Everything, Including the Kitchen Sink!

If Shep's summer had an anthem, it would most definitely be One Republic's Good Life. In fact, hit play and then read the summer update:



Yesterday as Jeremy and I were packing up to leave the lake house we couldn't find Shep. We searched all over the house for him. Standing in the kitchen starting to get worried about him having gotten out I heard the comforting tinkling of his collar tags. I looked up, and our dog was sitting in the kitchen sink with his front paws on the window, intently watching the yard. He'll clearly never stop exploring and for this, we love him.

Shep has had a busy summer so far! We boarded him for the first time, which went off without a hitch! We are lucky that his daycare (aka the BEST daycare around!!) offers boarding. He had a blast and so did we on our mini getaway neurotic dog free!

Shep turned two in June. It's amazing to reflect on how far he has come in such a short amount of time. We are certainly seeing him become more and more confident, which is awesome. Clearly, he jumped into the kitchen sink, he's a changed animal from his early times with us! We're with him all the time so its hard for us to always be objective, but its been great to hear from our family, friends and neighbors that they too see a changed dog. Certainly, age plays a factor, but we also know hard work has gotten us to where we are.

From August 14, 2011

Although his confidence is improving, we still have concern in some areas. We learned the hard way that Shep is simply not a fan of crutches, albeit the hard way. A friend who happens to be scared of dogs, stopped by on crutches early on in the summer. Shep was happy to see her, but barked, growled and had his hair stand up when he saw the crutches. If the crutches were laying on the ground, he was totally good. Once the crutches were up and moving he was so unsure. Good thing we have a spare pair in the basement so we can work on it with him to be a little proactive in the event one of his clumsy owners breaks themselves. We don't need Shep protecting us from our mode of transportation!

From August 14, 2011

Shep's most favorite place on earth is my family's lake house in Door County, WI. Shep is so excited to swim that he allows us very little sleep our first night there. Invetiably, morning arrives and Shep is up with the sun around 530 for a swim. He is fearless in the water and barrels through waves to get his dummy.

From August 14, 2011

He can also add marina patrol to his resume:

From August 14, 2011

From August 14, 2011

The beauty of swimming for Shep is a guaranteed long, hard nap.

From August 14, 2011

Shep will never stop exploring at 5:30 in the morning, the kitchen sink, you name it! Even if he we find him in the kitchen sink, we can't help but laugh. We are so happy to get to see the transformation in this dog and to be his family. Hard work has truly paid off. In the words of my dead head husband: "We'll keep on keepin on", so proud to have this dog by our sides.

From August 14, 2011

Post Traumatic Shep

We've been tempting fate by leaving Shep out of his crate alone in the house. We started with hour-two hour increments on the weekends while we were out running errands. He rocked it! Last week we tried a half work day. Nope. Work day mornings are particularly anxious times for Shep-he spends the whole morning hunkering down hiding under tables to avoid being put in his box. I think I totally threw him for a loop last week by leaving him out of his crate and exiting the house, leaving him unsure what to do with the anxiety. So, he promptly ran upstairs to our bedroom and chewed on our wooden bed. He could have chewed on our bed at any point while I was gone, but if I was a wagering gal, my money is on it was done in the first 5 minutes we were away and stopped once he realized being alone was like every other time he had been alone.

Shep is a very active sleeper--tail goes crazy, cries, growls and "runs" in his sleep. The other interesting development is that about once a month Shep has been, like a little kid having a nightmare, wetting the bed at night. Our bed. When we wake up to him jumping out of bed because he's had an accident he hunkers down in the corner, ears flat, tail between his legs. We give him some love so he knows we aren't mad, Jeremy takes him outside while I clean up and get us re-sheeted. We've got it down to a science. As an aside, we have had him checked out by his vet who has indicated there is nothing physiologically amiss.We realize most people would kick their dog out of bed after this happened once, but we've also realized we aren't most people. What happened to this dog before coming to our home was not his fault and we refuse to punish him for it.

The good news is that Shep's trainer is officially no longer on the Techtmann payroll. She does check in with us from time to time to see how Shephard is doing. She happened to send me such an email the day I came home to find the chewed bed. I shared with her the same info in this post. She mulled it over. She got back in touch with us and suggested an unconventional route: treat Shep, via herbal remedy, for Post Traumatic Stress. At this point, we've got nothing to lose. Its totally safe, and we have seen him respond well to herbal remedy's we've tried for anxiety. It's go time.

Are we officially crazy dog people? Yes. Would we trade him for the world? Nope.

Shepdates

Shep is a funny funny guy; therefore, he becomes the subject of facebook status updates, or as known to his ever growing and loyal facebook following: "shepdates".

We thought we'd summarize the last couple months of shepdates to give blog world an idea of what he's been up to and do so Letterman Top Ten style:

10. dear shephard, thank you for being the scene making dog in the neighborhood on a quiet sunday morning. actually, all the time. we're honored.



9.totally biffed at doggy gym today. our neighbor across the street told me he nicknamed me "the girl that falls" just trying to live up to the honor (only included because I fall a LOT when Shep pulls me).

8.What did you do this afternoon? If you are Shep, you spent a great portion of it smelling the wall like a crazy.

7.friendly doggy gym attendee "which dog is yours?"
me, after scanning the pack: "oh, he's that one, the one running around with the cell phone in his mouth"

6.shephard's most recent doggy daycare report card: "I party like a rockstar and I don't like to stop, I like to cuddle and I like to wrestle" Yep, thats our boy.

5.I've decided walking Shephard is like driving a bus full of women in labor in rush hour traffic the wrong way down Chicago's Magnificent Mile. The level of concentration required and near disasters encountered give us both a physical and mental workout. Thanks, I guess?!

4.Shep found a ladybug in the house tonight. and then he ate it. and then he choked on it. and then i had to pull it out of his throat. he's a winner.

3.Sitting on our couch I hear the an interesting noise from upstairs where S is, flying solo. Putting my game face on to greet what I can only begin to imagine is waiting for me I walk up stairs. Yea, Shep got his head stuck between the slats in our banister. Honestly, we need to find a way to make money off this dog.

2.just got home from getting shephard from daycare. standing in the kitchen on the phone, i watched shephard close his eyes while standing up. then his body started to slump over. yep, our dog fell asleep standing up. time to call the lawyer and have the doggy daycare people added to our will.


And the number 1 Shepdate.......


1.I think he missed me. Just got home and the minute I sat down he climbed into my lap to lay his head on my chest. everyone should have a dog. One of life's great feelings.

Snow Dog!

It's a snowy day in the Midwest, but that hasn't stopped Shep!

From Shephard Meets World

Although confused at first, he wasted no time helping us dig out! He makes two formerly winter crabs love the weather!

Oogy Dog

As a Christmas gift I received a book entitled Oogy. Oogy is the story of a dog and his incredibly loving family. A little bit about Oogy: http://www.animals-abused.org/oogy-story.htm

From Shephard Meets World

I was so touched by the gift and can not keep a dry eye when I read about Oogy's story and the love he shares with his family. It's so wonderful to know there are other families like ours out there--families with more courage than us to help animals with bigger issues than our boys'.

I've made reference to the fact Shep joining our family has done more for us than just allow us to have a pet. In reading Oogy's story and seeing some of the similarities between the two dogs and reading the love Oogy's family has for him I am again reminded Shep joined us for a very important reason. We will always be grateful for our Oogy dog, even if he drives us crazy.

Although, knock on wood, our Oogy dog has been great! We started him at doggy day care once a week and he is rockin it! We think we are beginning to see a difference in how he greets dogs he doesn't know as well....here's to a happy, healthy 2011 with our Oogy dog and all the Oogy dogs of the world!

Happy Anniversary Turkey Dog

A year ago today, our turkey of a dog joined our family.

Here's to a year of chewed shoes, snuggles, meltdowns, terror chases, anxiety attacks and most importantly, love.

Thanks for choosing us, for opening our world, introducing us to some special new people and for making us a stronger team!

From Shephard Meets World

From Shephard Meets World

From Shephard Meets World

So He Sits

As many of our family and friends know, Shep began to show fearful signs when around dogs he doesn't know over the summer. This really caught us off guard as we dont call him friendly to a fault for the fun of it. He has always been very friendly with other dogs and loves to play and certainly always friendly with humans. Shep has several very good dog friends that he loves to play with and has never met a human whose face he couldnt spend the entire day licking. Moreover, if we introduce a new dog to him in our home, he's good to go. Its just something about uncertain situations that makes him anxious.

What does he do when he sees a dog he doesnt know? We refer to it as "losing his marbles" but really, he barks, jumps up, backs up and lets out his unsure throaty growl. If we are in the house and he sees the dog walking on the street, he will anxiously trot back and forth back and forth and back and forth (repeat 50 times) between the front and side doors. We know exactly what it is, but understand how it could easily be misunderstood by a passerby. We know in our heart of hearts Shep would never hurt another being, but this behavior stresses me out. There, I said it. It's not helpful to Shep if he can tell I am stressed out by it, this I know. Our trainer, amidst my anxiety about it during a session, has assured me he is not an unfriendly or an aggressive dog. Rather, a dog whose past in uncertain. I have learned to just buck up and poker face him to get him through the nonsense. I have been hesitant to blog about it because I dont want the wrong impression of our anxious dog to be given; however, in an effort to remain truthful to the spirit of our blog-- sharing the trials and tribulations of an abused rescue dog-- we opted for disclosure.

To combat the marble loss we take a 2 pronged approach:

1. Shep likes to sit in our front door and overlook his kingdom. Our house sits on a hill so he is afforded a throne like view. We keep hot dogs, cheese, Pirate's Booty (discovered out of desperation one day!), you name it by the front door. Whenever a dog walks by, regardless of if he knows the dog or not, we give him treats for being calm. Not calm? No treat. The whole idea is to get him to a. realize its good to be calm, b. no one is going to hurt him, c. focusing on Maggie and Jeremy is way better than focusing on that other dog. It's actually really working, just a VERY time consuming training method for us. He has significantly reduced the marble loss in this situation. We will continue to work on it with him to get him where we know he can be. What's really cool is that if we are in the other room and an unfamiliar dog walks by, we will hear him let out one gruff and then he promptly comes running to find one of us to get his treat. We take the show on the road and take these special treats on our walks. Today was a particularly frustrating walk for me, but actually great progress for Shep. A man was walking two, count them two dogs. Shep was able to keep 75% of his marbles. That is progress.

2. Several posts ago I described Shep's snoot loop, a new head collar we put on him for walks to reduce his pulling. If he pulls on a walk, he essentially stops himself. We then wait until he gives us slack, or ideally, eye contact before we move on. When we see other dogs out walking, he of course pulls and stops himself. And then we wait until he is calm and we give treats. And then we wait until we get eye contact and we move on.

To shed some humor on the situation, one of the funniest moments to us is when we are on a walk with him and he looses his marbles all over the street in a pool of anxiety if another dog approaches. We wait him out and reinforce as appropriate while the other dog walks by and looks at Shep like: "WHAT is your problem?" Ah, if only we knew.

It can be unanimously agreed upon that animal abuse is wrong and people support the eradication of it and getting abused and stray animals into homes like ours but we have realized that what people seem to be much less comfortable with is the reality of the long road ahead for the lucky animals who make it out alive. People sometimes look at us like we are crazy for dealing with his issues,or, on good days like we are making a mountain out of a mo hill but we know it would be irresponsible of us to ignore any of his behaviors (that is unless we are purposely ignoring him!). Shep is one of the lucky ones. We also realize that in the grand scheme of issues stemming from being a stray or abused animal, Shep's marble loss is manageable albeit time consuming. We are grateful for this. He really has taught us we need to be a team.

After coming home from our two dog encounter walk, Shep and I fell into our routine. I undid him from his contraption of a leash, took off all his gear, got the hot dogs out of the fridge and opened the front door for him to look out and train.

So he sits. Waiting for a hot dog.

From Shephard Meets World