Our newest pet, Charlette or Charlie.
Thanks for the squeaky toy!
Right here, scratch right here.....look away from the laptop and scratch here!Who is this newest little critter? Well after our great Clementine was lost, the kids wanted to go to the Humane Society and look at dogs. I took them one afternoon so the hubbie could get some work done.
We found Charlie, but with some serious reservations. She was classified as a very timid dog, and easily frightened. When she was brought into the visiting room with myself and the kids, her tail was invisible under her belly. The volunteer who helped us was great. I was allowed to walk Charlie in laps, the kids were allowed to walk her, and we also walked outside. The entire time, you could see Charlie relax, not be startled by the kids, and in general, mellow out. We liked her, a lot. We put down the necessary paperwork on her, my hubbie came to see her, all is well. We were coming back the next day to get her.
Until I met the dog behaviorist at the Humane Society who pointed out two things about Charlie from her intake. She is possessive of food and toys to other dogs and hasn't been around kids. However, the house she just left, Charlie was the victim of the other household dog that was instigating some pretty violent fights. So of course, she was food and toy aggressive with this other dog. So they were discouraging me from getting her. She discounted the entire afternoon we spent with her the day before, and tried to sell me on a huge, goofy lab mix. Umm....no. She came as close as she could to saying "no" to the adoption as she could. I stood my ground, I see a great dog in her and our kids are not dog stupid.
I brought her home on the huge lookout for aggressiveness over food and toys. Not even an issue! Nothing about food or toys was an issue.
What caught us off guard that no one could see coming? My husband. When he first approached her, she growled. The next morning, she growled and lunged at my husband. Not good! She had taken possession of me, and was quickly becoming hyper protective of me. He was quite mad at the whole situation and I made the call to the behaviorist again asking for advice. I also felt good to be able to say all the concerns she has were unfounded. I also asked what would happen to take her back if this didn't improve and we steeled ourselves for that possibility.
New plan, based on her advice and my love for the show "The Dog Whisperer". Charlie had bonded with the kids and me, but not my hubbie. So I had my oldest son walk her that same day, a lot. Like every hour or so around the block, and each time she strained the leash to come back to me. Nope! You keep on going! She was relaxed about it by the late afternoon.
Here was the plan that worked. My husband called me right before he would drive up. I sent the son off to yet another spin around the block and armed my husband with a baggie full of cheese chunks. So my husband met my son and Charlie with treats, gave her a treat, grabbed the leash and walked her. No growling. It was right out of "The Dog Whisperer". My son did a great job of helping me to disengage her from me in terms of protectiveness. All yummy treats and toys come from others in the family besides me now.
Every day she gets more relaxed, more playful and more calm. New people and new situations get her timid, but as we show her that she is safe with us, she calms down. We take her on car rides a lot just to get her used to going into new scenarios all the time.
Also, we had a babysitter yesterday afternoon. Babysitter, kids and Charlie all went to the park together and all had a great time.
She is kinda fun. We so miss Clementine. She is ever present with us and it's hard not to compare the two very different dogs. Charlie is the beginning of another era of dog ownership for us, and so far it's been quite enjoyable.
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