She handled the drive to the vet no problem. I kept stuffing kibble in her crate and she was quiet. Getting her out of the crate and into the vet was another matter. I had to physically pull her out of the crate, something I was loathe to do but no way she was coming out. Then I waited her out until she'd go through the door to the vet. It was a busy day, a big noisy dog was there for grooming and barking and lots of people in and out of the place. The vet tech gave her lots of treats and I tried to shape her to go on the little baby scale they had in the room. Got her front paws on no problem but couldn't get the rear in a timely matter so again had to muscle her onto the scale. But the rest of the appointment went o.k. My vet friend was very good with her and Tess managed the shots no problem. She has an umbilical hernia that is getting worse and not going to resolve. I was hoping it would hold out until her spay but my vet thinks not so much. But for now I'm going to keep an eye on it and hope it'll hold out for the next few weeks so I can work on the ever important socialization with her. Some say that window slammed shut at 12 weeks, others say 14 and still others say 16 weeks. She's at 14 weeks as of Tuesday which means somewhere in my head I lost a week since I've been telling people she's at 13 weeks.
Sun Buddies
She's been doing better with walking, has seen some people and dogs and been o.k. with it. Yesterday we went on an impromptu parallel walk with my neighbor and her calm-ish friendly dog. Tess did great with that and my neighbor saved us from the idiot Portuguese Water Dog that is ALWAYS loose. Ruby hates that dog, it's not aggressive per se but it does have that stupid Tarzan Dog personality and charges at her full speed. The woman who owns it has been letting it run loose for the past 8 years or so and they live right next to a park we walk through all the time so it's a problem. There's no reasoning with the owner, she's stinking rich and doesn't care, thinks she owns the place and is more than capable of paying any Loose Dog fines. Think I may start carrying some citronella spray. I hate to do that but I have to look out for my dogs and I can't help the idiots out there.
A couple of my friends with nice calm dogs have come by to visit Tess, both on the same day. The first dog belongs to my agility training partner and is a nice calm mini poodle, just a bit bigger than Tess. She was scared at first, ran to the back of the house and barked. We all ignored her and eventually she came out and joined us in the living room. Many treats later she was finally relaxing a bit around the dog and was happily taking pets and treats from my friend. The second dog was a very calm sheltie owned by the woman who gave me Ruby so Ruby was happy to see her. Tess not so much at first and she refused to come out of the back room so we all went and joined her and again, many treats later she relaxed.
Funny thing is she was totally fine with me and Jonny and Ruby when we went to the foster mom's house, very confident, played with us. But she's only been with me 2 1/2 weeks and she was in the foster home for 5 weeks or so. I hate to push too much on her at once but that socialization window is shutting and it will only get harder.
And office buddies.
Last night she went on a half hour car ride out to a friend with a Border Collie I didn't know who turned out to be too energetic for Tess right now. So instead Tess met her 3 kids and husband and did great with everybody. She wandered around her yard a bit, my hope being that eventually I can bring her back and she can play with the other dog and it'll help if she's familiar with the yard. She barked and whined mightily on the journey out there. I had her in a seat belt harness so I wouldn't have to manhandle her out of a crate and I gave her treats here and there but I had to focus on driving. She slept on the way back, phew.
The 5 year old neighbor girl has been coming over almost every day and Tess is finally comfortable enough to go up to her for snugs even when she doesn't have treats. She even started playing with her yesterday. And her older brother came over with her for the first time and Tess was fine with him, let him pet her with no treats, went up to him no problem. So at least she's good with kids so far. So grateful to the neighbor girl for that.
She was in her first snow the other day. At first she wouldn't go in it but once she did there was no stopping her.
Trying to arrange a day for my friend with a nice mellow greyhound to come over and hopefully a trip up to my other friend's hobby farm and another big friendly dog for her to meet along with baby goats. But we'll see, they got a lot more snow up in the mountains so it might not be reasonable to go up this weekend. My snow is nearly gone, just a bit along the shady fence line.
Funny all the socializing I've been doing along with the puppy. Some of these folks I haven't seen in ages, not because I don't want to see them but because everyone is busy and I've not thought to make the effort. Such nice people, all of them, I need to do better to stay in touch with people.
Ruby is doing great, has not only started playing more with toys but has also started playing with Tess! Shocking! I never thought I'd see her play with another dog. I think she started doing it at first because she didn't like being left out when I played with Tess and now I think she might even like it a bit. I'll have to get some video.
I re-twisted my ankle the day after the One Mind Dog seminar, was sore after being on my feet all day and then the ankle was a bit unstable the next day. Feels fine now but I'm still restricting myself, partly because the puppy is a huge time suck and partly because I want it to heal so I can play this summer so I'm being good. But the lack of exercise is awful. I'm keeping up with masters swimming and I can bike if I want but that's a big time suck and the trails have been snowy/muddy. Did go out on the dirt roads over the weekend, it felt so good to get out there but I'm bored with my route. And no baby buffaloes yet. Been doing some strength training but not enough. Trying to find the motivation for it.
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