Time for an update

Howard has been in his foster-to-adopt home for a little over a week now. I got regular updates from his new mom, and it sounds like he's doing very well and she's doing a great job helping him adjust. He has a new canine companion, Kobe Ann, who's just a month younger than he is, and they love to play together.

Check out this video of the two of them taken when he went for his home visit:

Do you think he looks comfy?

He had some issues adjusting to the Dane-sized doggie door in his new home--it still frightens him and makes him flinch when something brushes against his back--but he's getting the hang of it now and went in and out on his own several times today.

Now that Howard is settled, it's time for the next challenging Dane rescue.

A few weeks ago, someone emailed me about a fawn male Dane that's been living alone at an abandoned house for a long time--several months or a year. Neighbors drop off food for him, but are, for the most part, frightened of him, just because he's huge and he barks. It took almost a month just to get an exact address on him because there wasn't really a clear point of contact for anyone who knew where he was, but finally some friends who are animal rescuers made it out to visit him yesterday.

They took this video of him:

To me, his behavior in the video looks promising. He's not barking or lunging aggressively, nor is he cowering and running. He's just cautiously hanging out in his hiding spot, paying attention to people and wondering if they brought food, but too wary to come all the way out for strangers.

I have a feeling that I could spend a few hours with him and get him to come to me, but just in case I can't, I'll be bringing some acepromazine with me. He's over an hour away so I want to be sure to get him on the first trip.

He's an older dog and was probably well cared for at one time--he's been neutered--but he's been on his own for a long time. I wonder what he'll be like.

Howard's home visit

This morning, Howard will be leaving my house to go on a home visit with one of the board officers from Peace Love & Dog Paws Rescue. If all goes well, this will be his last morning at my house.

Howard on November 16, 2012.

I can't believe how far he's come in just the two short months that he's been with us. A dog once so terrified of leashes, car rides, and walking through doorways that it required heavy sedation, a blindfold, and a team of able-bodied people just to move him, he now walks happily on a leash (though he still shies a little when he first sees it), jumps happily into the back seat for joy rides, and loves meeting new people on his walks. He's now a relatively normal almost-two-year-old puppy who loves to play and lives to be snuggled. He's a testament for the amazing resilience that so many abused dogs have, and to their ability to love people.

One of the questions that I am most often asked about doing rescue is whether it makes me sad when my foster pets go to new homes. The answer is, in short, no. The pets that I foster only go to homes that are carefully screened either by me or by a reputable rescue that I trust (and Peace Love & Dog Paws has one of the most stringent screening processes of any rescue with which I've worked). Adopters must go through a stringent application process, provide vet references (which are all checked), and agree to a home visit. They also must sign a contract that specifies how the pet will be cared for and that it will be returned to the rescue should the adopter be unable to provide that care. There have been a handful of times when foster pets have come back to me, and I've been happy to have them back. But way more often the screening process works, and what I get back are happy updates, like this one from former-foster Jimmy's new home:

Update 11.5.2012: Jimmy has been renamed Bruce (by his brother Cole) after
the big grey shark on Finding Nemo. They sleep together nightly and are BFF. :)

Another thing that helps me keep rescue in perspective is the constant influx of pleas for help for other pets in need of rescue. For every one of my foster dogs that gets placed into an adoptive home, another dog in an unstable living situation that can be rescued. Not to mention that there's also an adoptive family that I've made happier and more complete.

This morning I'm wishing Howard good luck and crossing my fingers that all will go well for him.

Howard's info sheet

As I fill out an info sheet for Howard as we prepare him to go to his home visit on Friday, I think back on how far he has come in the last couple of months.

www.peacelovedogpawsrescue.com

Howard’s information

History/background:

Howard is a stunning, tall, black Great Dane. He had a rough start. His first owner used abusive training methods that had the opposite of the intended effect. We know that some of the “training” involved repeated shocks with an electric collar and beating Howard with leashes and sticks. He also dragged him alongside his car by his leash. As a result, Howard became terrified of anything resembling a collar or a leash. He was also terrified of walking through doorways and getting into cars. He loved people and enjoyed being petted and baby talked, but if you reached for his collar or approached him with anything resembling a leash, he would either bolt or, if he wasn’t able to bolt, he’d flop down on the floor and go limp.

Howard got out of his first owner’s hands when his owner went into his vet’s office looking for a stronger shock collar because he thought the one that he had wasn’t working. A concerned vet tech talked him into relinquishing the dog to her. He lived in her home with two small  children and some cats for about six months before coming to Peace Love & Dog Paws when the Good Samaritan who rescued him realized that his emotional issues were more than she could handle. It required heavy sedation to get a collar and leash on him and get him into a car. He went straight from her house to the vet, where he was neutered, microchipped, vaccinated and had his stomach tacked. He then proved to be a handful for the staff at the clinic because the process of going in and out of his kennel, which involved being leashed and led through several doorways, terrified him. Several times he jerked his head sharply toward a person who was reaching for his collar, raising concerns that he might bite out of fear. Since getting to know him, we now understand that this jerking is due to his need to watch what hands are doing to his collar and not out of any kind of aggression, but it was very intimidating at the time due to his large size.

From the vet’s office Howard went directly to a foster home experienced at working with traumatized giant dogs. Again he had to be sedated for the walk from his kennel to the car, and he had to be blindfolded going through doorways and was carried by a team of four people. Once he got to his foster home, he belly flopped onto the ground in the driveway and refused to go anywhere, but when the foster brought her Great Dane out to meet him, he perked up and stood up to greet her, then followed her into the backyard. It took him another three hours to build up his confidence to walk from the back yard through a door into the house.

Howard then underwent a regime of desensitization and operant conditioning. We spent hours with him practicing walking through doorways, first for food rewards, then for praise. About a week into his rehabilitation, once he had mastered doorways and gotten used to his routine, we began desensitizing him to leashes and collars. We spent hours with him touching his neck while giving him treats and praise, and putting non-collar objects, like t-shirts and dish towels over his head (and our other pets’ heads and our own heads) in a special game that we invented for his benefit. Once he had grown comfortable allowing us to touch his collar, we started practicing attaching a leash to it and taking the collar on and off. Once we could attach a leash with minimal anxiety on his part, we began taking him for walks, which he enjoyed immensely, though he would try to run if a car passed him on these walks. We think this is due to him being dragged beside his first owner’s car. Once he enjoyed walks, we began practicing riding in cars and going fun places, like the pet supply store and visits to friends who had dogs for him to play with.

Howard loves to please, and he worked hard at his training regimen. Two and a half months into it, he has made improvements by huge leaps and bounds. Now that he’s not spending all his time being anxious, his sweet, goofy, outgoing personality shines. He loves meeting new people and animals when he’s out and about on his walks. He loves to run and play with people and dogs. He’s gentle but playful with cats and small dogs, though he does want to chase cats when they run from him. He loves to snuggle on the couch and lay his big old head in your lap. He hops into cars willingly, and recently decided that he liked spending time in a crate—a big turnaround from the dog terrified of walking through doorways!

Personality/Quirks/Habits:

Howard lives to cuddle and play. He gets cold easily and enjoys wearing sweaters. He is not a chewer and will keep squeaky toys for a long time without destroying them. He has only been known to be destructive once, when he threw a temper tantrum over being locked out of his foster parents’ bedroom after he began trying to climb on the bed at night. We’re still not sure if it was him or one of the resident dogs annoyed at his antics, but he paced and whined at the bedroom door a lot and someone pulled a cushion off of a chair that night.

Howard is still anxious about having his collar touched or having a leash attached. We think that this will continue to improve with time and practice. When we go to leash him, we stop to pet and praise him for a moment before attaching the leash, and this calms him down. Once he’s leashed, he’s happy to walk, and usually doesn’t pull.

Howard loves cheese, and will come running at the sound of a cheese wrapper.

Schedule:

Monday-Friday 

7:30 am wake up and go outside for potty time (about 5 min.)

8:00 am eat 3 ½ cups of food

8:15am go outside for potty time (about 15 min.)

8:30:00am put in crate

5:30pm outside for potty break and play time (about 15- 30 minutes)

6:00pm go for a walk (sometimes a leash walk on the street, sometimes a hike on trails or a run in a nearby field)

8:00pm eat 3 ½ cups of food

Outside to potty as needed

10:30pm bedtime, in bed on floor of master bedroom but has recently been sneaking up on bed

Weekends (if different)

Same, but times are often shifted later if we sleep in. Howard likes sleeping in. J

Food:

Howard has been eating Diamond Large Breed with no gastrointestinal upsets. Diamond has no corn, wheat, or soy.

Treats:

Howard’s eaten Milk Bones, raw hide treats, and bones with no problems. He loves cheese and lunch meats.

Training/Trigger Words:

Howard came into rescue knowing how to sit and shake. The signal for “sit” is an index finger pointed at the floor. He will shake any time you reach a hand to him. He knows his name and knows the word “easy” for how to behave around small animals and children.

Toys:

Howard came to rescue with a soft toy that had been his favorite. He likes to eat paper towels. Not big on fetch.

Baths:

We’ve bathed Howard several times. The first time was a challenge due to his fear of being cornered and led into small spaces. Later times we leashed him outside and used a hose. He’s tolerant of baths, but fortunately his short, glossy coat doesn’t need a lot of grooming.

Grooming:

Howard sheds a lot and it helps to keep him slicked down with a soft-bristled brush.

Fears:

Howard has a lot of fears. They include: leashes, collars, sticks, cars, loud voices, sudden movements. We believe he will continue to become less fearful the longer he is in a stable home.

Health issues: N/A 

Medications / Supplements:  N/A 

Vaccinations / Vet Care:

Deerfoot Animal Clinic 205-661-9630 (files under rescue and adoptable’s name). A copy of the records will be provided upon adoption.

Flea/Tick Preventative: Currently on Advantage Plus due 1^st of each month & after baths

Heartworm Preventative: Currently on Heartguard– due the 1^st of each month for the duration of life

Training Howard

Howard's training consists of multiple daily sessions of operant conditioning with positive reinforcement that mainly focus on desensitization. On his first day, we spent about eight hours (with lots of breaks in between) working on doorways. It took something like an hour and forty five minutes for him to walk through his first doorway and come into the house.

Today, doorways are a matter of course, and Howard walks through them both of his own accord and on command with little fuss. The only time they become an issue is when he encounters a traffic jam of canines trying to pass through a doorway at once. He doesn't like to linger in passages, so he will hop over everyone else and bound ahead. He can jump over Jackson with all four feet without even coming close to touching him. Jackson is not a small dog.

Right now, Howard's main training involves practicing looking at a leash, collar, or other similar threatening object and then getting treats. David and I drape the leash or other rope-like Scary Thing over our wrist and offer a treat. Howard will only approach the Scary Thing for a very high value treat. It is not hard to find Scary Things around the house. Anything that vaguely resembles a leash or collar will do--a tiny kitten collar with a bell attached, a shoe lace, a hair tie, and a piece of ribbon are all Scary Things. We also spend time taking Scary Things--even real collars and leashes--and attaching them to other pets, buckling and unbuckling them and jingling tags while ignoring Howard and praising whomever is having their collar adjusted. Our dogs enjoy this a lot since they already like having their collars adjusted, so this is a free reward for them.

Another part of Howard's training is the "Let's Put This Thing Over Our Head" game. This game involves putting objects that are not Scary Things over the heads of various members of the household, including Howard. Objects that are not Scary Things include blankets, towels, and t-shirts, among other things. Howard is pretty good at this game.

Meanwhile, Howard's personality is emerging as an affectionate, obedient, gentleman of a dog. He loves contact with humans and other animals, and interacts politely with both. He's a good communicator, and it's pretty easy to understand him and get him to understand us now, though a lot of his language with humans is different from most dogs. (That will probably be the subject of another post.) He definitely enjoys being with people,  likes to snuggle on the couch when we call him up there, and sleeps happily on the big dog bed that we keep at the foot of our bed. He's lovely inside the house with no interest in chewing or marking. In short, he's a terrific dog that's been trained to have some very specific fears, so our job will just be to retrain those.

Welcome Howard

The kittens all went to homes several months ago now, and after that, I needed a break. They had eaten all of my house plants and left their marks on my furniture, and I needed time to make repairs and allow for regrowth. Then there was a busy time at work which just didn't allow me the time for fostering, so I told the powers that be at the rescue I'm most involved with that I had to have a break. Of course, that didn't stop requests from coming from people and animals needing help, and those kept coming every day. Then, the time came when I could actually answer those requests, and the most immediate and demanding was for Howard the dog.

Howard is a Great Dane, and an exceptionally tall one. He might be the tallest dog that we've ever had.

Howard was abused. It would not be inaccurate to say that he was tortured. Some guy owned him and decided to "train" him with an electro shock collar. I don't know exactly what happened. Some part of that training involved dragging Howard by the collar toward a boundary and shocking him repeatedly, then dragging him back and doing it again. I've also heard that he used a leash to beat Howard. I didn't see it and I never met the guy and hopefully never will. A vet tech with diplomatic skills that should be used in the Middle East stopped Howard's first owner when he came in looking for a stronger shock collar because he thought the one he had wasn't working since the dog wouldn't "obey." She convinced him to give her the dog. She deserves an award.

The end result was a very giant, very nice dog with an extreme pathological terror of passing through doorways or being held by the leash. If you put a leash on Howard and he thinks you might lead him to a doorway, he will flop down on the ground like a 165lb dead fish and will press his neck as hard as he can into the ground to prevent a collar being put around his neck.

I went to pick him up from the vet's office earlier this week expecting a dog like the other abused dogs that I've handled. I thought that he might be spooked but that I could handle him by being gentle but assertive, and sending him plenty of calming signals. I imagined myself gently slipping a lead over his head and leading  him around.

Nope. That was not happening. He became terrified if someone touched his collar and would run away.

He is big, strong, and toothy enough that he should command plenty of respect. Fortunately he is a really nice dog, but it is prudent not to push that. Howard doesn't choose to pin me to the ground and drag me places, so I am not going to do that to him.

My weakness for kittens

Ever since I was a tiny child, I have adored cats, and especially kittens. When I was five and got my first kitten, I was overjoyed and obsessed over him day and night. When I was eight and got my second kitten, I was so happy I cried for the first time in my young little life.

I wish I could have kittens in my house all the time, but without the expense of their veterinary care, the stigma of being a crazy cat lady, or the divorce of my husband. In recent years, I've found  a way to accomplish this: I foster one litter of kittens each spring. This way, I get the enjoyment of having new kittens once a year without having an actual increase in the population of cats at my house.

Tiny ball of viciousness is slapping at my face with her feather paws.

This year's kittens are two tiny, feral little puff balls that had been found wandering motherless in a Tuscaloosa apartment complex. At six weeks of age, the little female was an itty-bitty ball of viciousness who would hiss and swat you in the face with her pinkie-size paw, which feels a lot like being attacked with a feather. Her brother was less angry, but would stare blankly at people like he had no idea what we were. To socialize them, I carried them around with me in a baby sling every where that I went, a practice that I call "attachment kittening."

This was my view looking down for a couple of weeks.

I have found that kittens really want to be warm and snuggled, even when they are too unaccustomed to people to realize that we can be the source of warm snuggliness. By forcing them to be close to you and have the warmth and closeness that they need, they learn. From day one, the little tabby girl would hiss and slap at me when I touched her, but she would immediately start purring when I put her in the sling and held her close to my body.

My attachment kittening worked, and they are now social, playful, joyful little bundles of energy. The little boy loves to come bouncing across the house to land at my feet and rear himself up on his hind legs like a miniature grizzly bear. His sister is still more reserved, but she will now cry to be picked up and let in and out of the ferret cage in which they sleep, and she loves to use my lap as a trampoline. Yesterday I caught her trying to nurse on Jackson's fleece dog bed, making sweet little suckling noises and kneading the fleece with her tiny paws, and it reminded me how much the poor, orphaned little thing had been through, and made me admire her spunk at the way she tried to defend herself and her brother from strange humans when she was so tiny.

They're growing up!

They're getting bigger now, and in just a couple of weeks they'll be getting spayed and neutered and the boy will go to a new family who have named him Zed. We're still looking for a home for his sister, but I'm hopeful that we will find one soon. I'm getting so much enjoyment out of these little guys every day that it makes the daily litter box cleanings worthwhile.

I guess this is a little late

So, I began this blog almost a year ago with the intention of posting regularly, but immediately after, some bad things happened, and I didn't want to post for a while.

One-Eyed Jack was an awesome cat.

First, I had a wonderful foster cat who was killed by a dog I was babysitting. It happened while I was home but out of the room, and I witnessed the last seconds of it before the cat died in my arms on the way to the vet. It was pretty terrible, and it was a big blow to my faith in myself as an animal rescuer. Anyone experienced with rescue (or who works heavily with animals in any capacity) knows that you don't leave unfamiliar animals together unsupervised. But I'd been with all the animals relaxing quietly for hours and figured, "hey, it's ok for me to go do something else on the other end of the house" and then I didn't respond quickly when I heard my dog Mary barking frantically, trying to get me to come help. It was a series of careless mistakes that I will never repeat.

Mary's eyes are now completely cloudy.

Then, Mary went blind. She had cataracts, which we knew about, and planned to have surgically removed. But when I took her to the veterinary opthamologist, we found out that she also had macular degeneration, which is not fixable. Suddenly I found out that my most beloved dog, my trusted companion of so many of my most important years, had a permanent disability about which I could do nothing.

Moose

I didn't foster for many months, until finally, I agreed to foster a beautiful, elderly, Neapolitan Mastiff named Moose who came from a situation of horrible neglect.  A true gentle giant, he was a wonderful lumbering, cuddling presence in my home, but Moose was a terribly anxious dog. He became almost instantly so attached to me that he would have terrible attacks of panic whenever I left the room and he couldn't follow me. We worked and worked and worked on this, but then, one night, he got gastric torsion, which is something that happens commonly in anxious, giant dogs. We got him to the emergency vet quickly, but his age, anxiety, and infirm health meant that he was not a viable candidate for the invasive surgery and intensive aftercare that would have been needed to save him, and we, along with the president and vice president of the rescue through which I fostered him, had to make the decision to put him down, and he died as we hugged and caressed his giant old body.

But some good things happened too.

Mary proved to be the most badass old blind dog that has ever lived. For dogs, the sense of sight comes third in importance, after smell and hearing, unlike in humans who rely on it primarily. I bought every book I could find on living with and training blind dogs and quickly figured out that Mary already knew everything she needed to know to be a happy blind dog, since most of it is basic obedience, and she's been practicing that since she became mine at six weeks old. I have to watch her around ledges and stairs, but not much else has changed. She can still swim in the river, ride in the canoe, play with kittens, and do everything else that she loves to do and that I love her for doing. Her years of foraging around camp sites in the dark with her nose have more than prepared her for a sightless old age.

I have gotten more involved with a great rescue in Birmingham where I live. I pulled a young male Great Dane from a kill shelter in rural Alabama and he proved to be a wonderful dog who might have a future as a therapy dog and has since been adopted by a wonderful family. I am currently fostering two kittens can knock you over with their cuteness who came to me as tiny, hissing ferals and are now purring, loving little darlings. I also have two foster Dane puppies who are filling my home with their puppy energy and curiosity.

Sweet, wonderful Jimmy was left tied to a fence at a kill shelter in
rural Alabama. He's now been adopted into a loving home.

Animal rescue is hard, and it often sucks. There are bad, terribly irresponsible, and often cruel people in the world who leave messes on other peoples' hands. I really wish that the people who made the decision to purchase the Dane puppies that I have now had taken the time to teach them how to behave in a house. I wish that the people who spent thousands of dollars importing Moose from Italy had cared for him for the first seven years of his life. I wish that the people who had bred all of these purebred dogs had thought more about what they were doing, and thought about all of the millions of dogs euthanized in the US each year because there are not homes for them, and I wish that the people who buy purebred dogs from pet stores realized that they are feeding the puppy mill industry, and that everyone spayed and neutered their pets.

But there's no hope for the hopeless. It is hard for me to even express how  rewarding it is for me to see an animal that has come from a terrible, desperate place, and become a loved family member. The Christmas cards that I get from people who have adopted my fosters are the highlight of my year. Seeing a dog that was left to die become happy and well cared for in the center of a loving family makes everything worthwhile. All of the poop I pick up, the vigilant hours I spend supervising, the time I spend training an animal that is not even mine...it's worth it.