New Dog Day ...

We had to put our beloved 14 year old German Shepherd, Chase to sleep on Friday morning. As sad as it was, he had a long and great life, and his passing opened the door for us to rescue a new dog in need of a home.

I thought we might wait a little longer between dogs, but my kids started working on us right away. It wasn't long before my wife and I were talking about how strange the house felt without a dog for the first time in 16 years. The next thing we knew we were scrolling through dog pictures on rescue websites and hitting up a couple of adoption events on Saturday.

As luck would have it, the kids totally clicked with a dog at the second event when we arrived just before they were starting to pack up. They had only recently rescued her from a high kill shelter, so she had only been in a kennel so far and they didn't have much info about her behavior in a more normal setting like one of their foster homes. Since she was staying in a kennel at this point anyway, we decided to foster the dog ourselves for the next couple of weeks with the intent of adopting her if nothing comes up that we don't think we can work through.

Our new dog, Tenaya, settling in on her new bed at the end of an eventful day.

 

Great job rescuing. We are currently fostering a dog for a week now with the intent to adopt. A 5 year old whippet that is the best dog ever, till we leave. Really bad separation anxiety that we are seeing if we can work thru.

Super cute dog, I hope everything works out.

 

Nice! That German Shepard is beautiful. Can't believe she's a rescue.

I better not let my daughter see this thread. She's been working on me.

 

Thanks! We're only in our first day, but we're seeing signs of the same issues with separation. Not surprising for a rescue dog given what they've been through. She's constantly watching all of us and making sure she knows where everyone is. She's very affectionate and always wants to be by someone's side. I'm a little nervous about when I have to leave her alone for a bit tomorrow to see how she does. Hopefully she learns to trust us pretty quickly.

 

Assuming everything works out, this will be our 4th dog we've adopted through German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County over the last 16 years. Your daughter definitely shouldn't check out their website. They don't have a ton of great German Shepherds looking for homes. Good thing she doesn't read this forum or she might stumble across this link: http://www.gsroc.org

 

Nice looking dog! We lost our second dog a few months ago at 14, but haven't brought a new one home yet. Both of our dogs were rescues as well. I think that the rescue dogs really are appreciative when they get a good home.

 

Sorry about your loss and hopefully Tenaya works out for you. I am not sure I have heard that name before?

 

Power to you guys for taking on rescue dogs. I'm proud of you all, and happy for your furry friends.

I hope the fostering works out!

TFPU, Matt.

 

Kudos for those that foster dogs ... I don't think I would have the strength to give them up after I brought them home!
I tired dog is a happy dog - until Tenaya gets adjusted to her new home maybe lots and lots of walks.

 

Thanks. Until our last dog (we kept the name the rescue had given him), we had used names from mountains/nature that we had been to and liked. It's getting tougher to think of new ones that could also be a dog name. This time it was Tenaya Lake in Yosemite that we used.

 

Awesome thread! Awesome that so many of you adopt rescues. My family has fostered many times. Most recently we are/were fostering a mommy Border Terrier and her four puppies. Three of the puppies have gone to furever homes. And, we are keeping one for ourselves. The mother was found in a box on the side of the road in the LBC. Someone took her to the shelter. The shelter only discovered she was pregnant when they were giving her a bath. Her fur was (still is) very long and hid her belly. The babies were born in the shelter and we (mainly my wife) took them in at 3 weeks. Now they are just over 12 weeks old and all have found homes. We still have the mother and the one we are keeping (Milo). It'll take a while to find a home for the mother, as she was severely abused and neglected by the previous owner. We have had her for over two months now and she will barely let us pet her. Any sudden movements around her and she runs away and hides. But, she has progress pretty well so far. When we first got her, she would tremble really bad when we had to pick her up to bring her inside.

Our pug Nala w/ the puppies at about 9 weeks.
and a pic of the mother Millie

I'll post some pics of Milo later when I get home from work.

Again..... Great thread! And, thank you to all that have adopted rescues!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Here is our rescue her name is Lizy had her almost a year now. She was a recue dog at first then was abandoned again so she has very bad separation anxiety. But a very happy pup when you get home

 

Oh man, there are hundreds of names along those lines. My sister bought a Golden years ago from a breeder; all with ski mountain names in that litter - she got Reba.

My next dog was going to be 'Cuda; after the car. A friend has Charger and Duster; we're Mopar fans. Then my wife went out and got me two dogs while on vacation.
Half the wrong breed and with dumb names that she gave them. Basil is the boy and Delilah is the girl. She got them on vacation in Phoenix from Craigslist.
I can't not love a dog; but they were not what I wanted (and she expressly said no dogs for a year; she caved at 3 months). For 10-15 years I can't have the type of dog I want. Wehn I can, I might be too old.

Here they are after a recent run; Delilah on the left and Basil on the right.

 

This is my man Rufus. Got him at a shelter in Big Pine when he was about two. He suckered me in by being super at the pound. But when we got home he showed how scared he was of.. getting out of the truck, hard floors, going upstairs, coming back downstairs, kids, you name it. Working through those problems was great for both of us, as any of you rescuers know. He's 14 now and slowing down, but adopting him was one of my all time best decisions.

 

I know people might laugh and be skeptical but rescue dogs really do seem to be more appreciative.. when our girls were little, we had to move, switch schools... they got a rescue dog in exchange... when we brought the little dog to our house, she would tremble every time I lifted by leg near her... as in a kicking motion.... 10 years later, she still runs circles around my leg... and when I ride the fully on a non busy weekday, she runs next to me as long as she can, about 20 minutes, goes to a patchy side and rolls over to her belly... I carry her back home... a little embarrassing but man that dog loves to ride bikes!

 

Super awesome!!! We're on our 3rd pit rescue over the last 25 years. Here's Emma, she's been w/ us for nearly 3 years.
She was shoved out of a truck on PCH, a foster was dining across the street, ran across and took her to the shelter.
When her time was up at the shelter, foster took her home. Then we adopted her.

Same separation anxiety anytime she sees us changing or getting ready, we have to talk in code words.
Kids fight over her bed each night so she can sleep in their room. Middle of the night, she runs to our room.
The youngest was terrified of dogs due to the in-laws rabid chihuahuas. When we brought Emma home,
he continually lamented why did we have to get a dog. Shortly after, his friend from the neighborhood (also has a pit bull) playing w/ the dog and said "damn dude, you
have the coolest dog". Now they're wrestling on the ground and we have to tell him to play less rough. We're protective of the pit bull, how strange is that...

Fosters are on another level!!!

 

We made it official last Thursday and adopted Tenaya! She did great adjusting to our house and our family, and is turning out better than we could have hoped for. She is the sweetest dog to our kids and is totally friendly and gentle around kids in general. She's gotten over her anxiety about leaving the house, and now joins me most days dropping the kids off at school and picking them up. She's even learned that she's not allowed in the kids' rooms unless it's to say goodnight to them. She'll come into their rooms when I call her once they're tucked in, she gives them a few kisses, then she leaves.

During our time fostering her, we started trying to adjust our kitchen habits since she's tall enough to cruise the counter with her snout especially when we're trying to cook. She even swiped a couple of waffles when my wife had to leave the room to get our daughter. Once we adopted her, we hired a trainer for a consultation/evaluation to get us started on the right foot, and she was awesome! As soon as we mentioned the kitchen issue, she said "Oh that's easy, we just establish a boundary where she's not allowed in unless you invite her in." I was skeptical since we've never been able to effectively train our dogs to respect anything like that. Well, we did what she showed us and we were able to eat dinner at the kitchen table that night with Tenaya just resting at the edge of this imaginary boundary! Other things will take longer to train, but it's great to see what a quick learner Tenaya is. If anyone is looking for a trainer, I can't recommend Brandi at Conscious K9 highly enough.

On our way to pick up the kids (stopped - no pics while driving)


Playing in the Grandparents' yard after school

 

^^That's so great it's working out! I've been wondering about it. She's a beautiful dog.

 

We are still on a foster program with our rescue. We can't leave him alone or he howls and jumps at the door the second we leave till we come back. We had a behaviorist come by and started him on some anxiety meds. She thinks due to his age there was no way to break this without some help. He has been coming to work with me and we have been sending him to daycare till we can get a grip on the separation anxiety. He is the best dog we have had minus the anxiety. We are still hopefully we can keep him forever and putting in the time to make it happen.

 

Good looking Pup! I think we're ready to start looking for a new dog or two for the house. Went by the Irvine shelter last weekend and didn't find one that made the decision easy. Going to look at a couple from local rescues this weekend.

 

Here's a picture of Milo. He's about 14 months and we adopted him. We fostered his mama and her four puppies at 6 weeks. The three other pups are gone. We now have him and mama, along with our pug.
Sorry for the bad pic, The Dude doesn't stay still long enough to get a good photo.

 

Good luck with the separation anxiety issues! We'll be hoping for the best!

 

Kong is your (dog's) friend? It sure helped with Rufus. Plus sofa cushions and TV remotes--apparently all good company and excellent chew toys.

https://www.kongcompany.com/products/for-dogs/rubber-toys/

 

We have and tried the kong with no luck. We even borrowed another dog for a few days and that did not change anything either. He is unfortunately super attached to a human.

 

I used to take Rufus everywhere/all the time. It was great, and he had a 2nd home behind the front seat of my truck. He also had first dibs on my after-work time, which generally meant a trail hike with tennis ball. These days he's older and has trouble getting into the truck, so I have to leave him home. Makes me feel bad every time I close the door.

 

Well, it must be the season. We stopped by the OC shelter and another private rescue yesterday, but didn't find anything that jumped out at us. Planned on hitting three adoption days and found two pups at the first one that had to come home with us. They were two siblings that were rescued from San Bernardino with the rest of the litter. 15 weeks old. They are Queensland Heeler Lab mixes. One was real rambunctious and the other was really nervous and scared. We were going to just adopt the playful girl, but couldn't leave her scared sister there alone and decided to take both. The nervous one has already loosened up some since this morning. She's still going to take some work to come to trust us fully. Wasn't really looking for puppies but couldn't pass them up.

 

there seems to be a lot of 'lab mixes' lately that have strong resemblance to pits.
Good looking pups!

As far as the kong toys - we have had good luck with hiding them in the yard (stuffed with peanut butter/treats) while the dogs are in the house. Gives them something else to focus on instead of us leaving. Freezing them takes longer to lick it clean.
On the flip side, we learned to not use the potted plants as hiding spots. It encouraged some extracurricular gardening.....

 

My original post was too long, do here's the edited version. Wife and I have been rescuing since our first cat in 1999. We now have Tristan, from an irresponsible owner who won't spay/neuter, or contain her dogs. All but two of his litter ended up being euthanized in the shelter.


Instagram Link


Instagram Link


And I have a rescue horse, Festus. But that's a different story. He's my running partner.

Instagram Link

 

We still have our foster whippet mix. He is an awesome dog "when we're home". He chewed all the molding off around the front door and now I have a big hole in my dry wall. I have hit my limit unfortunately my wife hasn't. Hopefully we figure something soon or he will have to go back.

 

If that doesn't push your wife to the limit, nothing will... I hit my limit almost 25 years ago. I'm still waiting for my wife to get there.

For me, it was the Christmas tree that was toppled, and all of the glass ornaments eaten. The dogs pooped glass for weeks...