A series of Star updates

I just love it when adopters keep me posted about my former foster babies.

Though I've gotten pretty used to letting go, they are always all my babies and I wonder about them all the time, and it brings my heart so much joy to hear about them thriving in their new homes. 

Star was a really special foster dog, who distinguished herself from the moment she, as a stray, jumped in the open window of a police car and proceeded to wash the officer's face, to her 5 months with me during which she was a loving, licking, snorting, difficult-to-manage little troublemaker. So its been especially wonderful to get updates and hear how well she's doing from her people. 

The first update:

We got back from our fabulous vacation in Maine and our baby enjoyed herself a lot. She even got to swim in a lake - not intentionally but she got so excited when she saw a dog on the island that we think she didn't realize it was water and went right under.

 

For split minute Toby thought she is drowning but she surfaced and swam back to boat and jumped back in! 

crazy pooch!

She is definitely getting attached to us which is so wonderful and we love her so much!

After we came back from the trip, all she was doing for 2 days was sleeping!

Star always enjoyed traveling, hiking, being around water, so I was so happy to hear the adventures she's having with her people. I got the next update for her birthday, which was coincidentally noted on her papers as the day before mine.

Your favorite girl turned 2! 

now she is terrible two!  

The day probably wasn't her favorite because birthday started with bath at Petco and she would rather roll in mud than getting glamorous! 

Then we decided to treat her with a little bone which she wasn't really thrilled with! She is a real princess and little picky! :-)

We thought that maybe beef stew will go with her a little better and it did! She loved it and ate it very gently and gracefully! 

And soon after, I got this update:

We want the shelter to know that she went to a loving house and we gave her a chance she deserves! Even with all the issues, she is a sweet and loving creature!

Her Dad says:

Star is getting better every day. She has her moments of lunacy but they are fewer and further between than when she first arrived. She is calmer now during her daily activities like walking, riding in the car or hanging around the house. The only thing that still sets her off, every time, anywhere are squirrels. My theory is that she is reincarnated from being a squirrel in her past life and that she misses zipping around trees with them, Joanna's theory is that they are Star's favorite meal.

Finally, I got this update:

We hope you have a wonderful holiday! We sure have one thing to be grateful for this Thanksgiving......

Yay Star! You so deserve it. I hope you're being as good as your people say, because they are really incredible and deserve the best dog ever.

Star update: Muzzle as calming band

More confirmation the other day that Star's adopters are the coolest adopters in the world.

In the midst of my TTouch training, I received this email from Star's mom: 

We found a cure to her craziness, biting and being wired! When she gets crazy, we immediately put muzzle on and not only she stops biting because physically she cannot, it works like pacifier- it soothes her and make her calm- she lies down and relaxes!!!" 

I had not spoken to these adopters about calming elastics, which as I learned from TTouch are a magic trick for helping a dog calm and focus. Pressure around the muzzle releases tension and helps mouthy, barking dogs settle, and it also releases endorphins. 

These adopters found out on their own how great they work, through sheer intuition and innovation. Pretty cool! Star, you lucked out. 

A little reunion

Last week, my friend Jodi from Heart Like a Dog asked if I'd like to meet her and a bunch of dog bloggers at the Blog Paws conference. How could I pass up an opportunity like that? It was so fun to meet Jodi and a bunch of the other ladies I know only from their blogs. Dinner and drinks with a bunch of people I've never met before, but who already felt like old friends....just what the naturopath ordered.

And, the visit took me very close to a certain adoptive home I've been wanting to visit. 

Yep, that one. 

Star hasn't changed much. When she saw me outside her building she of course proceeded to grab her leash in her mouth and yank it around like a madwoman. 



Fortuitously, I had brought a bag of stuffed toys and stuffed one of them in her mouth, which allowed us to get inside. Where she zoomed around and spent most of my visit on her back, 








or chewing on my arms, or zooming around some more. 

Her people report that she still has two settings, nutty or comatose, and that she is affectionate and loving with them. 













The best part is how devoted they are to her. They go on long walks, sleep with her at night, and kiss her a lot. They have told neighbors in their building about her origins, and are doing a great job of introducing her to lots of humans and making sure everyone has a chance to experience her kisses. They are undaunted by her issues, as the last dog they had was unpredictable around people. They are glad that Star loves every human she meets. 

Visits like this restore my faith in humanity. There really are angels among us!

From Star's adopter

I have been in frequent contact with Star's new people, and the news has been all good.

Star's new mom is a personal trainer--the better for keeping up with her energy. Her dad works for himself, driving around to clients all day--and takes Star with him! Here is the latest from her mom:

"She is a wonderful fetcher, and it is so much joy to play with her because she actually listens. We definitely try to keep her occupied ...because we also figured out that it is a great way to bond with her and build a relationship filled with love!"

"Usually, when I come home from work, I walk her because she spent all day with [hubby], so I want to make sure I have my time with her. After our walk we play. Thank goodness we have tons of toys, because she goes through them quickly, mostly chewing them apart! She is such a good puppy though! She always stays close to us...even when we just watch TV or I am on the computer she is either on the bed/sofa with us or on the floor! She is very social. Also, there is nothing better when we come home and she is just soooo happy to see us! Endless kisses and cuddling! We love that about her! usually by the evening, she is tired so she goes to bed with us, on our bed, which is another sweet thing about her, it's like having a teddy bear! Last night she crawled on [hubby] when he was lying on the sofa and she slept on him!! :-)"

Yah, that sounds about like Star. And it sounds like moving to a new home has not entailed all that rough a transition, as her new people are as in love with her as we were.

Star, we miss you but we're glad you're having such a blast with your new family. You've made a lot of people very proud young woman. Keep it up and don't torture your people too much. 

A Dream Come True for Star

If you saw Star's video post last week you may have already guessed this, but the thing that has seemed impossible many times over the past four months has actually come to pass: Star has gone to her forever home!

And not just any forever home. So many times I've said that Star would need to go to a very special adopter, one who would understand her issues and work with her in only positive ways, one who wanted a dog who was a bit of a project, one who had a lot of energy and would give her tons of exercise and spend time with her during the day, as she is much more manageable in the evenings if she hasn't spent the day in a crate.

She found exactly that! Over the weekend of the 23rd, Florian and I went on a little trip to NY and CT and decided to leave Star with another foster mom while we were away. Two days before we left, Star broke out of my yard--apparently by jumping up, reaching her paw over the gate, and undoing the latch (which was on the outside of the gate) and went after a neighbor's dog. No major harm done, but the neighbor was not too thrilled. 

My little Houdini must have realized that she could be in trouble as a dog with no permanent home and a bite history on her record, because she somehow worked her magic on the universe and in the next few days I got emails from four people who fell in love with her online. It may also have helped that we had changed her name online to Suzie, as Star just wasn't seeming to pull in the adopters.

The first person I talked to was undeterred by anything I could tell him, but just seemed to grow more intrigued as I impressed upon him the project he would have on his hands. He loved how Star had such a resilient spirit after all she's been through, and she reminded him of his recently departed black pittie mix, who also was not the most easygoing sort. And, his wife is a personal trainer and wants a little high-energy companion to go on runs with her.

Florian and I went off on our trip, the adopter met Star at her temporary foster home, and it was love! 

I had the pleasure of meeting this amazing couple last week, and we got a chance to go over how to work with Star's excitement and get her to be calmer when she sees other dogs. The strategy we discussed is BAT, Behavioral Adjustment Therapy, which I have explored but never formally implemented with a dog. 

The wonderful trainers Alison and Marika, who have worked with Star in the past, demonstrated the steps for working with frustrated greeters--and I would say that both Star and Fozzie fall into that category.

It was a thing of beauty to see how quickly Star was able to calm down!

Of course, it helped that Alison had some peanut butter on hand. 


I believe Star will progress so quickly in a home with dedicated parents who love her little joyful spirit, will spoil her and have fun with her and have no other little monsters to distract them, and are armed with some great techniques to help Star gain more mastery over her impulses. Her adopters report that she is doing great in her new home, exploring and settling in and curling up in a tiny ball in bed with them.

Star was really a special little foster dog and one I got especially attached to despite--or maybe because of--her behaviors and energy. I know that I have a "type"...the petite female dogs who snort and snore a lot, and the ones who tend to get in a lot of trouble. 





But I also know that Star is not the last of that type I will know, and that maybe someday I'll foster another little scrappy snorty pup and that one will end up staying. Right now it is wonderful to know that Star is in a home that can keep up with her, and that with the attention and care she'll get there she will blossom into a happy, healthy young woman...and maybe even one who is less of a troublemaker.

A video post for some very special people

The sight of Star navigating her Pilates ball is so adorable to me, I can't resist posting a few videos of it here.

In this one, I love how she  works so hard to stay on the ball, then loses her balance, crashes on the floor, and gets right back up on the ball again. 

In this one, she is a little too eager to get that treat. Then I love the standing on hind legs, and then the utter calm and focus as she climbs back up on the ball herself and waits for her reward. Then that little two-legged jump!

There are some other people out there who will also I think be interested in seeing these videos. These people were interested in how I trained Star to do things like climb up on the pilates ball. It was really just a matter of tapping the ball a couple of times, and then rewarding Star for looking at it, sniffing it, or putting a paw on it. With a curious, intelligent little thing like Star--and especially since she'd been doing clicker training and had been rewarded for trying new things--it was very quick before she started climbing up on the ball and doing all the courageous things she did. 

She's been rewarded so heavily for interacting with a pilates ball, that now all you have to do is out one in front of her and she jumps right on it. 

Here is another video of Star amusing herself with a rope toy.

I just love how when given a new toy, she has so much joy in whipping it over her head and making those graceful aerial twists. Florian and I were at a ballet competition last weekend, and I don't think we ever saw anything quite that impressive.

I think certain people out there will enjoy seeing this too. No time to say a whole lot about who these mystery people are now, but I'll have a full update next week!

Suffice it to say for now that Star has had some very good news! And not just that her Pilates skills have grown by leaps and bounds.

Training Time in the Multi-Dog Household

Though I've been talking a lot about all the tricks Star is learning lately, it is clear that tricks are far from her most important training tasks. Star is making great progress in controlling her impulses, walking nicely on the leash, and learning basic obedience, but she still has a way to go before she would be considered a perfect little woman by most adopters.  

Star loves to practice her tricks but the amount of energy and activity she generates is I know stressful for Lamar and Fozzie. How would YOU feel, after all, if you were a bit nervous and high-strung by nature and a little tot with poor impulse control were careening across your living room floor balanced on a pilates ball? 

So we're getting Fozzie to play with the pilates ball too, to blow off some steam and get in on the fun. What to do with Star while Fozzie is practicing his tricks? 

Get her to work on her impulse control, of course!

It is working better than I would have imagined to encourage Fozzie to do some balancing, while asking Star to sit and stay. She does it! 

OK, eventually she does it. 

And if she can sit and stay while the object of her obsession--the dog whose neck she is usually latched onto and whose back she is generally launching on top of in a frenzy of Tasmanian devil-inspired zeal--stands on a pilates ball himself, then maybe she's not so far from being a perfect little adoptable tot after all!

And Lamar? He gets treats just for watching the whole thing with any degree of tolerance. Each dog gets to practice what he or she most needs to work on, all in the same training session.

Do YOU like to find ways to train everyone all at once? Or do you, sensibly, devote one-on-one training time to all your dogs?

Uncle Johnny: The glue that holds the family together

This weekend we had another visit from Uncle Johnny. Not sure why he chooses to subject himself to this so frequently, but he has been coming down quite often lately. I'm pretty sure its not because he likes the dogs.

I think he most enjoys the company of my niece, for which reason he willingly, at the age of 86, accompanies all of us even on ill-conceived trips to the beach on a day of 43-degree freezing rain.

On which Ursula is shivering, Fozzie is beside himself with rage at Genghis, Kirsten is redirecting pent-up frustration with the dogs toward Florian, and Johnny himself is having what my mom used to call a conniption fit about my sister's failure to bring mittens for her daughter. Fun times for the whole family.

Gnarly weather notwithstanding, we did manage to have fun in our own way and Florian was cheered by having Fozzie sit on his lap the whole way back. We are realizing more and more what an anxious fellow Fozzie is. I thought that with his own back seat and window to look out of, he would be calmer in the car than he used to be in my old van. But with windows closed, all he does is sit in the back seat and look worried, hang his head into the front looking for someone to kiss, and try to climb up to sit on someone's lap.  

Florian is quick to indulge, but it does make us wonder: what happened to him? Was it his period of being a stray, uncertain of where his next meal was coming from and dodging cars and dog catchers, that made him so anxious? Was it the long period of uncertainty of his future in my house, in which he picked up signals from me that fueled his insecurity? Poor Fozzie. 

I guess the good thing is that Fozzie's particular brand of insecurity makes him seek out affection and contact, which my Swiss counterpart and I are more than happy to provide. But it would be wonderful if he could learn to feel more secure, while maintaining his extremely affectionate nature.
 
Once home, we went over to my sister's house to make sure she'd survived the trip home and the rest of the afternoon with Johnny.












Star demonstrated her other setting besides manically-in-your-face-and-zooming-around-while-chewing-on-everything-in-sight-and-making-the-most-trouble-you-have-ever-imagined, which is

...comatose.  

Wordless Wednesday

Our new favorite thing

With my buddy Francine's Tuesday night Tricks class, I've been thinking more about ways to incorporate fun tricks into our everyday life.

I remembered the exercise balls that we had so much fun with in Fozzie's dance class, and I finally got around to buying one. 











 

Star and I are both very happy I did. 

What a great tool for exercising and learning new tricks--for humans and dogs.















Since Star was already growing adept at Standing on her two hind legs, she quickly learned to put those two front paws on the exercise ball for a treat. 

Now she readily puts those paws on it and is getting more and more comfortable with staying on it as it starts to move, using those front paws to manipulate it instead of getting scared and jumping off in response to motion.

 



A bit of peanut butter--our new secret weapon against dog distraction-- doesn't hurt either. 








It's only a matter of time before Star can climb all the way on to the pilates ball  like that pit bull in the class Fozzie and I took. In the meantime, she'll be building her core strength every time she works out on the fitness ball, getting better and better at balancing and standing and paving the way for other new tricks. 

Like getting on the skateboard!














She is already taking several steps at a time on her hind legs across the floor, and starting to be able to spin around on her hind legs.

Meanwhile, this human is doing some much less adorable but very therapeutic tricks on the exercise ball that are designed to strengthen the abs and relieve back pain caused by too many dog activities. 

Hopefully said ab strength will enable me to keep up with said dogs as they, in turn, strengthen their abs by doing all those activities!

Games and Tricks class

Star has been doing so well with learning tricks that I knew she would enjoy coming to my friend Francine's Games & Tricks class. 














I sometimes help with this class when there are a lot of people signed up, especially when there are a couple of dogs there who are reactive or have trouble concentrating in class. 

This time, there were just a few students so Francine let me bring Star.

This class was Star's own little fantasy land. We were the first students there so for a while it was just a room filled with toys, things to play with, things to chew on, and people with treats. Wow!

For the first 15 minutes, we just let her wander around, going from nylabone to squeaky tennis ball to soccer ball and chewing on each for a few minutes before moving on to the next. 

Practicing her tricks in exchange for treats, and showing off how well she can roll over

and stand up 




















 and spin

It was so fun to see her having such a good time. 





















Pretty soon two other dogs showed up, and Star got very excited and amped up. Francine doesn't want dogs greeting when on leash in the close quarters of the class, so Star got very frustrated and made lots of squeakies. 

My cheesy treats weren't sufficient to get her attention, but fortunately Francine had a jar of peanut butter.  A mouthful of that and she calmed right down.

It was amazing to see how her focus improved immediately post-peanut butter. Like the soothing familiar deliciousness just put her right back in her body and reminded her of herself.

Even after her belly was full and no treats were of interest, she was able to accomplish a brilliant Paws Up with a Nylabone as a lure. The Nylabone was so enticing she would have chewed it all night, and in fact she did chew it until her gums started to bleed. 









 



Fortunately, Francine's friend Margarita got some amazing pictures before we had to confiscate the Nylabone. 

I'm so impressed by those pictures. I think they really capture her irresistible cuteness. Hopefully lots of potential adopters will agree...but not too soon.

Star the budding circus dog

Amidst all the upheaval lately, I was trying to maintain some constancy by continuing to work with Star on building her skills. 

Actually, the real reason I work with her is that its the only way to get her tired so she leaves me alone and I can attend to something besides her, like researching new vehicles and corresponding with all those thousands of new clients just breaking down my door. 






Star really loves her training. No matter whether we're working on Go to Bed, other impulse control activities, or a fun new trick, she is ready to learn and behaves almost like she is a good little dog!

As I've written about before, I really think trick training is as important and practical for dogs with issues as training in the more basic skills. Trick training, like all positive training, teaches dogs to always be thinking about cool things to try in order to earn a reward. 












In addition to learning a new trick, dogs learn to think for themselves, they learn independence, they learn problem-solving, and they gain confidence in using their bodies and empowerment in using their minds. 

For foster dogs and shelter dogs, trick training gives them new skills and ways of looking cute for potential adopters.


I am trying to get both Fozzie and Star to learn both Stand (on two legs) and Sit Pretty (sit up and beg). They love to do both, although we haven't refined the difference between the two. 

For Stand, I just hold the treat calmly above her head. "Calmly" being a key component so she can just focus, concentrate her energy into her butt, and elevate the front half of the dog off the floor. 








 

For Sit Pretty I hold it closer to her face, and I hold out my other arm for her to put her paws on it so she can balance--like Fozzie and I learned in our dance class. 

It takes a bit more self-control than Star has to remain seated on her butt and elevate the front of the dog, without coming all the way up. 



At first, when I held a treat up high for Star, she would stand for a second then spin around so she was facing away from me and fall back onto all four paws. 

 

Gradually, she's been getting the hang of it and now she can stand steady in one spot on those two back paws, and even take a few steps. 























Fozzie's getting really good at both tricks too, though he still seems to get really tired when he does them.
 
Which is not a bad thing.