2 weeks Update

Well, things have improved some, but not hugely, though definitely more settled now.

Blake is still kept separate from the others unless I can pay 100% attention to them all, and me usually holding on to him to control his movements. But when everyone is settled in the sitting room, all is nice and peaceful. :-)
In the garden he is now always on lead, unless I have him out on his own (which he gets to do about three times a day when he can run and play to his heart's content, and of course clicker training too.

Skye is a little grumbly still if Blake wants to sniff her, though she has had a few more waggy tailed hellos with him.

Flash is still quite cautious, but in the last couple of days also a couple of waggy tailed and friendly greetings with him. Again, just being around Blake is fine, but when Blake goes up to him, Flash occasionally "smiles" at him.

Jesse is much better again since I upped his thyroid medication again. I have booked an appointment with his vet Rachel next week to officially discuss the meds, and see whether I can increase it a bit more even possibly. He is definitely  more relaxed (and I also haven't seen him lag on walks since then, nor lip lick which could indicate that his mouth is not dry anymore, another hypo symptom) and even went up to Blake a couple of times through the gate. He also doesn't worry anymore when Blake whines or barks on the other side of the gate.. which really unsettled him at first. I am still ultra cautious with Jesse, but he is definitely happier with Blake, and apart from a couple of grumbles, he has been ok (though wouldn't want to test this without holding on to Blake).

I am doing various bits to help.

• Feeding all the dogs alternatively with Blake on one side of the gate and the others on the other side, feeding them really close together. At the start Jesse was very unhappy with this, and now he can cope well with even really close feeding even if I drop Blake's treat near the gate. His body language is definitely much more settled and he rarely looks uncomfortable now. I do this at least three times a day, often more.

• Doing individual clicker training session with all of them, including Blake, to keep them mentally stimulated.

• I verbally praise any nice interactions I see which is starting to help.

• I encourage Jesse to lick my hand through the gate when Blake approaches the gate teaching him a calming and alternative response to growling.

• I encourage Jesse to pick up his toys when he gets worried, again an alternative response and something that is comforting and calming for him.

• I play with the dogs (especially the spaniels) near the gate with their toys and Blake plays on the other side of the gate with his toy. This encourages bonding by doing things together. Again, I can see improvements as there is no negative body language usually.

• Blake is always on a harness (unless I am out) which allows me to manoeuvre him around without him freaking out - something which is impossible by using the collar. In fact, that was one of the incidents when I tried to stop him from going through a gate by holding his collar, he freaked and Jesse went for him. This hasn't happened at all now since using the harness at all times. All is much calmer this way.

So we are making progress, but it is tiny baby steps. I think one of the problems is as well that Blake is still entire, and once neutered things will be more chilled I am sure.
It is much easier now that Blake knows to wait at the gates until I tell him to go through, that I can lead him by the harness without him freaking out and that he knows to wait when I ask him to.

Exercises I am teaching him so far:

• Name game - the first thing I taught, and he responds nicely to name now. I continue to practice it when we are in situations where he is more distracted
• Hand touch - getting quite good, starting to work on duration now
• Recall - getting quite good, have introduce the whistle today (three pips)
• Down - have just started this with toys first, and with food today. It is very hard to free shape him for positions as he doesn't offer them, so I have started luring the down
• Sit - I very rarely see him sit on his own accord. I am at the moment not sure whether that's confirmation or whether he needs a chiropractor. But today I got him to sit really well via the down position rather than from the stand. I have had no success so far getting him to do it from the stand as he will just walk backwards, but he does it well from the down. So that's what we are doing until he can do it from the stand too.
• Food follow - hey, I have to start competitive heelwork at some point. LOL So I have started with the food follow over the last couple of days and we manage three or four steps now.
• Flat high hand target for heelwork - only just started.
• Heelwork statics - getting him to do the back end turn into the heel position. Started just a couple of days ago and he's got the hang of it.

Blake is quite easy to train, he picks things up very quickly and enjoys clicker training. We are going to have so much fun together.

Here are some pictures and videos over the last week:

Blake is so much for confident on walks now, and he has even learnt to scan around him whilst still walking rather than having to stop and watch. LOL

I am using lots of treats to get him to respond to various situations, e.g. when he spots cats, when he is worried about something etc. and it is starting to pay off.

And here are a couple of videos I took - he is one happy bunny LOL:

1-week Gotcha Day

Well, it's already a week since Blake arrived here, doesn't time fly. He has settled in really well, and until yesterday, all the dogs were doing pretty good. Skye in fact suddenly relaxed with Blake on Friday and has been no problem since. I am totally surprised as I thought she'd be the most difficult. I still need to supervise, but she hasn't shown any signs of worry for the last couple of days.

Flash was really good with him too, where as Jesse was more grumbly, but doing really well too. It certainly wasn't a problem to have them all together, though I would never leave them unsupervised.

But yesterday, that changed... Karen and Jim, Blake's foster parents, came to visit Blake here. I tried to usher everyone into the garden, but didn't get any further than the conservatory. I wanted the dogs to have more space, hence the garden, but as that didn't happen it was all a bit cramped and Jesse went for Blake when he got too close. I stopped him and no damaged was done, but it wasn't helpful.

Blake was very happy to see Karen and Jim, and he wasn't upset when they left (other than wondering for a couple of minutes where they went). So that was fine.

I then let all the dogs out, and Blake invited Flash to play, so they started running about. For the first couple of circuits, it was ok, but then Flash nipped Blake into his side. No damage was done, so he just pinched his skin, but Blake screamed blue murder and ran back to the back door, where Jesse was and went for him (he always reacts when a dog yells) big time. I stopped him again, so again no physical harm was done, but it was a complete relationship breakdown both between Flash and Blake and most certainly between Jesse and Blake. Blake was terrified, and I left them to rest.

A bit later in the afternoon, I managed to coax Blake out and he got more confident again after a game with me in the garden. Then unexpectedly Blake invited Skye to play (which is fine, she plays nicely), but I quickly grabbed Flash to stop him from joining in, and in addition to his collar, I accidently grabbed some of his skin and this time, Flash screamed... (blooming sighthounds...). Jesse went after Flash, but didn't do anything, but Blake freaked out again, ran into the house, onto the sofa and then didn't budge!

I felt absolutely devastated, all the progress I made with them throughout he week was gone... in fact, Jesse was so wound up now that I had to completely separate them.

I then gave Blake some rescue remedy and if by a miracle, he got up after a few minutes and seemed fine, though a bit more wary of all the dogs.

Since yesterday, I have kept Blake and Jesse completely separate unless I am sitting right next to Blake or Jesse. I do lots of counter-conditioning with Jesse and Blake on either side of the gate. It is slow progress, but it'll work eventually. I will not try anything more with Jesse right now until the adrenalin levels have dropped a bit, then I will get them together a bit more again. Right now, Jesse is very unhappy about Blake being anywhere near him. :-(

I am gutted, it went so well until yesterday... just one incident caused a break down and I am back to square one, one even further back with Jesse.

I am also taking Blake out in the garden on his own a couple of times a day, so he can have a good run without the risk of upsetting any of the others, and I play with him with toys and do training. He really loves that, and today he went absolutely bonkers with a soft toy, lifting all four legs off the ground and running around like mad. I had to laugh so much, it is great to see. Just a shame he hasn't got a dog here he can play with at the moment.

Blake is also getting a lot more confident on walks, he rarely stops now and when he does it's just for a few seconds to have a look around. He has done a lot of trotting and some running (with me in tow) today. He is still very shy of dogs and people outside though, so I need to get some socialisation sorted for him.

So baby steps continue. I am so frustrated with Jesse's behaviour and can't wait to get this sorted, but then it's only been a week and these things take time.

Blake is fabulous though, and I am looking forward to sharing my life with him.

Here are some pictures taken through the week showing the progress we made:

On 18th, Skye allowed Blake to lay on the bed next to her sofa spot. :-)

And he even managed to secure a sofa spot.

 

 

On the 19th... he loves the sofa. LOL

 

 

 

And Blake getting close to Flash... Flash was ok, but not too keen (wouldn't be able to do that now... :-(  )

 

 

 

Yep, feeling comfy. 20th.

 

 

 

21st... Skye is starting to mellow towards Blake.

 

 

 

Mad hound. LOL

 

 

 

 

Baby steps...

I took Blake for his first walk this morning. He was quite nervous out, I don't think he is used to being out and about on his own. Treats helped to get him moving, but he stopped a lot and took some convincing at times to keep walking. He will get better as his confidence improves. 

Jesse and Skye were quite grumbly today and I have to choreograph movements between the dogs quite carefully to avoid any confrontations. But we are getting there, Skye now allows Blake to settle on the dog bed next to the sofa whilst she is on the sofa... something that sent her into a hissy fit up to now.

And later tonight, Blake secured himself a space on the sofa for the first time. And he looks well chuffed. LOL Skye then sat on the other side of me, which is how I got this picture. :-)

I also left him on his own this afternoon to walk the dogs, and he howled... A kong made no difference, he was too worried to eat it. This evening, when I had to go to classes, I gave him melatonin... and although he howled some, it wasn't as much as I expected. In the 2.5 hours I was away, I only had a quarter of an hour of noise on the Dictaphone. :-) He will get used to it.

Tonight, he also had his first mad run in the garden. He tried a couple of times today, but I stopped it as things are still a bit too volatile between the dogs to allow mad play. I am also worried that Flash is too rough for him. However, this evening, I put everyone in except Blake, and he took the opportunity and raced around! It was lovely to watch!

Day 2

Blake continues to settle well. He did typical saluki yodelling when I went out to take Flash to hydrotherapy, but he is at the moment in the kitchen and conservatory behind a baby gate whilst I am here in the animal room, and he is quiet [though he did pinch a tirami-su pot out of the sink... which was on the floor when I got back to him... LOL), so I am sure that will resolve itself in time, especially with the help of some stuffed kongs. (I have already stuffed two and stuck them in the freezer ready for tomorrow when I need to leave him for about 3 hours).

Skye is considerably less grumpy about things today and will allow him within a couple of feet of her sleeping place (wherever that happens to be) now without major threats! I'm well happy with that.

Jesse is slightly more growly when Blake approaches his sleeping place since he got sat on yesterday... can't really blame him for that. LOL

We did a couple of nice clicker training sessions today, he is fabulous to train! Blake now does a neat hand touch, hand follow and responds to his name. He loves training, though that might have something to do with the food... LOL

All in all, things are looking good, everyone is settling nicely and getting more comfortable. It is the easiest first 36 hours I have ever had with a new dog and I am nowhere near as stressed as I have been in the past when introducing new dogs. Blake is such a sweet heart!  

We all had a good restful night too.

Blake's arrived

On 11th March, I received an email from Rachel Watkins, asking me whether I knew of someone wanting to adopt a dog that was found nearby and being fostered by her neighbour. When I saw the attached picture, I was immediately interested... Strangely only a couple of days before that I asked my boys and girl whether they would like a brother, the first time I did this and felt comfortable about the possibility of getting a new dog since Dylan died! And two days later, the above email... and this picture:

On Friday I went to see him and have a chat with Karen and Jim, who were looking after him. He was found in their road without collar, microchip and very skinny. So it looks like he was dumped, and no owners came forward.

So today, Karen came over with him and after introducing him to each dog individually (all were fine, although Skye grumbly as expected) we went for a walk around the village. All went well and Skye settled down well. Back in the garden, Skye became more grumbly again as she was then resource guarding everywhere... but I managed to control it all. Both Jesse and Flash were absolutely fine and not worried about him at all. He also is very laid back and showed no sign of aggression at all.

Well, I called him BLAKE. He is absolutely gorgeous.

Well, Skye is still very grumbly, though has settled a bit now tonight. Flash and Jesse are great, a couple of lip curls and grumbles when Blake got too much into their face/space, but that wasn't taken any further. I am of course making sure that Blake takes the hint and he isn't left unsupervised at all at the moment. I am sure that they will soon be settled well together.

Blake is feeling a bit lost, but that's of course to be expected, and he has actually settled well already. He is super friendly, and in fact has not much awareness of personal space - something that he has to learn as all three of my dogs like and value their personal space!

He is also very foody, so training is a doddle with him. He can already do a hand touch... LOL

Blake looks of course like Dylan's twin, but there are differences. His coat is shorter and thicker (at the moment) and although he is overall cream, he has some beige splodges over his back and legs. He is also taller. I think he is about a year old, even though the vet that saw him estimated him at two. But in particular his tail fur looks like it isn't fully developed yet, he also doesn't cock his leg and his teeth are pearly white! Time will tell how old he is though.

It feels great to have two long schnozzles in the house again. :-)