You're too smart, dummy!

In our efforts to be responsile foster parents and train Horace to be an upstanding member of the dog community we now have a pile of Library books, a DVD and a list of websites which all claim to teach us everything we need to know....for the forseeable future my mantra is "I am a sponge."
So in this age of technology and instant gratification we went with the DVD! Both dogs are too smart for their own good however:
Lesson 1 was 'sit' by silently holding a treat just above their nose so they look up and naturally sit back. Well, at the site of a human even approaching the treat jar both dogs had their bottoms firmly glued to the floor in anticipation - after all, that's what we have taught them. It was more a lesson in 'stand up first please' but after half a treat bag we were well on our way to perfection.
Lesson 2 - lie down from the sit position (by silently holding a treat at their nose and moving it quickly straight downwards to the floor inbetween their paws). At first I started to think that perhaps my dogs have the wrong body shape for this, since we ended up with an akward half hunched over dog which by any stretch of the amagination was not lying down. It turned out however to just need more practice with Penny picking it up first closely followed by Horace.
Lesson 3 - coming into the house without the dog jumping up. I have to say that Horace mastered this one like a pro (although we have yet to test this one out with strangers! Any takers??). It was personally however my least favourite lesson - and might be very pleasant in the Spring - but in August the Kentucky weather is just not pleasant for any kind of activity - especially not running around the house from the front to the back door and back again and again and again. It was like running through a hot, thick pea soup.
I imagine there is probably a future lesson about keeping the dogs off the furnature, but until we reach that chapter we will continue to claim ignorance on that one! After all, who could refuse a cuddle from this baby?

Return of the wanderer

Guess who's back? And I didn't even have time to put together a 'Welcome Home' party! With heavy hearts we sent Horace off to his new family on Friday, only to have him back again not much later. We were told that he did not get along with the family dog and that he showed aggressive tendencies towards male dogs. I was really surprised to hear that and just couldn't imagine my sweet boy being anything but, well, sweet! We had already promised to re-foster if something didn't work out (which we never imagined it wouldn't) so here we were looking down at Horace with puzzled faces but determined to get to the bottom of it.

The next morning we headed to the Pitty FAIRness event in Central park - a festival organized by a local organization called Saving Sunny, in an effort to raise awareness and a positive image of the Pit Bull breed. What could be more perfect? Colin stood at the edge of the Park while I went to find someone who could give us some advice - and i found Maureen Keenan, co-founder of Saving Sunny, or as I like to refer to her; a miracle worker. What happened over the next 30 minutes was something right out of The Dog Whisperer; she took Horace and walked him straight into the middle of the festival - there had to have been 200 Pit Bulls along with their humans. She was as calm as she could be and Horace sensed it. It was incredible to watch - she never said a word to Horace (later telling us that using your voice gives away any anxious feelings you are having), instead she corrected him, distracted him, got in his personal space, gave him his space when he was calm and praised him when he paid her attention. By the time she handed us back the lead we were a completely different foster family - we were 'Team confident' 'Team calm' 'Team we wont take any nonsense' and Horace knew it.

Shorty from the TV show 'Pit Boss'!

We spent over an hour practicing what Maureen had taught us and then we went for a walk through the crowds. If you have been the owner of a dog that drags you along on a walk you will appreciate this, because that was me. All of my dogs have dragged me along - even Yorkshire Terriers! So, it was an almost out of body experience when we walked through the hundreds of other dogs and people with Horace - without incident. He trotted along in between us - the lead completely slack, not pulling, not trying to greet anyone or anydog we walked passed.  A personal first - and with an 'aggressive' dog at that! I already knew that Horace is a fast learner from other activities we have done and the distance he came at the fair showed me that he can be a brilliant dog. He is of course still a puppy and what I learned this weekend is that puppies need more than just potty training, they also need social training to make them well rounded dogs. So for the foreseeable future he is back with us, his best friend Penny and his favorite pastime - Rope.

Infiltrating Hearts, Changing Minds

Currently there are 2 strange men in the house, fitting a new carpet upstairs, banging, nailing and hammering away... and here is how our Horace is handling it:

So much for the aggressive stereotype for Pit bulls!  This experience has truly taught me a lot - not that I had anything against any dog breed before we fostered Horace but now I can say that I will forever stand up in defense of this breed. I have first hand experience and I recommend anyone who has not met a Pit before do the same thing before making assumptions. In fact I recommend that anyone in Louisville go to the Pitty Fairness Art and Music Fair tomorrow in Central Park (More info Here) and meet some lovely Pits - including some that need homes.
It's Horace's last day with us today - in fact his last hour or so. We are such saps, that we turned down dinner invitations this week so that we could spend the last 2 nights hanging out with our sweet boy.
So this is the end of the road - but just the beginning for Horace and his new family! We are so fortunate to have had him with us and his new family wont be able to help themselves but to love him.
All our love pup! Come and visit anytime!

Bittersweet News

Horace has found a family! I'm so happy and excited for him, I'm also terribly sad to see him go. He truly has become one of the family and I hate to think about him not being under my feet, sitting on my feet or drapped over my lap. From the beginning we knew that he wouldn't be with us forever and I tried to remind myself every now and again but it still feels like we are losing a member of the family. My main priority though is that Horace is happy and has a home that gives him as luch love as he gives back (which is hard to match let me tell you!). Even Colin has become attached, last night as he rubbed Horace's belly, he looked at me and said "I hope his new family love on him like this":

We couldn't mope around all evening though and with the electricity finally back on we were able to put everything back into the fridge. Penny and Horace helped clean up by delving into the coolers and lapping up the ice-water!

All that's left now is to find a way to tell Penny that her best friend leaves on Friday :(

Bath Time

After several computer issues and a complete loss of electricity - the dog blog is back! So, to bring you up to date on Horace....

The weekend was very exciting - more walkies. What could be better? Picking up the leash brings a spark to his eye, he knows what's in store and can't wait to get started....

On Sunday we decided it was time for a bath - all the playing and running around was taking it's toll on Horace's aroma. Not knowing what to expect we went into it thinking that the best possible senario is that we will get just as wet as the dogs. In reality, I have never met a dog who behaved so well during bath time. There was no doubt from the sad puppy dog eyes that he most definitely felt sorry for himself but he didn't move a muscle - just sat there and took it like a champ:

He now smells beautiful :) 

Yesterday evening we had no electricity - and it was miserable with a capital M in the house without Air Conditioning. SO, we decided to go for a drive in the lovely airconditioned car (I know - we are terrible terrible people inflicting a huge Carbon footprint on mother earth.....but trust me, you would have done the same thing). We couldn't just leave the poor muts to sweat it out, so we took them along too - all wearing seatbelts of course:

And i think it was a lovely surprise that we didn't end up at the Vets as usual, but instead we arrived back home to settle down for the evening:

Adventures of a Vegan nature

This evening we took Horace to the Vegan cook-out and dog adoption party. I have never walked up to a group of strangers before with a Pitbull, I have to say I was a little worried about the reception- I mean, Horace is the most cuddle-hungry, softest dog I have ever met, but these people didn't know that. As it turns out Horace was welcomed with open arms-everyone was so friendly and we all agreed that Pitbulls have an unjustified reputation. We did learn however that we need to work on horace's socialization skills-he was just so overexcited to meet everyone and the other dogs, and he certainly vocalized it well! He is flat out on his bed getting some shut eye, such a cutiepie. Sweet dreams pup!

A Chance to meet Chance

Things have been calm over the last couple of days. Penny and Chance (aka Horace) are more like brother and sister than ever. I'm starting to worry that Penny will go into a depression after Horace is adopted, she is so happy to be around him. I sometimes feel like Horace takes the big brother protective role, even though he's the younger pup.
So during our most recent outing to the Park we discovered that Horace has better table manners than Penny (what terrible doggie parents we must be!):

Come out and meet Horace this evening at the Vegan Cook-Out and Dog Adoption Party in Tyler Park! Starts at 6PM. You can read more about the event HERE.
He is looking forward to meeting his fans - although he is requesting no autographs! If you come out, it's the little guy wearing the left sock that you are looking for....

Two in Tow

So I was perhaps a little overconfident when I decided to take both the dogs out by myself this evening. Overall it went extremely well, in fact I think it had a positive impact on Penny. Normally she will pull for the first half of the walk and only start to hang back after she gets a little tired, today however she trotted along with slack in the lead from the start. Chance did even better than yesterday, we actually made it to the park - third time's a charm! He really has come a long way in terms of pulling less and it was an enjoyable walk today.

The only hair-raising moment was when we passed by houses with yappy dogs running up and down the length of the chain link fences as we walked by. This has always been a great experience with Penny - she's never had any reaction, just ignores them and keeps going - I like to imagine she's thinking "oh hush....I'm not the one stuck behind a fence!" Chance however reacted more like someone recently escaped from a mental institution. Maybe that's an exaggeration - but it's safe to say he most definitely wanted to meet these dogs. Since Penny and I had a majority vote in favor of carrying on, that's what we did, with me yelling "NO" like a crazy person. What a lovely sight we must have been.

In other news, I have lost the couch battle; well when something is this cute how can you refuse them?

Film debut

Today Chance got his stitches/staples out - and I think it's testament to his wonderful temperament that he didn't so much as flinch whilst the veterinary nurse dug around his privates with a pair of pliers! He had been so good on the way in the car that I just felt terrible as he looked up at me, his big brown eyes shooting me a  'well this is hardly what I was expecting' look. When we got home there was some well deserved 'bone' time - including some cute bone sharing.

We also went for a walk - this time however I was prepared! And I'm happy to report that he did really well! We got over 2 blocks this time, and honestly we could have gone further but i was getting a little rope burn from correcting him so we headed back, but by the time we arrived home he was hardly pulling at all - a complete turnaround from yesterdays saga!

I just have to share this - the other night I was scratching Chance on his belly and his back leg started 'scratching' wildly in mid air. I had to get it on video - so here he is, in his first staring role...

After such an eventful day he is now relaxing on his bed in his usual position; half on-half off. 

A Walking Disaster

Chance has had quite an eventful weekend so far; on Saturday he hung out with several other dogs also looking for homes at an adoption fair. I'm told he made several friends and attracted some attention from potential adopters! I was very happy to have him home again though, the house was so quiet without him and I think even Penny missed him a bit, although she'd never admit it!
In the afternoon we played catch and he is a natural at bringing the ball back!

Then we played tug-of-war, which i think was his favorite game yet; he was so sweet - whenever he won, he would take the rope back over to Penny to start the game again:

Today (Sunday) we decided to break free from the confines of the back garden and head to the park. It was only half a block later however that we had to turn back since there were only 2 possible outcomes:
1. Chance (aka Horace) would asphyxiate and pass out from pulling so hard (he was actually wheezing)
2. He would pull us both in front of a passing car (wherever he wanted to go, I went too,-including the neighbors drainage ditch!)
It was a short lived freedom, I kept thinking how Cesar Millan would have this boy heeling in no time at all - if only I could have clicked my fingers and had him appear at that moment! There was no chance to even try out a 'Cesar' technique, such as a quick correction on the lead - it was just me being dragged along, holding onto the lead for dear life. As it was, we headed back inside safely and Chance was clearly exhausted from all the energy he had exerted in our short stroll - it was time for a nap:

I wont give up on him though; Walkies Round 2 - watch this space!

Fridays Fun

It's the weekend! Yesterday Chance got his first sight of the resident chickens.  We normally let them have free roam of the back garden; since Penny more or less grew up with them they mingle together without so much as a raised chicken eyebrow, but they were a little more alarmed at the sight of Chance. (on the far left of the photo you can just spot one peaking out of the coup!) We also had a little game of hide and seek in the mint.

Last night we had some friends over to meet Chance and he was in heaven - 3 extra pairs of legs to lick! It was also the first time that he slept through the night without even a sigh. So you have to expect with a  pup that there is going to be some crying at night until they get settled, but Chance really only whined a little even from the beginning and by the 3rd night we hit a home run! 

Plans for the weekend - Perfecting 'fetch' skills and perhaps a walk to the park. It's a dogs life!

A gentleman and a thief

It's been a few days since Chance's surgery so we thought he could handle a little playtime. I have to admit I was a little nervous since he has 15pounds on Penny and if anything got a little too rough I certainly wouldn't be able to separate them. There was no need to worry; the perfect gentleman, he constantly rolled over in a submissive pose as they played 'rough'. It was so cute to watch. Of course, if you ask Penny, she'll tell you that she's just the better wrestler!

There was also time for a little frisbee, which started out with some cute sharing...

But then he pulled a 'catch me if you can' routine (what is it with boys?!)...

But you know, you have to be very comfortable with your masculinity to rock a pink frisbee...

When we got back inside we had a 'who can stick their tongue out the furthest' competition and you'll never guess who won!

The Door

Day 2 and I'm smitten with this guy - and I have a hunch the feeling is mutual. I spent the evening at 2 separate work events and left Chance to bond with his foster daddy. I actually found myself missing the little chap, not having him sat on my foot, looking up at me with those big eyes, following me from room to room, sitting on his bed in his usual half on-half off position. When i got home I was almost as excited to see him as he was to see me again.

It's amazing what a little training can do to make life easier; the prospect of going into the back garden is a concept of unrivaled pleasure when it comes to Chance (Horace). I only have to go near the back door and he's rushed through my legs, body pressed against the door and eyes locked on the handle. Logistically this makes it difficult to open the door - I don't know if you have ever tried to open a door inwards when a muscly dog is pushing with all their force outwards - but personally i find the result is that everyone stays indoors.  Thankfully Chance is not only a quick learner but obedient too. After just a little training he now sits on command at the door and waits patiently for me to open it for him. (well - after running at it once like a battering ram...but then he sits and waits...you can't have everything!)

A learning game

This morning the drugs had clearly all worn off from yesterdays 'nip and tuck'; 30 minutes into the day and I was already exhausted - this pups got more energy that an atomic bomb!

Only 18 hours into our relationship and we are learning lots about each other:

What I have learned about Chance:

• He likes to always be by my side and follow me around the house
• He is a quick learner and smart too - we have the 'sit' command completely mastered!
• He does not have any spatial awareness of his body.....at all
• He likes sitting on your lap - and thinks you like it too- all 48pounds of it!
• His preferred method of lying on a doggie bed is - half on, half off.

What Chance has learned about me:

• I am a sucker for giving out treats when he looks at me with those big brown eyes

All in all, Chance is settling in well. I knew he felt at home when he put his feet up on the couch (see the cute photo below)! He checked out the raised vegetable beds earlier, but since Dr.'s orders demand mostly rest for the next couple of days until his stitches heal, he's mostly been hanging with his new best friend - bone. 

Bone!

Yum! Veggies

Putting my feet up

Into the unknown

Today I start a new adventure in fostering mans best friend. I feel a little like I'm jumping off a big cliff without knowing if I remembered to wear a parachute or not. You see, I'm a planner - to the point of being annoying I'm sure, organizing everything from A-Z, plus options for alternative eventualities. So the fact that today I will pick up a pup and bring it home to my resident lab-mix, 2 crazy cats and 4 chickens without knowing so much as if it's housebroken, or how long it will be staying, is testiment to my softspot for our 4 legged friends. I'm excited and at the same time terrified.
The drive home was uneventful, the poor thing was neutered today and is clearly still a little drowsy as he zigzags to the car and then goes as far as putting his 2 front paws inside but leaves it to me to get the other 48lbs of him into the car.

We had decided to introduce him to our dog, Penny on neutral ground and it goes better than I could have hoped. Penny is known to get over excited-about everything-but when it came to Chance (or Horace as my husband has been calling him) she took it all in her stride.

After several hours of trying to impress our girl (well I might be biased but I think he has excellent taste) he calls it a night; it's a tough life!