Belly Bands are an awesome tool in working with house training in male dogs. Such a simple thing, a band of fabric that helps to keep them in check when lifting a leg to pee or mark in the home. Due to the fact that Tim has some anxiety we use belly bands off and on depending on if we can watch him in the home or if something new to his environment gets him thrown off, like a new dog coming into the home or visiting a friend's home where he tends to get a bit over anxious. Of course we keep him on a very regular schedule and he gets lots of praise for going potty outside. He is super duper in the morning now, upon being let out of his crate he will run all the way downstairs to the front door and wait for me to let him out so he can go do his business outside. Timken has also experienced some submissive urination in the beginning with us while he settled in. The belly band helped to catch the pee that he lost when he felt nervous about us handling him.
I keep telling him belly bands are not to be ashamed of, they are just part of him being "dressed for success", and this way we all can work on what is important, him learning he can always trust us and that we are always trying to find ways for him to do the right thing without there being an issue about it.
Tim does not need the belly bands nearly as often anymore and the more he shows he is reliable the more freedom he gets. It is a win win!
Poor Tim, not quiet sure what to think of the belly band at first.
Well he found he can still move about and still ask to get up in foster dad's chair! Hey his tail still works with the belly band on too!!
Here is Tim and Jack (Cony) who had visited a couple of weeks ago. They are both dressed for success and I am happy to say that we had no accidents or wet belly bands while they acclimated to each other. Jack is pretty much belly band free in his adopted home with his dad but sometimes new situations can cause a slight set back, that is when we make sure the boys in our house are dressed for success! Eases the issue for everyone involved.
Yesterday we took Timken to a Rat Terrier Meet Up at a small dog off leash park. There were so many ratties and rattie moms and dads. This venue was too much for Tim as he was kind of a nervous wreck about everything new. New place, new people, new dogs and noise and bustling. I didn't get any pictures taken as I was more concerned with making sure he was ok and also managing the other 4 dogs we brought with us.
But have no fear! I did get a lot of beautiful pictures of Tim today as he was relaxed in the yard in the sunshine.
Oh Tim you handsome devil (angel) you....
Tim is filling out nicely, he has gained a few ounces and I think he is at his ideal weight now!
Just like a model, strike a pose.
Tim and Skip showing how the young and the senior models do it.
We have had nothing but fog at our place for over a week, but yesterday the sun came out and Timken found a sunny spot to enjoy for just a little while.
I love how much more confident Tim is looking. He still has a ways to go but we see progress every day.
We have a visitor for a couple of days! Jack (who was Cony) is in the house. His dad had an engagement and he has been doing so much good work with getting Jack and his confidence level up that he wanted to leave him in a place where he was familiar to Jack and it worked out that we could squeeze him in. lol
He has been doing some training with his dad and a positive trainer, he has his "sit" down and we are practicing his "down" with him as he still needs to do his homework even if at a sleepover.
Jack (L) and Tim getting to know each other
Jack really wants to engage Tim and Tim is not sure about it.
Tim (L) is still working through some low confidence stuff. What handsome boys!
Jack (11 o'clock) demonstrates his awesome "sit" with Skip, Birdie, and Jenny, while Tim hopes he can have a treat just for being cute.
I wanted to share these great pictures of our personal dog Skip from our vacation. He was such a champ to hop up on the cool rock formations at Hug Point and then stay while I took a few shots. What a beautiful boy!
Hug Point Cannon Beach has all these great rock formations and small caves.
Skip wears a tag our friend's gave him on his harness that says "Ladies Man" lol
Skip is 10 now and getting a gray muzzle, he is still as spry as can be though!
Mom is this the money shot? We sure do love our boy. (and all our girls too of course :)
I got Pupdates from the parents of two foster dogs in the last couple of weeks! Vespa and Izzy (aka Sunbeam) Everyone loves the Happy Tails....
Vespa (L) and her fursister Elphie. Mom writes "Here are the girls in their serious pose". I just can't believe how big Vespa is now!
She
absolutely LOVES our new house, is constantly running laps in the yard, and
sprints down to the lake every chance she gets. We were working with having her
exercising the lucky fin by swimming in the lake before the weather cooled.All in all, there are four happy girls in our
new home.
Vespa, as pictured in Dogue Magazine
I just wanted to show you an updated picture of Izzy
(Sunbeam). This is from this summer, she is now even bigger! 17.3 pounds. We
just took her to her 1st vet appt :)
Today marks the 4th day Tim has been in our home and today was a really great day! We took the dogs back out to do our loop walk that we did with Tim on Sunday, his first walk, see blog post Timmy Gets Out, and he was a champ! He did not balk once, walked right on foster dad's heels for the whole 4 miles and basically strutted his stuff like he owned the place. Wow what progress! We were astounded.
He was also so much calmer riding in his crate in the car. He settled right down and barely a whine was detected.
When we got home from our walk and while I was making lunch, Tim took it upon himself to play with Blue (our dog Skip's ball), he tossed Blue a bit and batted at Blue and play bowed to Blue. Again we were in awe. Just the day before he would not even go near the toys in the house, he seemed to be so afraid of them and stressed out over most everything including us just walking through the house. So today when he played with a ball we were overjoyed for him.
He also slept in my easy chair while I did my New Rattitude stuff instead of pacing. Up until today he paced a lot, couldn't get relaxed except for a brief time, then paced again and pawed at me a lot. But today he was feeling so much better.
Fostering these shy and undersocialized dogs always teaches me something. If we can just wait it out and have faith they do make baby steps which turn into big strides and bring huge smiles to our faces and joy in our hearts. Way to go Timken!
He is still a bit stiff legged for sure, I believe this is from his anxiety he carries around with him, but in time I hope he will loosen up. The play bow alone is enough to bring tears to my eyes. What a great Tuesday it has been!
Being that Timken had been on a long transport from Central CA and then he had to figure out a whole new home, people, and new dogs he was a bit keyed up. We are pretty sure he has not really ever been off the property from where he had come from being that he was rescued from a back yard breeder. Walking him around the neighborhood would not be something he would be comfortable with so off we went to our favorite dog walking spot. These trails seldom have even one other person on them so they are a great place for a shy boy like Timmy to get his walking legs. He had to maneuver a harness and leash and all sorts of weird feeling ground surfaces that he probably had never experienced.
We went really slow and let him figure it all out at his pace. It really helps that our dogs are there to show the way I think. Before too long Tim was motoring along and stopping to sniff bushes and things. Marking spots with our dogs and for maybe the first time in his life just being able to be free to be a dog that likes to explore and move around in nature.
In this first video you can see that Tim is really befuddled with the whole leash thing. He was getting tangled and going in circles at one point. I decided to let a few of our dogs off leash so he wouldn't get caught up in leashes which was making him more nervous.
In very short order Tim figured out there are all sorts of smells on the trail and he started to relax because his mind was on sniffing and being a dog. He even marked where Liza marked! Yay!
In this video Tim had really balked and stopped moving. No problem with us, we just stopped and let him work through it. What he needed was a little lovin' and encouragement from Dave to get his bearings and the courage to continue forward. Worked like a charm and off we went.
Tim and Jenny sniff together
Tim not looking too comfortable.
Tim checking out a log in the bushes, he was so curious about this log and then freaked himself out that it was alive and let out a little bark.
Getting some reassurance from foster dad.
Here Jenny teaches Tim where her favorite place to walk is, on the heels of one of her people. He is starting to get the hang of it and tail is more relaxed and ears are starting to turn back. Then at the end he gets nervous again, not bad though for the first time out!
This was really hard to film but I got most of it. Tim meeting a small running stream for the first time. He did amazingly well! This might seem like no big deal but for a dog who has most likely never seen running water and had to figure out how to maneuver it, I know his little brain was really working. So you won't hear us coaxing Tim, it isn't about us trying to get him to do something or even us trying to coach him or help him. We just let him firgure it out at his pace, he finally decided to go for it when I stepped into the stream too. If we would have pulled the leash or called him to us or anything like that he would not have trusted us as quickly as us just allowing him to have all the time he needed to do it on his own. That is the "force free" way of working with a dog. In the end he even jumps on the log and stays there a second to check out the scenery from a different vantage point. Such a great first walk!
Love working with this boy!
Ahhhh a long walk, a full tummy, and finally Timken is settling down to relax.
Young Timken has only been with us a few hours but he has figured out something very important already. What is "it" you ask? The pictures will tell....
Once Tim met the pack and had a chance to sniff inside and outside the house he found himself drawn to "it".
"It" was so inviting he just had to muster up all his courage... (notice his body language, really unsure but very brave)
Of course "it" is foster dad's lap. We haven't had a foster dog yet who didn't covet Dave's safe lap and Tim figured this out in record time. Less than an hour.
I love that he doesn't mind the camera! What a special boy...
Our dog Skip thinks he should get to share "it".
Good thing for Skip there is plenty of lap for him and Blue too!
Our family of two adults and 4 ratties have been on vacation for a couple of weeks on the Oregon Coast. Because we knew we would be on vacation we had about a 4 week break between foster dogs. Timken has been waiting his turn to come into foster care, and it is his turn now that we are done with sand and surf. We will be welcoming this shy and under-socialized boy in just two days. He is currently en-route from California. We hear he needs some TLC and some time to learn what living in a loving and stable home feels like. We are so happy we can help to prepare him for his perfect fit forever home. What a cute cute little guy he is!
We have been in Bandon, Or for the last week and what a wonderful time we have been having. We are staying in a vacation home with private access to the beach and we have basically had the place to our selves! This makes it so nice for our 4 dogs because they can run all over the beach and we don't have to worry about them bothering other people and/or dogs. What a great way to spend our days walking, talking, and doing one of our favorite things, watching our dogs be dogs.
These first few pictures were taken down at Devil's Kitchen beach. Skip loves it when we come to the fresh water tributaries. He could play in the water and pull sticks out and explore for hours. Skip really turns into a happy boy when on the beach which is so wonderful to see.
Jenny likes to look for something she can try to eat...we have to really watch her as she has found a few things too <smile>
Skip takes a moment from his exploring for me to get a picture.
He loves to drag driftwood around.
Okay mom...yes I am a handsome boy now stop calling my name and let me get to my exploration!
These next set of photos are from a hike we did at South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, in Charleston, OR. If you ever get down to Bandon or are just passing through the area I would recommend this light and easy loop hike which goes through some pretty old forest, out over a series of wonderful boardwalks which go over sensitive wetlands and out to a big salt marsh where there is tons of bird action. Kingfishers, Canadian Geese, Cormorants, were just a few that we spied. They do allow dogs on leash only and kept under control.
A big flock of Canadian Geese flew over the salt marsh. They were so close not only could we hear that they seemed to have individual honks but we could also hear their wings flapping. What a beautiful sight. Liza stands on her hind legs wishing they didn't have a leash rule so she could run along after them.
On top of a large lookout platform was a bench. We thought this bench made a good impromptu photo shoot for the dogs.
l-r Jenny, Skip, Liza, Birdie (Jenny just wanted down, Skip and Birdie are always very attentive to what is being asked of them, and Liza is usually interested in something else of treats aren't involved.
Skip and Birdie with leashes off only for the picture.
I had asked Birdie to "stay" with her hand signal (she is deaf) and Dave had asked Skip to "shake" They are so cute!
Skip and Liza, got Liza to focus for a split second.
We sat on a nice viewing deck that looks out over the expanse of the salt marsh. It was so peaceful and again we had the place to ourselves.
Skip wanted to go into the water but no such luck, he was reeled in very fast and put back on the trail where he belonged.
The first day of our stay I took these photos. It was hard to get pictures as the dogs had been cooped up in the car for the whole day so they were pretty stoked to run around on the beach and get their wiggles out.
I love this mom!
Whoops only got his legs....
Liza checking out why I bent down, maybe a treat involved? Sorry just trying to get a Kodak moment Liza Bear.
Jenny Boo, she just wants to get her photo done so she can go try to find something yucky to eat.
