3 posts tagged “anniversary”

Since it's a milestone, I'll do a little update on our progress, perils, and problems. First of all, I'll say that it's been a rather important week, since it's the first one since Sky has been with us that didn't involve some sort of uncomfortable or more or less traumatic experience... until this week we've had the initial introduction to the new household (me only), and then the return of my husband from an out of town job (plus a house guest for a couple of days), introduction to taking walks in the city (light version), introduction to taking walks in the city (seriously heavy version), Vet visits, vaccinations, the grooming ordeal... and throughout all this time - trying to sort out potty issues. And a week before she came to us, she was spayed and also had a pregnancy termination, so there have been the hormonal fluctuations, the post surgery effects, and the antibiotics and other medication related to that. A whole lot of stuff for one little doggy to deal with over a single month - not to mention all that she endured before being rescued by stray.gr.

But she's been such an angel and amazed us with her adaptability and disposition. She's a real champ at walking in the city now, and she's rarely fazed by the loud traffic noises that used to terrify her - though helicopters still freak her out. :) She's become much less timid, and is no longer lying down and rolling over (submissive posture) at the drop of a hat, though confusing situations and some people or dogs still elicit this reaction - and I'm very pleased to see her acting quite bouncy and happy-trotting on our walks, as opposed to the much more tentative gait she used to have.

There's no problem with food, she eats happily, but not frantically, which I'm glad to see, and has no trouble with  any diarrhea or throwing up, or any digestion difficulties. We still don't have everything perfectly straight on the potty front, but we're pretty damn close. I'm praising her and giving her treats every single time she pees or poops on one of our walks, and that's the only training we're using right now. She's much, much less shy about doing her business now, and we're having a lot fewer peepee accidents (we never really had problems with pooping), so I'm very optimistic. Her fear of peeing has been the main stumbling block, and now that we've had several chances to reward her for this on walks, we're seeing that behavior change.

And, altogether we are just finding that we are a really great fit. She's happy, we're happy. The great thing about getting a rescue dog that's not a puppy is that some behavior is already known. We couldn't have had a barky or yappy dog, because we have upstairs and other nearby neighbors, or an aggressive dog, or one that wants to guard, or chase cars or cats, etc. We also couldn't have handled a dog that needs a great deal of activity, since we don't have that kind of space - and all the information I had from stray.gr indicated that Sky would be perfect for all those necessary restrictions. She's also incredibly responsive and almost always well-behaved. She comes when I call her, she understands "No" and "Stop" and "Come" and "Sit" - all of which, at least in English, I think, she's just learned since we got her. She's mad about smelling every little thing when we go on a walk and sometimes resists moving on, but when I say "come on Sky, let's go" she'll come right along.

From three weeks ago when we first started walking and she was crossing in front of me and behind me, and getting us both tangled up  (not to mention just sometimes laying down in the street and refusing to move) to now, when she heels almost perfectly (except for the tantalizing things she has to stop and sniff) and we can take her anywhere - the progress has been pretty amazing. She goes to the local stores with me, she goes out to the outdoor cafes with us and behaves perfectly, we take her shopping with us in crazy downtown traffic, or for walks among the tourist-filled areas around the Acropolis and Plaka. And she's Perfect.

We are also so delighted with her sweet, affectionate nature and just continue to fall more in love with her every day - so it's a very happy three-week report from the three of us. :)

It's now been seven days since Sky came into our lives, so I'll update our progress and setbacks so far.

Paging Dr. Freud! In terms of personality, she's quiet (we've only heard her bark twice), calm, often rather timid, loving, adores attention and affection, but is not at all demanding. For the most part, she likes to stay beside me, wherever I am. There are some characteristics that are not possible to accurately decipher at the moment. For

example, while she almost always does what I tell her to do, sometimes she refuses with my husband, going so far as to completely refuse to get up on the leash, and just turning limp and "playing dead" basically. This may be because she is afraid (he's definitely never done anything to frighten her - nor ever would, so this wouldn't be in response to him specifically); or since he didn't get back home until three days after she arrived she just hasn't become as sure of him yet and doesn't know how to react; or because she might fear that he will take her somewhere away from me; or because she will recognize only one leader, and that's me. We don't know yet, and it's not always the case. Last night he put her on the leash and took her out when he went to the store, and she was perfectly obedient. Also, she has done this with me a few times (mostly in the beginning), and it was definitely connected to fear. She would lay down in the street on our walks in the first couple of days when she heard a loud car or motorbike, and I couldn't get her to move. (She's now learned to deal with scary traffic noises really well - and incredibly quickly; she's gone on two quite long, very traffic intensive walks now and been perfect.) Today she's been very responsive to everything he's said, so it seems like an adjustment thing.

Potty, Potty, Potty - She's not quite there. We're pretty sure she's only gone in a yard before now, and we have no yard, so it's taken a bit of time to get her used to doing business on walks. She wouldn't pee or poop for nearly 24 hours after she first arrived, despite walks every hour or two. Once she did, there's not been any trouble with pooping (though sometimes it takes a while, but we can work on that), but she's terribly pee-shy. She just seems not to want to pee at all, though she's gone a few times on our walks, and two or three times in the house. I strongly suspect that because she was punished and poorly trained (possibly even traumatized) at some point in the past, instead of simply learning not to pee in a certain place (inside), she instead learned that peeing is bad... and just tries as hard as she can not to pee at all. I spent a couple of days tracking her every move so that when she started to pee I could take her outside for it, then reward her for it - but she would never start. As soon as she seemed restless and pacing, I would take her out - but she wouldn't wee. I would take her out after she drank water. I would take her out and beg her to wee when she had gone the entire day without peeing. I would keep her confined to a very small area of the house so I could see everything she did, in case she started to go. I watched and watched.

As of today, this stops. I'm pretty sure that she's had a horrible experience (or experiences) with peeing, and me trying to "catch her in the act" so that I can put her out and teach her where to go is actually just adding to the whole pee-stress thing. I'm going to calmly reward and praise her when she pees on a walk. If I do happen to see her start to go inside, I'll take her outside at that moment if I can, and reward her if she finishes there. I've put down some paper by the back door in case she's ever been paper trained, and if she goes there, I will reward her if I see her, and progressively move the paper outside (our door to the terrace is always open in warm weather). But no more stressing on my end, which I'm sure is just adding to the pre-existing stress on her end. She wants to do whatever makes me happy, so this will be resolved, and keeping everything about it calm and tension-free is my goal now.

Doctor-Doctor! Sky has had two visits to the Vet. The first was not a real appointment, we just went to get a collar against ticks, mosquitoes, etc. and the second was her first checkup. According to her history, she hasn't had a rabies vaccine, which seems to me terribly unlikely... But I don't know how things work in Greece. Still. What? We have an appointment Thursday for that, but I'm going to call her foster mom before then to make sure. Isn't this a completely fundamental vaccine? Anyway. Our Vet thinks Sky is part Siberian Husky. She tried to check with an eye

exam, because, she says, there is a certain kind of zebra banding thing that you can see on the retina of Huskies with blue eyes, but it was difficult to be sure, because Sky kept squinching her eyes shut, and Kryssa didn't want to scare her. I tried to look this up, but could only find things about eye diseases, which was getting way too depressing. We refreshed her Frontline anti-flea medication, and Kryssa says her skin is in very good condition. She goes to the groomer Tuesday which, I think, will be a big relief for her. Her long, long, heavy hair is very matted, and though Kryssa buzzed some of the worst clumps off, and I've cut some more off, it will be great to have all this removed because it twists and pulls at the skin when it's this bad... plus it's coming on summer and getting hot already. She will be a lot more comfortable with most of that long hair off.

Playgirl? Not so much. So far she's shown almost no interest in toys at all. She recognizes that the ball is hers, because I've noticed that she will get it and put it in her bed area, but she's not interested in playing with it, with or without my participation. She has a chew toy that she totally ignores, and a chew bone thing that she likewise ignores. She seems to have no chew urge, which is good for my slippers, but maybe not so good for her teeth. I'm going to see if I can beg a solid beef bone from the butcher, and see what she thinks about that. She did get incredibly frisky one evening when we took her with us to common courtyard area downstairs, otherwise I would worry that she's too laconic. I'm curious to see if the desire to play comes out as she really settles into the new environment and becomes more confident about her situation.

Summary: Well, I've actually left a ton of stuff out, but the summary is that she's happy, she's learning some things lightning fast, and some other things might be remainder problems - but she seems really happy, and I know we are really happy. She's healthy, loving and anxious to please... and you can't ask for more than that. Happy one-week anniversary, Sky!