardening (she adores being outside, as long as I am there too)
• vacuuming (although the vacuum terrifies her, it gives her something to supervise)
• cooking
• dusting
• laundry
• cleaning out the broken fridge (although I hope to not have to repeat this task for a while)

And before you suggest that I ship her out to the yard to lay in the sun while I work on my laptop...she will not go out in the yard without me (spoiled little dickens) and we have already established that working on my laptop is not working....

And since my house is the place that plants go to die...I'm not sure we'll be adding gardening to our list of chores

One thing is for sure, True Sheba will keep me moving.  Also, I think we all know who is in charge...

Feeling blessed, how about you?

As the Sheba Blooms!

I have never had a dog that wasn't a rescue.  Of course, since my dogs have all been long lived, I haven't had very many dogs.  Sheba is #4.  She follows Dixey, Casey and Lucky.  All have been herding breed mixes.

Sheba has been in our home for 5 months.  We're just now moving out of the honeymoon period and into the "settled" period.  It has been an interesting path.  We had less info about Sheba than we have had about any of our previous dogs.  We know that she arrived at the shelter in Alabama on July 15th.  She had all her shots.  She has a heart murmur.  She is about 3 years old. She was transported to Florida with about 30 other dogs in late July or early August.  According to my sources, she was a "transport mistake"; the shelter had 2 dogs with the same name and accidentally loaded both on the transport.

We got Sheba from Ewenity Farms Herd Dog Haven at the end of August.  I actually went to her foster mom's house to see a different dog.  All the other dogs were running along the fence lines, supervising the neighborhood.  Sheba came up next to me and sat down, leaning into my leg.  I get more dogs that way!

We were told that Sheba was a timid, submissive, low energy female border collie/spaniel mix who was housebroken and didn't bark.  Now that she's settled in, I think we can all agree that she's a female dog. LOL!

You see, that's what happens with a rescue dog.  What you see isn't always what the dog really is.  Most dogs don't "enjoy" the shelter experience.  Frankly, it scares the spirit right out of them.  Add a multi-state transport, in a truck with a bunch of other dogs, and being sent home with a stranger and then sent to another stranger's home...well, you'd probably be submissive and scared too.

When you adopt an adult shelter dog, you are getting the entire dog, including all their previous experiences.  The difficulty here is that we don't know what those are.  So you love them and you wait.  You establish a routine.  You love them some more.  You wait some more.  And you get ready to do some basic training when you see the dog's true personality start to emerge.  And with Sheba, it didn't just emerge, it busted out.

First we realized that Sheba marked territory (unusual for a spayed female).  Then we found out that she wasn't quite as submissive with other dogs, now that she had a family to protect.  Then she barked.  And I thought she was settled in.  But now we've found that she is impish.  She is always searching for food.  She hides what she doesn't eat.  She'll steal food related trash. Everything goes in her mouth.

Our best guess is that she wasn't an inside dog where she lived before.  She was probably part of a pack of dogs, so she didn't have to be the one to bark to go out.  She just followed the others.  And since she is a submissive dog, she learned to scavenge for food (and based on her weight, I'd say she's pretty good at it).

Based on my description so far, you're probably saying "I'd never take a rescue dog".  And if you feel that way you'd be missing out.  Big Time!  Sheba is a lot of fun.  She is great company and very happy!  And like every other rescue dog I've met; she doesn't take what she has for granted.  Oh, I know that dogs live in the moment...but rescue dogs never forget where they came from.  And they will spend the rest of their lives showing you how thankful they are!  So we are the lucky ones--because of the love of a rescue dog!

Feeling blessed, how about you?