She comes from Texas by way of the HeRD Rescue group. Momma had 7 pups under an abandoned building and when they were 4 weeks old a rescue down in Texas spent 4 hours digging them out. Once the rescue got them out the original owner, who had numerous citations for neglect and dogs running at large, wanted them back so they were whisked away to CO. Poor mom is just over two and this is her 3rd litter. Owner was selling the pups for $750. I know, people suck. But thankfully not all people and a wonderful woman in a town an hour away fostered them and worked really hard on their socialization since they'd never seen people for the first 4 weeks of their lives.
There were 4 pups left to choose from, all 4 were females. One was a bit skittish with Ruby, the other, a gorgeous red smoothie, was nice but had some kind of eye thing going on. It was something they noticed on the vet examination and it often resolves itself, pup's vision didn't appear effected but none the less, I didn't want to risk it. This left a rough coat and a smoothie. The rough coat was a bit more playful and confident but not by a lot and both Jonny and I prefer a smooth coat for the easier grooming. Plus I liked her personality a bit more. It's hard to look at puppies for an hour and know what they'll be like, they can change so much from day to day so we decided on the smoothie. Her name was Dori but we've renamed her Tess.
She was stung by a wasp within a half hour of coming home and some Benadryl took care of the swelling but now she's a bit scared ot the yard. It also didn't help that the neighbor's fence fighting Cattle Dog came charging over full on barking which scared the pants off her. We brought her home Saturday afternoon and today, Tuesday, she's finally exploring the yard and willing to spend more time there thanks to Ruby. She's relaxing a bit and settling into a schedule.
Ruby is very good with her but is more than happy to let her know when she's crossed the line with her nonsense. Ruby suffers no fools and has raised a litter of pups herself. Tess is a drama queen so Ruby doesn't have to do much to get her to back off.
We've had few short training sessions and lots of play time. She loves training so far.
She sleeps through the night in her crate, thanks again to foster mom for that, and is pretty good with her housebreaking. Has had a couple accidents but mostly is very good. I've left her for 2 hours a few times now and she's fine in her crate when I leave and get back, no barking. Not sure what she does when I'm gone but she's calm and relaxed when I get home.
She cried for 20 minutes the first night in her crate then she settled down for the night. Had some crying in the ex-pen too yesterday but today's she's much better and settles into a nap if she's been playing or training.
The 5 year old neighbor girl came over yesterday and she was great with her. The girl has a puppy too and mom had taught her how to act with the pup. Tess was mostly not interested, I think she was tired, but she wasn't afraid. I'm trying to get as many people and kids over here as I can. She gets her final parvo/distemper shots next week and then needs another 7-10 days to build immunity before she can be around other dogs so we're holding off on that.
It's great to have to time to devote to raising and training a puppy. My office is 6 minutes away and I can schedule clients whenever I want (mostly) so I'm able to be home for her more than I was for Lola though she did come to work with me a lot.
I finally went to the chiropractor/PT for my ankle and he diagnosed 'posterior tibial tendonitis' which is exactly what I thought I had. My case isn't serious, ultrasound showed some inflammation but not a severe amount. I was limited to 40 minute walks, no hills, for the past week 2 weeks and I have some exercises to do. He taped up my ankle to unload the tendon and I have a night splint to sleep in. Been going to his office for ultrasound and some chiro. stuff he does and progressions on my exercises. Some of them involve balancing on one leg or spinning around and I'm unnerved with how poor my balance is and how easily I get dizzy with the spinning. Not sure if the sea sickness from my Hawaii trip effected my balance or maybe my balance was already effected and the sea sickness was a symptom. Who knows. Also I'm not eating regularly, my schedule thrown off by the puppy, so could be dizziness from forgetting to eat. I had a bit of that last summer. NOT good, will have to be better about that.
Looking forward to fun with puppy. I'll get some video going and of course there will be many more pictures.
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