2 Dogs are Better than 1!!

The Eldest decided to volunteer with the Greyhound rescue group where we found The Queen Bee. Big mistake, really big, huge. She, of course, being the tender heart that she is, fell in love with a dog, we'll call him The Old Guy, the one that spent the longest time of any dog at the kennel. She begged, she pleaded, she bargained, she even turned on the water works to get us to agree to let her have that dog. I caved first, of course, since I'm a sucker for a sob story. Then we had to wheedle DH, 'cause he was holding out. We kept working on him though, and he finally caved.

We've had The Old Guy since Monday and I consider him my first grand-dog. He's fitting in nicely. He's very different from The Queen Bee. He's old, for one, and mellow. She's not exactly a hyper dog, although she has her moments, but he makes her look like a puppy. He's sweet as can be and we all fell in love with him instantly. He's got some issues. He's 7 years old and he raced a LOT, over 100 times, so he's got an old athlete's body with all the resultant aches and pains. He's stiff when he moves around, and he has a lot of trouble getting up from his dog bed. He really has a hard time on our fake wood floors; they are too slippery for him and he just slides right back down when he tries to get up.

He LOVES his dog beds, even if he has trouble getting up from them. The Queen Bee wouldn't lay on the beds we had for her at first but he had no problems with that. He tried to settle on her bed but she fussed at him. He even tried to settle on my good yellow "company couch" so I fussed at him. (NO DOGS ON THE COUCH!!) He quickly figured out which bed was for him, though, and now he keeps it warm all day. He's also a water dog; he LOVES the pool. That was very exciting for him his first day here. The Queen Bee won't have anything to do with the water at all, no way, no how, but he loves it. He's also got bad teeth- yuck. We're taking him to have them cleaned tomorrow but I think we're going to have to have more done than that. He's going to need some cavities filled, possibly a couple of teeth pulled, since he's got some spots that look cavity-ish and some teeth that are gray. The Queen Bee's teeth are all shiny white; Martha Jr. keeps them all sparkly clean with regular brushings. His teeth probably hurt; he prefers soft food and treats to crunchy.

He's a good boy and I'm sure we'll learn a lot more about him as he gets settled. I'm glad my kid has a tender heart; her dog is a welcome addition to our home.

The Dog

Our dog is settling in to our family, our home, our way of life, our crazy schedule, and our hearts. She is an absolute dream of a dog with a wonderful, sweet disposition. We do have our challenges with her; she is still going all "statue dog" on us every now and again, but not as much. Our fantastic trainer, found through the Victoria Stilwell website, is very good with her. She uses positive reinforcement to teach The Dog (have to come up with a better blog name for her) what we want her to do. That's key to training her, too; if you teach a dog the behaviors you want they don't have time or opportunity to engage in behaviors you don't want. We are currently teaching her such nifty commands as "wait" (instead of stay), "leave it", and "back". We use back and wait to get her well back from the front door as we are going in and out, which is sometimes an issue with greyhounds. They are taught to bolt at the sight of an open door when they race, so they tend to continue doing that when they are retired and living in a home. The Dog seems to be dealing with the re-training rather well, however, and actually waited when I went outside today. (And she got a nifty treat for her trouble.)

It's not all work and training. We try to do something fun with her as often as we can, and if we can get her around other dogs it's that much better. We take her to the pet store, the local dog park, the dog park at the adoption kennel, (along with a lot of other owners since it's a great place to meet up with other greyhounds) and to a frozen yogurt place that has outdoor seating. She LOVES these outings and has developed quite the obsession with the car! She was starting to get a little crazy and jumpy whenever I went to my purse, and especially when she heard my keys jingle, so we brought that up with The Wonder Trainer and she gave us some great tips on how to handle it, along with tips on how to get her to get OUT of the car more willingly. (She was doing the statue dog thing about getting out.) For the keys, the idea is to de-sensitize her by taking them out and jingling them all the time. For the statue dog thing, The Wonder Trainer taught us how to practice, practice, practice by putting her in the car then taking her right back out several times a day. When she gets out she gets a great treat. (Today it was turkey dog bits.) We have to shove her out of the car, but she's getting the idea. She tries to get back in immediately, but then it's right back out again. The Eldest and I worked on that with her for about 10 minutes today, and when we took her to the dog park we didn't have a bit of trouble with her. Thank goodness!! (And The Wonder Trainer.)

We had a bit of a scare with her too. She threw up a sock! When we told everyone about it (like The Wonder Trainer and the head of the adoption kennel) they said we were incredibly lucky she threw it up. It could have caused an obstruction, which can be fatal if left untreated. I don't know that we would have recognized the signs, which can include no pooping, since 4 of us are walking her. We all would have assumed she was pooping on someone else's watch. Since that happened, we are now keeping a log where we record when she does her business. (And Martha Jr. lost it, after less than a week, so we'll be starting a new one.) (Sigh...) We may be clueless newbs when it comes to dog ownership, but at least we have a lot of great people to turn to for help and advice. The Wonder Trainer, the vet, the lady that heads the adoption kennel, and our neighbors from around the block who own two greyhounds for starters.

So that's how things stand with the dog.

Update on my dad:
He's still in ICU. They are having trouble establishing a site for his dialysis so that's where he'll stay until they get it worked out. I can't wait for him to get out of the hospital!!! I was visiting every day but I have to cut back; it's too much for me with the long drive and most of the time I visit he isn't awake enough to know I'm even there. My brother lives close to the hospital and he's taking good care of my dad; I need to let him do it. Not that I won't be there in a heartbeat if my dad or brother need me, but I don't need to burn out on it in the meantime. My dad's going to be in recovery from all of this for a long time to come. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Our New Baby

Our first baby turns 18 today, no longer a child. (Legally, anyway.) On her heels we'll be adopting a new "child", the retired racing greyhound I wrote about earlier. When we went to the adoption center last week we found the perfect girl, only we haven't gotten her yet. She was peeing all over the office when we took her in to visit with her; it turns out she has a urinary tract infection. The head of the adoption group didn't want to release her to us in that shape so she's got her on antibiotics to try to clear up the problem. The girls and I went to visit with her again today to check on her and see how things are going. We also spent a couple of hours down there just hanging out with her so she can start getting to know us before she comes home. Greyhounds are raised in such an unusual way that it is quite a traumatic event to leave their kennels and move to a regular home. They don't understand at first that the move is a good thing, all they know is everything is different. It kind of freaks them out, but they get over it and become the best pets ever.

There are some unique quirks to greyhounds. They live their early lives in kennels with a ton of other dogs, being handled by trainers, so they are somewhat socialized. They don't necessarily understand about kids, but they are easy going enough that they adjust quickly. (They aren't great with little kids, though; the adoption people recommend the youngest age as at least 5 or 6.) They have to learn a lot of things that other dogs learn as puppies, like how to walk on a leash and how to play with toys. They are never able to go off leash like a golden retriever or other types of dog that will hang out with you. If they spook or decide to chase a squirrel they run so fast that they get lost! They are sight hounds, which means their sense of smell is weaker than a lot of other dogs, so they can't easily track back to home.

As to our girl, we chose a sweetheart of a dog. She's friendly and smiles. She walks nicely on a leash which is one of the main characteristics I was looking for. She figured out the toy thing quickly (some greyhounds never play with toys) and spent a lot of time squeaking a toy today! She seems to be very playful compared to the other dogs that were hanging out in the office with us. (And no peeing inside today, a very good sign for future house breaking efforts.) (They are all crate trained, but since they've never been in a house they have to be taught that the house is their "crate" when you get them home.) She stood with us for pets and "lovies" and Martha Jr. gave her lots of treats. I think it was a wonderful visit and will help her when she transitions to our house. Hopefully she'll be well enough that we can get her in a few more days!

Busy Days

There's been so much going on around here I don't know where to start. The biggest thing this week has been the passing of our dear old cat. We thought he was gone when he ran away last year but we found him after almost a week. He was really sick when we got him back and we thought he was going to die then, but he got some fluids at the vet and hung on. I think he hung on for all the pampering and petting and cuddling and loving, which he was showered with when we brought him home. He used to live in the garage but we brought him back in the house since we realized he needed closer supervision due to his age and various medical issues, and that resulted in a lot more attention for him. Martha, Jr. took over his care and was so very responsible with him. The end was hard; he just tanked from one minute to the next. We took him to the vet and the vet sent us to the animal ER. He stayed there over night for an assessment but there wasn't anything to be done, so the girls and I picked him up and took him back to our vet to be put to sleep. Martha Jr. did indeed take it hard, but so did The Eldest. We were all three crying; we loved that old critter.

But we have to move on, and since Martha Jr. was so responsible I decided she's earned another pet. I don't want another cat (I'm allergic, which I found out well after we got our cats, which is one of the reasons he lived in the garage for part of his life) but I was worried about a dog fitting into our slacker lifestyle. We keep very odd hours around here with the homeschooling and all. I was also worried about getting a barky dog. With fibromyalgia I need my sleep whenever I can get it and I can NOT have an animal waking me up at all hours. The Eldest knew all of this and did some research. She discussed her results with Martha Jr. and they came to me with their conclusions- we need to adopt a greyhound. Greyhounds are quiet dogs (they don't bark, they AROOO, and not very often) and they sleep a LOT, around 18 hours a day. Sounds like my kind of dog! We're going to take a road trip on Saturday to a kennel that rescues greyhounds that were used for racing and see if we can find our new baby there.

We've been talking about it and researching it so much that I think we're all excited, even DH who initially said "NO DOG". He's on board with it now; just took him a bit since he's never had a dog. I'm looking forward to having a walking companion. DH runs a few times a week; it will be fun for him to have a running companion. And a greyhound can definitely keep up on a run!!

But all that is minor compared to other issues we're dealing with right now. The Wild Child is still struggling with his reading, to the point that I decided he needed to be tested for learning disabilities. He took six hours worth of tests (over three sessions) and we found out that he does indeed have some challenges to overcome. He doesn't have dyslexia but his issues are very similar. He'll be working with a reading specialist over the summer so we'll see how that goes. They also recommended occupational therapy for him but there are a few more hoops to jump through before I can get that set up for him. And he's also borderline gifted, which is no surprise. (I think he would have tested well over the border into gifted territory but the tester had an accent he had difficulty understanding. My theory is that her accent affected his score. The tests aren't supposed to be affected by that sort of thing, but how could they not be?)

He also had auditory testing today to rule out auditory processing problems; his hearing is fine, which is a welcome surprise. The audiologist said she sees signs of sensory integration problems and said he should do well with the recommended occupational therapy. That was encouraging- she said her son had similar issues and the OT was wonderful with very quick results. I'm anxious to get it set up.

And if that weren't all, we had all three kids checked out by our family doctor this week. The Wild Child had to go to the ER with a needle stuck in his foot (from one of Martha Jr.'s sewing projects) a few weeks ago where we realized he was not up to date on his tetanus vaccine. Which made me wonder if the kids are up to date on all of their other vaccines. We don't have to keep up with that kind of thing for school reasons so I forget about it unless something like this comes up. It's been a while since they had well child visits so it was over due. I still don't know about the vaccines but the family doctor ordered copies of their records from their pediatrician (whom we no longer use) so we'll find out later. We're not homeschooling because we're anti-vaccine, but I don't necessarily believe in following the traditional vaccine schedule to the letter. With our then-pediatrician's blessing, we vaccinated purposely late for a lot of the baby/little kid vaccines. I think their bodies are strong enough now that they are older that we can keep up with the recommended schedule, but I just don't think about it. I catch us all up when I realize, though.

OK, I'm done. I'm too tired to type anymore and the kids want to use the computer to look up funny greyhound videos on You Tube.