Second day at the shelter! I started with Margo again; I splurged for a Kong ball yesterday at the pet store, and also got my own leash with a padded handle. Margo punctured a tennis ball no problem and she's going to ruin far too many balls during our training if we use regular tennis balls. I took her to the volunteer room again and gave her a few minutes to calm down and be able to take treats before pulling the new ball out. I set it on the floor out of her reach. Maybe it's because it's a new ball to her but she was extremely excited. Whining, lunging, panting hard. I waited her out and gave her treats for looking at me. Again she wouldn't take them from my fingers at first but would eat them when tossed into her mouth. She was finally able to hold her gaze on me so I said "ok!" and let her go get it. I let her chew it and kick it around for a few minutes- until she rolled it under a locker and couldn't reach it. I was able to get it and we played again, but again she was way over the top excited and it took her a long time to calm down. When she got it I again let her play with it until she kicked it away, then we played just once more before I put it away because she was really, really excited about it all. For about about another 5 minutes she was frantically searching for the ball despite my best efforts to calm her down and distract her. When she was finally able to lay down I let her relax for a few minutes then took her back to her kennel. I left a note on her door saying *NO BALLS* and that she is in ball rehab to help her control her obsession.
Next I got a year old lab/pit mix puppy named Lana. She had TONS of energy! I tried to keep her engaged with toys in the interaction yard as she is a jumper and foot biter. She started turning to my feet too much and I to be quite honest I wasn't comfortable with how she was treating me and didn't have other things to use to distract her, so I put her back. The times when she was toy-focused she was really sweet, but if I got excited with her or moved around she'd often go for my feet.
Third today was Buddah [Petfinder link, different name listed there] (not my misspelling of Buddha!) a ~5 yr old bluenose pitbull with a sadly bad crop, who I assumed was a male before seeing her in the interaction yard. But nope, girl! In the kennel she was jumping all over me, very excited and wiggly. As soon as she was out of the kennel area she was calm. Amazingly calm. Buddah is a fitting name! She sniffed around the yard a little, I encouraged her to chase and play with toys, but all she wanted was to sit by me, leaning ever so gently against my leg, being petted and loved. Which I did. Eventually she laid down and even wanted belly rubs. I adore her!
Then I got out Snoopy [Petfinder link], another bluenose pit. He was also super sweet and mostly just wanted loving. He wanted to play a bit and had a blast chasing a stuffed animal.
Last was Sadie [Petfinder link]. It said on her card she is a jumper but seems friendly. Boy, was she a jumper. It was tough to get the leash on. Once we were walking to the yard she was good though. She loved chasing toys so I kept tossing one after another for her to get and bring back, using several different toys. Burning energy and not jumping, yay! I made a note on her card that playing fetch with 2+ toys would keep her busy and not jumping up.
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