State of the Foster Dogs - 2 and a bit weeks post-amputation. And a Bad Dog.

[bunn]

As assorted people keep saying to me: 'isn't she doing well?'
You will note that Brythen is on the lead. This is because Brythen after several weeks of being a Very Good Dog, was a Bad Dog several times running, culminating in the occasion when he pulled the lead out of my hand a few days ago while road walking, and only came back after
a) I'd convinced myself that he'd tied himself to a tree somewhere deep in the woods and would never be seen again.
b) I'd spent ages rummaging for him through a very overgrown and steep field full of a giant badger set (with many, many holes) and fallen into a hole and cut my leg. And there was an owl.

Comments

[puddleshark.livejournal.com]

Wonderful to see Amber managing so well!

And, oh, naughty Brythen!

I find it quite comforting when there are owls hooting nearby, because if there were monsters anywhere in the darkness they would surely have scared the owls away... or something like that.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

On the whole my attitude to monsters is that they need to be pretty scary to be scarier than ME.

On the other hand, being down a hole, with an owl hooting at me in an amused manner I feel reduces my scaryness considerably :-/

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Those are happy dogs. It's amazing how quickly dogs adapt to three legs.

Brythen's still a baby, of course. I know my young brat, laid back though he is, is still trying to either ignore me/bully me. In fact, he's doing his demanding single bark right now in the hope of me taking him our/feeding him.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Brythen is growing up - but alas, he does it in spurts, and then reverts to selective deafness and looking at me sideways with that sneaky 'if she isn't paying much attention I can get away with this!' face.

He doesn't bark though, I suppose that's a boon! The demanding single bark is Az's speciality in our house, and he's 14+ now - so I think I've missed the boat on training that one out! :-D

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

We weren't sure Bren could bark until he was about ten months old...

[mcmurphy79.livejournal.com]

Lovely to see. Graham and I both cooed over this. Amber looks such a sweety x

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Amber is so cute and cuddly when she gets to know you. She is a bit suspicious and growly with new people though - will have to word her rehoming advert very carefully!

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Has she actually noticed that she's lost 25% of her limbs? I can't imagine wanting to bound across a hillside less than two weeks after any sort of major operation, even those not involving amputation.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

She has noticed, come to terms with it, and thought up a range of coping strategies! The way she walks now is different - a lot of the time she's essentially walking on the front 2 legs and just using the back one for balance. She hasn't quite got the hang of stairs yet, but you should see her bounce into the car!

The speed of her adapting is amazing, particularly when you think she was spayed at the same time as well.

[inzilbeth-liz.livejournal.com]

Amber is doing amazingly well! It's lovely to see a video of them all.

Bad Brthyen though. I sympathise as I'm having similar troubles with Max. I thought I was getting through to him about coming back but he has discovered he can jump which is extremely bad news. First he leapt a wire fence and ran some of my in-lamb ewes into 4foot deep water [I could have put him down on the spot I was so angry] and he's also jumped the wall bordering the road and he's a complete maniac with cars. So he now spends most of his walks on a lead. After lambing, we have some serious work to do.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Arg, what a nightmare! I don't know if the fact that they were your own sheep makes that marginally better or even worse. I hope the ewes are OK, and that re-training goes well. Sounds like he has an absolute pile of the right instincts but totally misdirected?

Thankfully B has not got that level of chase instinct. He still has yet to catch a rabbit, although he's certainly had plenty of opportunity! I'm not sure he actually wants to catch them. I have a feeling that he may just really really want to run about with them and make friends. World's softest dog, honestly :-D