Snow Babies

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.

Tim warming up on a nice blanket

Sybil in her chair looking pretty.

Shake it, Shake it, Shake it Tim!!!!! With Sybil.... :)

Timken has officially been our foster dog for 8 weeks as I write this post. He has really been getting into "rattie death-shaking" toys, he does it every morning after he comes in from his morning potty break for the last week. The way  Rat Terriers hunt is to chase down their prey, grab with their teeth and give a quick shake, then they drop and move on to the next rat, or mouse, or....Most ratties who are family companions don't ever really get a chance to work like this in a real world situation like a barn, or field, or rat infested building, but it always astounds me that every one seems to figure out how to practice this rattie death shake on the soft toys and sometimes socks that they come into contact with. For quite a few weeks Tim was not too sure about toys, he had pondered a ball, but he just was too frightened to really mouth and manipulate other toys. Then it happened! I was in the kitchen and he just picked up this turtle toy (that Tripp's mom gave us) and he was shaking it....and shaking it....and shaking it!

Thanks to Sybil my personal in home spokesmodel. Sybil is happy to show you the toys that Tim...and she...have found interesting to play with and shake. Isn't she the cutest? Thank you Sybil :)

Here is tim with Mr Turtle, the first toy he really got into shaking.

 I like how Tim's confidence level really seems to go up a notch when he is shaking Mr Turtle in this video.

Tim had continued playing on the couch with Mr T, but left him to check out Squirrel. Mr T is a funny toy with a face on both sides. lol He is a cyclops on one side because someone bit off one if his eyes. Liza wonders what the heck is going on.

Liza and Mr T just supervising Tim while he explores Squirrel further.

Here Sybil watches Tim shaking the toy, what I didn't know at the time is that she is just taking it alllll in. Hold that thought!

Lovely Sybil strikes a pose for foster mom.

The next toy Tim found to shake was Monkey and ohhhh that was very appealing with arms and legs that really swing.

HA I got you Monkey

Oh oh, poor Monkey.

And remember I said Sybil had been taking all this in? Well I happened to be recording and caught her and Timken in the act! Of what you ask? Watch the video and you will see. This was the first time they have done this.

Good job Tim and Sybil! Both these dogs are really making headway into learning how to play, what a great experience for us to get to witness them exploring playing together.

Doll heads doll head roly poly doll heads....

This will probably be one the weirdest blog posts I will post. lol. It all started the other day when we were out in the big part of the yard gardening after the big freeze we had. Sybil, Timken, and the dogs were all given access to the whole acre while we were outside and Sybil and Tim were having a blast. Since they don't get to go out in the big yard often they always are so excited to be able to explore all the nooks and crannies of the property. Sybil was especially interested in something behind the long shed out there and we figured she was watching a squirrel as she does love a good squirrel watch.

Then we saw her playing with something very small, we thought it had to be a small mouse the way she was moving, pouncing, and running after it. So when I got my camera and recorder to get some photos for a blog post to our surprise this is what she had found!

Dave started singing to the tune of Fish Heads by Barnes and Barnes, "Doll heads, doll heads, roly poly doll HEADS, doll heads doll heads chew them up yum." Well then this got me singing the damn song over and over and I am still singing it a few days later. LOL

 

 

 Here Sybil is very intent on her doll head and chewing it.

 

Here Timken comes over for a check out but now it has become this very high value item to Sybil and she snarks at him to leave her and the doll head alone. Oh brother!

This is serious business as you can tell.

Tim managed to get the doll head for a few chews.

Well this doll head is just too small to be safe so foster mom now has it on her desk where she can laugh every time she sees it.


For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about here is the actual song and really funky music video. I warned you this would be a very weird blog post!

Timken Learns About Life In The Real World, Part 2c

Ok so with the recent memory of how the last meet up with a new person in a new place went we were ready to try again and this time I would make sure to set Timken up for success. Remember Cony now Jack? Jack is a dog who also is undersocialized (not to the degree as Tim) and so I know that his dad, Dick, would love to help with Timken as he had been working on that with Jack. I also know that Dick would be happy to let me call the shots, so I emailed him inviting our selves to the house. He was more than happy for us to come and visit.

Here is the email I sent Dick in preparation for our visit.

"So I have been learning about what works for Tim and what doesn't work as far as socializing. He does not do well if strangers try to give him treats or talk to him so when we come over it would be best for him if we all just talked and let him be and not try to have you touch him, reach out to him, or try to give him a treat. This is just too much for him right now."

Dick wrote back to me that he would make sure to follow my instructions and that he would just sit on the floor and let Tim be. PERFECT! And that was exactly what we all did!

 Tim meets Dick and my past foster boy Jack (aka Cony). A Positive Experience!

 

This visit had a few good things going for it up front. One was that Timken had met Jack and spent a few days with him at our house a couple of weeks prior to this visit, he had not met his dad though so that he was new to him and he had not been to this house before. Also we brought Sybil along with us as I just wanted to set this experience up to be as positive as I could. This visit was 2 days after the last experience that hadn't gone so well. Yes I am being an over protective foster mom, but I was just bound and determined to have this go well and it paid off! Tim was a rock star! I only got three pictures but they tell the story.

 

 

In this picture I am sitting on the floor right next to Dick (red shirt to my right) and Timken is sitting on my lap and is curious and interested in what is going on. Dave was across the room and we were all just sitting there talking and ignoring Tim. What I didn't get a picture of was when Tim decided to walk over to Dave by walking across Dick's legs that were stretched out in front if him. AND I was so appreciative that Dick did not reach out to pet him, which would be a natural instinct. I was so excited for Tim!

 

 

This was my attempt to get a picture of Tim who decided to come back to my lap by walking back across Dick's legs, notice his tail is relaxed and not tucked? Just to let you know, Tim could have gone around the other way and not crossed Dick's legs but he felt confident to go right over him. Baby steps and this foster mom was so proud!

 

 

Sybil who loves to meet new people had no trouble getting a kiss in there to Jack's dad.

After we were there about 20 minutes we all decided to take the dogs for a walk and then to go ahead and leave on a good note. So we all went for a walk together to the top of the street and Tim did really well! He even went potty which tells me he was feeling relaxed enough to relieve himself. We will have to go back for another visit and see how Tim does on a second visit. Thanks to Dick for playing along with my criteria for Tim. What a positive experience we all had.

 

Stay tuned for another post in this series.  New Rattitude alumni Skittles and his mom, Angela, are coming to our house for a visit soon and to offer help to Tim as he meets another new person and new doggie!

Sybil Says "Baby It's Cooooold Outside"

Our temps have been down in the teens and Sybil is doing some power relaxing while she waits for the temps to come back up again.

Foster mom is it warm outside yet?

Maybe when I wake up it will be warm outside......in the mean time I will just sleep with monkey.

Timken Learns About Life In The Real World, Part 2b

This post will illustrate what happened when we, the humans, doubted our selves and also didn't step in quickly enough to prevent Tim from going over threshold. We both really felt bad about how this meet up went, but we talked about it and realized that we learned so much from the experience. Some times trial and error is the only way to figure things out.

 Tim meets a new person at her place of work and goes over threshold!

We headed out to meet J Linn at her place of business. J Linn was instrumental in helping our foster dog Sierra use her post surgery leg and she agreed to be one of our persons to help with Tim's socialization. This time it was just us and Tim visiting, no other dogs went in with us. 

This is when we were walking Tim before we went into the building. This was a new place on a busier road than we have had him so far. Notice the body language? He was very nervous.

We walked him up and around the back of the building which was away from the noise of the road and there are trees in the back, he is still very  nervous but was feeling a little more comfortable to walk.

We found some nice grass and weeds that Tim could sniff and hopefully pee before we went into the building. This relaxed him as he loves nature and yes he did pee, a good sign he was loosening up.

 We went in the front door and J Linn came out to meet us. We all sat down on the floor and she asked us to not pet Tim when he came to us for reassurance as he always does when he needs it. We both had wondered why we should not reassure him but neither of us asked as we figured she had a good reason and so we both just sat there and when Tim came up to us we just kept our hands in our laps. 

Mistake #1- We didn't ask why we shouldn't reassure him.

Mistake #2- We didn't trust our instincts

We all sat there and Tim began to quickly get aroused and started to pace. I got some treats out of my purse and decided to give him a few and he took them from me and ate them. Then J Linn asked if she could hand him a treat.  

I want to make this perfectly clear, this post is in no way meant to criticize J Linn. The truth is most people, including Dave and I do not realize the complexities of a dog like Tim. Most dogs do just fine when a little shy, being offered a treat by a stranger, taking the treat, and learning quickly that they can trust that person. Tim is beyond just shy, he has never learned that hands can be trusted, in fact I believe he has learned just the opposite, that hands cause pain and should be feared. I had read about and also been told by a fellow foster mom who has a lot of experience with dogs like Tim that *we* should make sure to be the ones to give Tim treats rather than the new person because of the conflict it sets up for the dog of wanting a treat but being afraid of the new person. 

But we didn't follow through with that, I handed J Linn some treats to offer Tim from her hand

Mistake #3-I didn't trust my instincts again and on top of that I doubted my self on what I believed was the right thing to do which was to explain that I didn't think it was going to work for Tim for her to offer him a treat.

It looks like Tim is growling in this picture but it is just the shot. Here you can see the conflict he was going through. Even with the new person tossing the treat (you can see it in front of him) he was quickly going over threshold.

Here she holds the treat in her hand and he really wants it but is so conflicted. This would have been the time for one of us to say, "you know this isn't working for Tim, I think it would be better to take him out and let him get some fresh air and settle", but we didn't.

Tim did go in for the treat but this was the last time he would take a treat from her. You can't really tell but he was leaning way in to get it and he was trembling.

 After he took this treat Tim came to me for reassurance and I took him into my lap and held him. He was just trembling and nervous. He had gone over threshold very fast, all this happened in about 10 minutes time! I was thinking, "We need to get him out of here, and I found out that Dave was having the same feeling" 

Timken went into this position and it was like the ground underneath him was moving and he was having a hard time holding on. I have never seen a dog do this before.

He just could not get unstuck.

 It was now that Dave said to me, "I think I should take him out". I was so glad he had said that and I agreed he should. This was one of those cases where I was not wanting to hurt any one's feelings, I didn't want J Linn to feel bad and I was conflicted myself. 

We also wonder if we had brought another dog in with us too, like Sybil or Liza who are comfortable meeting new people if this would have helped Tim. It very well could have.

Dave took Tim out and walked him and he was able to settle down some. He was very nervous though and was happy to get back in the safety of the car. I said goodbyes and we were off. Dave and I debriefed and realized our mistakes and vowed to do better next time. Thank you to Timken for teaching us so much. Please stay tuned as we took what we learned and our third visit to a new place with a new person went much much better! 

Timken Learns About Life In The Real World, Part 2a

Tim is an adult dog in need of socialization. No big deal you think? Just take him to Petsmart and dog parks and large gatherings of people and dogs and he'll be fine. Nope doesn't work like that, even though I have seen it time and again with other dogs in public who are obviously uncomfortable in such stimulating situations. But many people, even me probably a long time ago, thought this is all you have to do to socialize a dog.

Ideally Tim would have been properly and lovingly socialized as a puppy boy but as is the problem with many rescue dogs, this was not the case, so the repercussions for Tim is anything, any place, or anyone new or novel can be very disconcerting for him. Then couple that with the fact that he is a "soft" dog by nature. Our responsibility to him is that we set him up for success and be his advocates every step of the way as we go about trying to fill in the missing pieces for him of being a trusting socialized doggie.

This all takes forethought on our part. But all the forethought in the world does not guarantee we won't make mistakes in how we handle something. Part of fostering rescue dogs and being doggie parents is learning what works and what doesn't for each dog. There is no one way to do anything with dogs as with people. We are always tweaking and adjusting our ideas, beliefs, and actions when it comes to our relationships with the dogs in our life.

I will post three short stories of Timken meeting new people in new places and what worked and what didn't. The pictures are not stellar as I really had to concentrate and be in the moment with the meet ups rather than worrying about getting good pictures.

 Tim meets our chiropractor and his wife at the clinic. A Positive Experience!

Our wonderful chiropractor and his wife are animal lovers through and through. Dr Ray, (who also does chiropractic work on animals), and Mary are so supportive of our efforts in fostering. They love it when we drop by with the latest foster dog (and personal dogs) and they are very savvy to the fact that sometimes the dogs are nervous. When I asked if they would set aside a slot of time when we could bring in Tim for a socializing visit they were happy to help! We all planned to do this after hours so we could lock down the clinic and Tim could have a quiet and peaceful meet and greet with a very tallll Dr Ray and his his gentle wife Mary.

This is Mary who just sat down and did the exact right thing when Tim came over for a check-out. She did not reach out to pet him nor did she did talk to him and she didn't make eye contact with him. We were all very excited that he felt comfortable to do this and were all a bit giddy.

We had brought Sybil in with Tim and she had no trouble going to get pet by Dr Ray. Tim seems to be a follower so the fact that she was comfortable with new people helped a lot!

Tim is the type of dog who needs reassurance all the time. He goes to foster dad for a little reassurance then he was off to explore some more.

Here is Tim wagging his tail! We did not over stay as we wanted to leave on a good note. We will go back again and see if Tim will be even more comfortable with multiple visits.

My next blog post will be about the second visit which did not go well at all. Stay tuned!