On the back of each kennel is a piece of paper with the days of the month. The days circled are the days the dog has been taken out of the kennel. Not enough volunteers means dogs are often not taken out of their kennels for over a week. I specifically look for the dogs that haven't been out recently, and that often means they are exploding with energy- which is often why they aren't taken out in the first place. It's a bad cycle. The dog is excited and jumping around in the kennel, which is offputting to volunteers. As days go by the dog gets more and more energy built up and is jumping and going more crazy every time someone walks by. Dogs that are so worked up are tough to adopt out because all they do is jump and spaz and that doesn't make a good impression on an adopter. They can't take treats, can't sit still, can't even be touched without being sent into a jumping frenzy. But me? I seek those dogs out. I want the crazy excited dogs because I love seeing dogs that have so much built up energy become more approachable and friendly and calm simply by letting them play and run regularly. Give me the crazy dogs, gimme gimme gimme!
On this particular card, I took the dog out on both the 18th and 23rd. This is Trapper, the dog that used to walk nice on leash but now tries to bite and tug on the leash, which is more than a little scary because when he does that he has complete physical control, and as he readjusts his bite on the leash he could easily end up biting my fingers. He was much better today though!
I started today with Sugar yet again. Instead of being a dog I get because I have patience for her crazy energy first thing, she's become a nice way for me to start the day and be able to play and pet a really great, sweet lil doggy. She jumped all over me in the kennel but once she was out she walked pretty nice on leash without pulling much to the yard. She played with toys, sat nicely, and I got to love on her quite a bit today as she mostly just wanted to be petted.
After Sugar I got out Trapper again. As I already said, he was much better today. He played in the pool a little, and mostly chased toys. He did try to bite at the leash on the way back to the kennel but I was prepared and had him carry a tennis ball.
 |
| I really love his chest markings! |
I got Davy out, he cracks me up on leash. He acts like he's pulling really hard but he's not. He lowers himself down and has a pulling position but there is barely any tension on the leash. Davy was really, really playful today. I had him out for over half an hour just playing fetch and brushing him. I took his collar off and used the brush to scratch his neck and all over his body and he loved it for a minute or so then would get bored and ansty and need to fetch again. I have a real soft spot for this dog, I'm not exactly what it is that gets to me.
 |
| Spots! |
After the fun of Davy I wanted a calm dog and went right for Buddah. Lovely as always, and I discovered a way to make her spaz out! She's so calm and mellow and sweet, but if you "speak dog" by hopping around and imitating play bows and such she goes nuts with happiness. Even caused her to jump a couple times! But as usual, she mostly just wanted to be loved and petted. She picked a really funny position! As with Davy, I took her collar off to brush her and give good neck scratches.
I then got out Pickles, ready for energy again. Some staff and experienced volunteers started doing dog-dog introductions and I thought Pickles would be ok. There were two dogs being introduced near the yards so I made sure to take it slow and arc wide around them. There was a dog in the middle interaction yard. I kept Pickles on leash at first in the yard. She sniffed noses a couple times and was fine so I took the leash off. As soon as it came off she attacked the fence. She was barking, lunging, and trying to fight the dog through the fence. I got the leash back on her and took her back to her kennel immediately. Apparently she's known to do that, but I've never had that issue with her before. She's barked at other dogs and been a bit too focused on them but tossing toys has been enough to distract her. Not good behavior today miss Pickles!
After putting her back I didn't know what dog to get. I decided to look for a puppy or young dog, and came across a fairly new dog named Shadow. I took Shadow to the yard and he did ok. A little barky at the other dogs but was easily distracted by a body block. He didn't want to play at all. He apparently came from a hoarding situation and came in with 15 dogs in the back of a U-haul. A staff member wanted to dog test him, because she heard he was not dog-friendly. She took him and sure enough, he tried to be snippy with the other dog. I kept him out a bit longer, giving him treats for looking at the other dogs.
 |
| Photo from SDDAC |
I then tried Callie, seeming to remember she was fairly calm. She seemed a little overwhelmed by other dogs and barked a couple times, and not wanting to provoke the dogs being introduced to each other I decided to take her for a walk around the parking lot instead. She walked really well on leash!
Then I got Sierra, the fetch master. I had her play for about 15 minutes then put her back.
By that time there were 4 dogs in an interaction yard all playing. I wanted in on that! There was Shebba, Hondo, Flip, and Duke.
 |
| Shebba Photo from SDDAC |
 |
| Hondo Photo from SDDAC |
 |
| Flip Photo from SDDAC |
 |
| Duke Photo from SDDAC |
No comments:
Post a Comment