It is that time again! Where we celebrate the foster dogs who have found their forever homes. We have learned a lot this year as many of our foster dogs this year have been under socialized. What a journey fostering for New Rattitude has been. When we think of what we thought we knew about dogs and what we have learned and are continuing to learn, it really has been an eye opener.
I want to thank my Northwest New Rattitude team for all the support this year, and let them know how we realize this is a collective effort. Fostering these rescued ratties is a lot of work and I know how all the foster parents have changed their lives to accommodate their foster dogs. We support each other in so many ways and for this we are thankful.
I also want to thank the wonderful adopters that have adopted our foster dogs. Letting them go can be hard but when we know they are going to be so loved and cared for in their forever homes where they can continue to blossom and become the dogs they long to be it truly makes this all worth while.
And a HUGE shout out goes to our personal dogs Birdie, Jenny, Skip, and Liza for being such great sports, well most of the time, lol, with our fostering en-devour.
Happy New Year everyone! Here are pictures of this foster home's 2013 adopted dogs!
I had made my bets in my head about who would be the most interested in this game and I was wrong! This is a good lesson for me. The thing to remember is you just never can tell what will turn a dog on. And this goes for assessing if a dog is cat friendly or not. You can't go by prey drive because the dog who was the champion in finding the rat is not the highest on prey drive of the dogs in my house right now. This dog happens to be the least interested in the cat in our house too. Here was my guess as to who would be into the rat hunt from 1-5 with 1 being the most into it.
1) Liza, Sierra tied in my mind, both are big on things that move or make noise on walks.
2)
3) Birdie
4) Sybil
5) Skip
This was my guess from the way these dogs act when we are out on our walks, and also who likes to hunt squirrels and birds in the yard. Now the only difference here was Rat was not moving and that could be a big reason why my prediction went south. Had Rat been able to run across the room and the dogs been able to chase I do believe my guess would have been much more accurate. My prediction of who would be the least interested was right on. Skip has occasionally been interested in a squirrel when we are out walking but his recall is still very intact making me think he is not THAT into stalking the squirrel. He is a ball man through and through and so it was a good thing he found the ball at the Fun Zone because silly mom and dad didn't think to bring him one. When will we learn???
OK so here is the champion working to find Rat! Birdie, who you might remember is also deaf, was really into this game, even though we weren't pairing it with treats! She just liked finding Rat.
This next video Skip inadvertently finds Rat. Lindy had the idea that we could hide the ball Skip had found in the hay and this was great for him. He had more trouble finding this ball, we are wondering if he had is ball Blue if he would have had more success, he spends so much time with Blue and has had the same Blue for over a year.
I really think Skip was on to Ball but I wonder if he could not see it due to the way dogs see color, and I also wonder if he forgot how that ball smells? (the black tube next to the ball is empty). I love seeing Skip work anyhow and if we didn't have a time frame I would not have been worried if it took him an hour to find the ball, and we wouldn't be helping him. This kind of work is so good for dogs and it is okay if they need time to process it.
Here is the champion, BIRDIE, finding Rat in what Lindy says is the hardest hiding spot. If you watch til the end you will see Birdie do a funny thing. She flips her back legs in the air to go into the tight spot to find Rat! Good Girl Birdie-Girl!!!!!!
In case you were wondering if Skip ever found Ball......we were running out of time so he had some help. I love to see him so engaged and looking happy.
Love seeing how intense Birdie was doing this. Birdie you are our awesome!
Sybil did show interest in looking for lost treats in the hay, that is fun too! Good Girl.
Sierra using her brain to look for something in the tarp. I love how dogs can think outside the box. Good Girl!
Awww Skip...love you
Skip rolling on Ball in the hay.....there must be a reward for this move!
What a fun experience, we hope to do this again some time.
I have always thought that in indoor dog park was a great idea. Little did I know there is such a such a place and of course it is in Seattle!
What I love about K9 Fun Zone Inside Dog Park is that you can privately rent the space for 30 minutes or 55 minutes and bring your dogs to play. This is great for shy or reactive dogs who don't feel comfortable at outdoor dog parks but would still like the chance to play on agility equipment or just have a large area to fetch a ball or toy. And Lindy the owner is wonderful. She supervises and during the Barn Hunt she was working with our crew which was great! Here is info on Lindy!
From Fins to Paws, Dolphins to Dogs
Lindy & Houdini
Lindy
Langum is the owner and co-founder of K9 Fun Zone, LLC. Originally from
South Dakota, she moved to Northern Colorado where she earned a BS in
Biological Science with a focus in animal behavior and is Certified in
Canine Studies. She has applied the science behind behavior modification
through the training of marine animals such as fish, turtles, sea lions
and dolphins. Now living in Seattle with her princess pit bull Houdini
and partner Rochford, she loves helping owners exercise, train, and
entertain their furry companions.
“I focus on reward-based
training and behavior modification techniques that can be applied and
used to train any animal, even fish! I treat each dog and owner(s) as
individuals so we can use their strengths and motivations to help them
learn appropriate behaviors. Training your dog results in a peaceful
household and a strengthened bond between you and your canine, as you
learn to interact and clearly communicate with your companion."
-- Lindy Langum, CCS
Here are more pictures and some video from our eve at K9 Fun Zone......next blog post will have video and a few more pics and you will soon know who was the rattastic rat finder!
Liza says "mom I sure hope treats are involved with this game"
There are all kinds of cool agility apparatus to explore, Sierra is looking for lost treats...
Sierra is not too sure about this weird thing.
Here Sierra maneuvers down the other side of the ramp, good girl!
In true Skip fashion he found a ball and was a happy camper.
Lindy is getting the barn hunt ready for the first contender and Skip makes sure Ball is not going anywhere.
Here is a little video showing Rat being introduced to Sierra.
Here Sybil (who knows her name as Kiki) works to find Rat
Skip, Birdie, and Sierra get ready for a rat hunt in the hay. Lindy tries to get them excited to find the rat she is going to hide.
Part 1 Meeting Mr.---or Mrs. Rat for the first time.
I had heard about this activity called a Barn Hunt from my friends who had taken their dogs to do it. It is a simple set up. Lindy, owner of K9 Fun Zone Indoor Dog Park, has socialized her pet rats to be ok with being in a protective tube that dogs will be finding when hidden about. Well she got really creative and brought in some hay bales and stacked them up in a special area where the dogs would have to climb up and under and through to find the prize, kind of like a real barn in the city! When I first heard about this I worried for the rats but was told by my friend that they are never harmed and that they are Lindy's pets and they are very well taken care of. Great! So I knew I wanted to take the crew to see if they had the instinct to find a rat hidden in some hay.
One of the dogs was a particular rock star in rat hunting. Can you guess from these pictures which one it might have been? The answer will be revealed in another post :)
Getting to know you....
Birdie was the first one to meet Rat. Lindy started with Rat in a cage that the dogs could see him better in. I was astounded at how relaxed Rat was and none of this nosy poker dog stuff concerned Rat in the least. Very sweet rat.
Birdie says "hmmmm what is this small animal in here?"
In this picture you can see that the tube Rat will be put into to be hidden is the black thing in Lindy's hand on the left. Rat can be smelled through the end but there is no way Rat can be harmed. I had this image of Rat lying on his back, belly laughing inside the tube, strand of straw between his teeth, watching as the dogs try to figure out a way to get him, all the while being safe inside. lol
Liza's turn to explore what she would ultimately be searching for.
Sierra checks out Rat
Here Rat was in his tube and Sierra is checking him out again.
A blurry picture of Skip checking out Rat.
Stay tuned for more on the Barn Hunt at K9 Fun Zone!
Miss Sierra is in the house! We hadn't seen her since she was adopted into her wonderful forever home. Her parents asked if she could come stay with us for a little while so they could travel to visit their family. Her parents are so smitten with her and only want the best for her so when they asked us to petsit the caveat was if we weren't able to then they wouldn't go on their trip. Sierra is really coming along in her comfort level of meeting new people but she still isn't all together comfortable with new people and they didn't want her to be stressed when they were gone. Luckily it worked out that we could have her stay with us.
When her mom and dad dropped her off they were hoping we could get some pictures of her for a blog post. Well if you have followed my blog when we fostered Sierra you will remember she does NOT like her picture taken. But I enjoy a challenge and so I gave it a shot when we were out on a walk on Christmas eve day.
How many clicks does it take to get a head-on shot of Sierra?
1) Sierra is a master of avoidance when it comes to the camera
2) She had turned toward me but I missed it
3) Get the camera out of my face!
4) Maybe if I stick my tongue out you will leave me alone?
5) Me trying a treat to get her to look at me. Oh she wanted the treat, love those toofies she has.
6) Back to avoidance
7) Foster dad make her stop!
8) Hey wait a minute do I hear a bird or squirrel over there?
9) Bingo! Whatever Sierra heard or saw was what it took to get the shot! Love this girl's face. She has the best expressions.
Sierra loves to go for hikes, she gets really into looking for birds and she can be pretty serious about it :)
Here birdie birdie birdie...
And Sierra loves to explore. Good thing we had a long lead on her so she could go down to the little pond.
Thanks to my zoom I could get a shot of her near the water.
Sierra, Tim and Sybil all wishing we would get walking and stop recording. Nice to see how well Sierra is using her leg that she had had surgery on. You would never know she only used three legs looking at her now. Such a beautiful rattie girl.
We woke up to about 3 inches of snow a few days ago and Timken and Sybil had fun goofing off for a few minutes in it while our dogs stayed inside to keep warm and dry.
Nom nom, this stuff tastes interesting...
Timken and Sybil were eating snow but both looked up for a good shot.
Such a sweet boy Tim is....
Please enjoy these videos of Timken and Sybil running around in the snow. They had fun for about 10 minutes but then were ready to head back inside where it was warm and dry.
