Monday - Bruce arrives
Bruce, my new foster dog arrives at my home Monday evening April 13th. He came from being boarded at a vet's office where I don't think he was receiving any exercise, or not enough for a young active lab. Bruce is a black Labrador Retriever male that weighs about 55 pounds or so, but he is a bit on the thin side. I will be foster Bruce for Labs4Rescue.
I walked him around a little to let him smell and mark. I walked him up to the other two dogs in their dog yards and let them sniff through the fence. My dogs and Bruce were excited and a bit tense at this first meeting, with Bruce, the new dog, showing the most nerviness. My large male German Shepherd gave one growl, but no one tried to bark or attack each other through the fence, so it was a good first meeting. I placed Bruce in is new dog yard for the night.
I asked him to SIT and he surprises me by knowing the meaning of the word and sitting so I could click toss him a treat (clicker training). I repeated this several times and though he was super hype he was hungry and wanted the treats so most of the time he sat on the first or second command of the word, SIT.
That night he barked and whined in distress the whole night through. He didn't sleep much and neither did I. But being in a new place with new sounds and smells and new dogs to learn about is stressful so I didn't let myself get too mad at the sleepless night.
Fostering a dog can help make the dog more adoptable if the dog gets needed exercise to unwind from the kennel crazies and you can do some basic training - at least working on the command SIT for treats. Just getting out of a multiple dog kennel situation and into a family home will help calm a dog down.
No comments:
Post a Comment