01-28-2016, 12:30 PM
Judy is doing very well; last night, she did not cry once while we were sleeping. I bought both the dogs a couple new toys last night, because she seemed very excited but apprehensive about them, not really understanding them. Butters has a lot of soft plush toys that I didn't want to let her just start destroying, although she hasn't been destructive with any, even the couple of toys we did give her.
We think we may have taught her to play "fetch" last night. She watched Butters do it a few times, and then chased the toys with weird fox-hops down the hallway. It was very awkward for her. I also bought her a rope+tennis ball toy, which she didn't even recognize as anything at all... she has shown no interest in it. She just seems like such a blank slate, and she is just like an extremely well-behaved puppy with an off-switch, because she actually sleeps a lot.
She acts really weird with being petted, too. She seems to have not been shown a ton of affection - I have watched her slowly learn that pets come from the hand, which is controlled by the floppy arm, which can be controlled with a wet snout. And I've also watched her learn to be jealous of pets, because at first she didn't care at all that Butters would be pet near her. As she got more and more fond of affection she's started putting herself between us more. She goes into a total trance when she's being pet, unlike any dog I can think of - Butters for instance, gets really excited and wriggles around so that you scratch him all over. Dexter liked pets of course, but she was constantly absorbing every bit of stimuli from the environment around her and processing it, which resulted in ADD behavior. This dog closes her eyes, starts drooling, and eventually melts into a puddle on the floor.
She has shown us a few hints at being abused, unless she's naturally just a completely submissive dog. But she's flinched a few times at inconsequential things (the toys), and seems to be triggered a bit by being grabbed on the collar. Yesterday when I took her to get her checked for the chip, we had an incident when I put her in the car. She went nicely into the back seat, but then stuck her nose and a paw up on the console to go to the front seat. I gave her a "Nonono" (gentle, not a big deal but I was about to drive a 40lb dog 10miles in my car alone, I wanted her to know to stay in the backseat). She then thought I was saying no to being in the car, so she then came back out to try to get out. Then my "nos" were a little more insistant, but still playful, and I grabbed her by the collar to redirect her back into the car. She cried out and collapsed - she was half out of the car but she just collapsed and flopped so hard that she landed in the driveway. I felt terrible, but I guess I just have to be especially gentle with her. We also NEED to get her a new collar (Kile has been hesitant because he feels like a jerk doing that so fast), but I should probably do it in the next couple days. The one she has will probably need cut off, it's so tight I don't think I can unhinge it without really hurting/choking her.
She ate twice as much yesterday as she had the past two days, which is good, because she is a little bony in the hips and could stand to gain probably 4-5lbs or so. I thought maybe she wasn't liking the organic dog food (btw my dogfood bill is about the get absurd) but I think she may not eat because of anxiety, which would make sense since Butters is exactly the same (and incidentally, so am I ;p) She ate a good meal in the morning yesterday, and then CHOWED DOWN when I got home from work last night - which is exactly what Butters does every night, goes on a hunger strike until the "release" of the joy of me being home is so overwhelming he's suddenly starving). So, I think she's settling in quite nicely.
She's just so sweet and gentle, although the new stimuli are overwhelming for her and she gets overexcited at times (taking a treat, playing the the toys). I think she had to compete for another dog because she is quite grabby. She also has growled a couple of times at Butters when she was in a vulnerable position (on her back, near her food, with a toy) so we're just being really attentive and guarding most of their interactions. Butters is doing extremely well, though. They want to play but because she has showed just the slightest bit of aggression towards him we've really tried to keep them a bit mellow with each other, so I think they are a little confused, but they will grow to know each other in time. We were very worried about Buddy because when we got Dexter, he was almost 3, and he threw the biggest fit. He was depressed for MONTHS. He would just stare at the wall, not eat, not play, give us long sighs, it was pitiful and the main reason we haven't gotten another dog. I think this is just much easier to handle than the hyperactive, irresistibly adorable puppy we brought home last time.
I'm still scouring all the lost and found sites, looking at all the pictures. But the happier/more comfortable she gets the less anxious I am about finding her owners (who I feel should have made some effort to find her at this point), because while I don't think she had it bad per se, I think this will be a great situation to help build her confidence and become an aware dog.
Neat picture my husband took of her last night:
![[Image: 0evgAUq.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/0evgAUq.jpg)
We think we may have taught her to play "fetch" last night. She watched Butters do it a few times, and then chased the toys with weird fox-hops down the hallway. It was very awkward for her. I also bought her a rope+tennis ball toy, which she didn't even recognize as anything at all... she has shown no interest in it. She just seems like such a blank slate, and she is just like an extremely well-behaved puppy with an off-switch, because she actually sleeps a lot.
She acts really weird with being petted, too. She seems to have not been shown a ton of affection - I have watched her slowly learn that pets come from the hand, which is controlled by the floppy arm, which can be controlled with a wet snout. And I've also watched her learn to be jealous of pets, because at first she didn't care at all that Butters would be pet near her. As she got more and more fond of affection she's started putting herself between us more. She goes into a total trance when she's being pet, unlike any dog I can think of - Butters for instance, gets really excited and wriggles around so that you scratch him all over. Dexter liked pets of course, but she was constantly absorbing every bit of stimuli from the environment around her and processing it, which resulted in ADD behavior. This dog closes her eyes, starts drooling, and eventually melts into a puddle on the floor.
She has shown us a few hints at being abused, unless she's naturally just a completely submissive dog. But she's flinched a few times at inconsequential things (the toys), and seems to be triggered a bit by being grabbed on the collar. Yesterday when I took her to get her checked for the chip, we had an incident when I put her in the car. She went nicely into the back seat, but then stuck her nose and a paw up on the console to go to the front seat. I gave her a "Nonono" (gentle, not a big deal but I was about to drive a 40lb dog 10miles in my car alone, I wanted her to know to stay in the backseat). She then thought I was saying no to being in the car, so she then came back out to try to get out. Then my "nos" were a little more insistant, but still playful, and I grabbed her by the collar to redirect her back into the car. She cried out and collapsed - she was half out of the car but she just collapsed and flopped so hard that she landed in the driveway. I felt terrible, but I guess I just have to be especially gentle with her. We also NEED to get her a new collar (Kile has been hesitant because he feels like a jerk doing that so fast), but I should probably do it in the next couple days. The one she has will probably need cut off, it's so tight I don't think I can unhinge it without really hurting/choking her.
She ate twice as much yesterday as she had the past two days, which is good, because she is a little bony in the hips and could stand to gain probably 4-5lbs or so. I thought maybe she wasn't liking the organic dog food (btw my dogfood bill is about the get absurd) but I think she may not eat because of anxiety, which would make sense since Butters is exactly the same (and incidentally, so am I ;p) She ate a good meal in the morning yesterday, and then CHOWED DOWN when I got home from work last night - which is exactly what Butters does every night, goes on a hunger strike until the "release" of the joy of me being home is so overwhelming he's suddenly starving). So, I think she's settling in quite nicely.
She's just so sweet and gentle, although the new stimuli are overwhelming for her and she gets overexcited at times (taking a treat, playing the the toys). I think she had to compete for another dog because she is quite grabby. She also has growled a couple of times at Butters when she was in a vulnerable position (on her back, near her food, with a toy) so we're just being really attentive and guarding most of their interactions. Butters is doing extremely well, though. They want to play but because she has showed just the slightest bit of aggression towards him we've really tried to keep them a bit mellow with each other, so I think they are a little confused, but they will grow to know each other in time. We were very worried about Buddy because when we got Dexter, he was almost 3, and he threw the biggest fit. He was depressed for MONTHS. He would just stare at the wall, not eat, not play, give us long sighs, it was pitiful and the main reason we haven't gotten another dog. I think this is just much easier to handle than the hyperactive, irresistibly adorable puppy we brought home last time.
I'm still scouring all the lost and found sites, looking at all the pictures. But the happier/more comfortable she gets the less anxious I am about finding her owners (who I feel should have made some effort to find her at this point), because while I don't think she had it bad per se, I think this will be a great situation to help build her confidence and become an aware dog.
Neat picture my husband took of her last night:
![[+]](https://www.bring4th.org/forums/images/collapse_collapsed.png)