Meet Ada (dog content)

I realized that I was overdue to introduce Ada (named for Ada Lovelace), our Lab/Shar-pei. Or something. She was a stray, picked up by the county, then failed her county doggie psych exam (too submissive), and went to the Family Dogs New Life shelter, where we met her.

She's about a year old, and had a litter at some point (but she's fixed now). Or, they figured she was about a year. It's hard to say. We're pretty sure she's grown a little since we got her.

She's coming along pretty well, and getting calmer, though we still can't leave her alone for more than five minutes or so. We're practicing, and about ready to go ten minutes at a stretch. She hasn't chewed anything up really, but she clearly is agitated when we leave her. The shelter said she'd done great with crating, but our three tries with crating her to leave resulted in a lot of yipping and whining, and a couple of episodes of soiled crate. So we're focusing on getting her okay with us being gone rather than confining her. Seems like she's much less agitated if she's not crated in addition to us being gone...

Anyhow, need to get back to it; just realized that after posting about our cat passing away a few months ago, it was time for some better news

Without further ado, Ada:

adorable.

She looks like the exact opposite of my lab mix "Steve".

We had teh same issues with Steve when we first got him. We introduced the crate to him pretty slowly. We never "made" him go into the crate. We would put his food and water near / in it. He started to think of it as his "dog-cave". Now when we get ready to go somewhere, he hops right in without us asking.

Good Luck!

Rob R.

Awww, she's a cutie-patootie!

In reply to wvumtnbkr:

Thanks!

The crate things is funny... She did (and does!) go into the crate to hang out all the time. We've never forced her into it. The issue was only when we left... We were crating her at night, but at bedtime, she stopped wanting to go into the crate; we tried with treats and cajoling, spending up to an hour trying to coax her in. She eventually broke us of the habit, and we've happily just been shutting her into our bedroom (sort of two rooms) at night, out of the crate. As long as her habits and our level of dogproofing are a happy mix, there's no reason we'd really insist on having her in her crate.

We continue to give her treats and feeding in the crate in hopes of generating that "happy place" association should we need it, but are doing our leaving-her-alone practice uncrated. We should have a couple of webcams arriving today so we can keep an eye on her as we start stretching the alone time so we can go back if she's freaking out.

It's only been a month and a half, and at a recent gathering, a number of friends commented that she's "acting much more like a dog now." So that seems like a good thing

Though we don't know her whole story, she must've gotten some training, as she only ever went to the bathroom in the house A) when we first got her she was so nervous she held it for 27 hours to pee, and B) 44 hours before an upset-tummy dogsplosion of poop. Also, she seemed to know 'sit', got 'stay' very quickly, and has picked up 'leave it' pretty well, too. She's either refreshing some old training, or is smart enough that she'll continue training us as much as the other way 'round.

That last line is too true!

The only accidents we have had were of the owner inflicted variety. (Did you let Steve out? No, Did you? Nope. Crap. Literaly, crap.) That made me feel sooo bad when that happened.

Hopefully she adjusts well!

Good luck!

Rob R.

Oh, just another funny note. Among the first things you'll notice about Ada is that she's white like a refrigerator in an ice field (okay, she's got a little tan on her back).

I, on the other hand, as an old punk, have a wardrobe which consists mostly of various shades of black, depending on the age of the item of clothing. We now own about four lint rollers. We used to laugh about the number Theo, our cat did on us. He must be laughing from kitty heaven...

We actually found ourselves discussing a white carpet, as it would show fur less, and at the rate Ada sheds, we figured she might help hide wine/coffee/etc stains

Get a Kong and put a treat in it so its hard to get out? Give that to her when you leave to distract her.

In reply to CGLockRacer:

We do a bit of that, especially when stretching past five minutes.

Some friends just gave us an automatic Kong dispenser, which drops four Kongs at miscellaneous times over either four or eight hours. It apparently worked wonders keeping their nervous dog entertained while she got used to them leaving.

Beautiful dog, good name, and a nice reference.

The Army once had me learn to program in Ada. Think I ever used it?

my daughter's favorite phrase is "Home is where dog fur sticks to everything but the dog." We are now owners of several lint rollers as well.

Cute dog!

In reply to ransom:

Yay doggie.

Best wishes with sorting through the separation anxiety.

Awwwww. She's BEAUTIFUL! We had a kitteh (Little Elian Gonzales) who had anxiety issues so bad we had to put him on kitteh prozac. Forget what the stuff was called.

Pain in the ass to get the pill in him, but MAN did it make a world of difference. Totally chill cat with the drugs. Total psycho maniac without.

Best of luck!

In reply to poopshovel:

Hrm... hopefully we can do it with training, but... The good news there is that Ada's favorite thing is the pill pockets we got to give her her kennel cough meds in... She'll be happy out of her mind if she needs more pills.

Actually, we had to use a syringe to put her cough syrup in her mouth. After the fourth time we both cornered her and stuck it in there, when I was trying to do it alone, I just held it out and she lapped the stuff off the syringe while I squeezed it out...

slantvaliant wrote: The Army once had me learn to program in Ada. Think I ever used it?

I should know more about Ada (the language) than I do. Just followed the link and then blanched and closed it when I hit "non-determinism" as one of the language's attributes. I know there's a sane explanation, but I don't like the sounds of it...

amitriptyline is what Elian was on, FYI.