Ridenbaugh Press/Dog Rescue

At lunch with friends this week, one was accompanied by his young child. I’m no expert on children – she’s walking and starting to say a few intelligible words, and can feed herself – so you child age experts can estimate for yourselves her age.

Now, this child did not know any of the rest of us. And she was just waking up from a nap, so somewhat sleepy and disoriented as any of us would be. If it had been a puppy, I admit I’d have been right in the middle of things attempting to hold and cuddle her – but a child – well, that’s just not me. Plus my other two friends adore little kids and were having a wonderful time with all the toe squeezing and chin-chucking.

The child was not responding well – she was pretty much stone-faced although she didn’t start crying – I give her credit for that. And as I watched these interactions and thought about them later, it dawned on me: When humans meet dogs, they treat them just like they do small children – and the dogs and children both have the same reaction: I don’t know you, get out of my face.

The difference is, dogs will either move away, growl at, or bite a stranger who is getting too familiar; children will generally just back away and become “shy,” or worst case scenario, they will start crying.

The second lesson in this experience was the child’s eventual reaction to me. I basically ignored her – not actively ignored her, but I maintained a rather neutral posture. She was getting plenty of attention from folks who really love babies, and I couldn’t see a lot of sense to insert myself into that mix – it just seemed like it would be more than she could comfortably deal with.

By the end of the hour, I noticed that she was starting to observe me. At first just quick sideways glances & then full-on checking me out. We didn’t have enough time to make direct contact, but I have no doubt that had we had another half-hour she and I would have been connecting and having some type of communication. Which again is parallel behavior to what I’d expect with a new dog.

When I meet new dogs I ignore them – I don’t try to pet, or play or interact – I maintain a neutral posture and attitude and allow the dog to check me out in its own time and as the dog’s comfort level increases and it gets more comfortable with my presence, I can slowly begin to interact. By the time I put my hand down to pet the dog, it’s comfortable with me and the unfamiliar has become the familiar.

The same for young children.

Maybe as adults we need to keep these lessons in mind – both for children and for dogs – it would save both lots of stress and grief in the long run, and would help us feel less rejected when they are allowed to approach us instead of our constant pursuit and hurt feelings when the child runs away crying or the dog snaps.

About five years ago a neighbor acquired a couple of dogs.  The first dog lived there a year; he was a cute furry puppy when they got him – I think he was about nine months old when the kennel went up and the dog went into it – initially just during the day, but as he grew older he spent more and more time out there.  He was about a year old when the second puppy showed up.  At that point both dogs were in the kennel 24/7.  When I saw two dogs in the kennel I cringed, assuming that we’d be seeing litter after litter of backyard-breeder puppies and have been cautiously relieved that this has not been the case.

It happens that these dogs are in a yard that is not fenced, and is on an access road to the city park, so everyone who ever goes to the park sees them leaping against the kennel sides and barking frantically.  The brutal irony is that just on the other side of the property line is a large park where dogs are allowed to run off leash – to my knowledge neither of these dogs has ever been in that park – in fact they’ve only been out of the kennel a few times and are not leash trained – or any other kind of trained for that matter. Continue Reading »

For the last two years I’ve been trying to take a rescue break.  First I tried limiting the days I did rescue work.  I asked my rescue contacts to only call me on Mon, Wed, Fri, afternoons; and I would not respond to other queries that came in until those times.  Made it for about two or three weeks.

Then I promised myself that once the dogs I currently had in foster care and posted were placed, I wouldn’t take on anymore for a couple of months.  Well, that didn’t work out either.  But after the last month, I think I really do need to figure out something and stick with it, or I may find myself in even more serious straits; so far I’ve lost one FaceBook “friend” because she took personally my venting about something unrelated to her – and the sad part is I really don’t have the energy to make the effort to clear up the misunderstanding. Continue Reading »

In February 2001 I found an ad in the paper for McNab puppies ready for new homes. I called my friendly animal communicator hoping that she’d tell me my current dog, Sarah, really didn’t want a new puppy in the house. Much to my chagrin, instead I was told that Sarah wanted me to quit fostering, but that she wouldn’t mind a puppy. Of course she thought I was going to get one of the McNabs or a border collie — which were my first choice.

But the McNabs were snapped up and a friend’s dog the next day had a litter of Australian cattle dogs. I’d been around heelers before, enjoyed them, but never actually lived with or trained one but I figured that having spent 20 years with border collies, how hard could it be? Continue Reading »

Both of these ads came off of Craigslist on the same day:

Need a new loving home for my puppy…i love him to death but just isnt fair to him because i do not have the time he deserves. Hes about 5months old and i have had him since he was 5weeks old. Hes a heeler and very loving, good with kids and other dogs as well. I am asking for a $50 rehoming fee and that is it.

Bella is special needs. she is a german shepard/ mutt mix. She is alpha, she jumps up, she is allergic to wheat, she barks, she can be other dog aggressive, ( but not often ). she digs holes, she jumps on little kids. she bolts out of the door ( but always comes back ). that said, heres the good stuff. she is so cuddly. so loyal, caring and very smart. she would make a perfect pet for adults with no kids under ten, with a horse ranch or many acres to run, and someone who either is retired or works from home. are you this person? i have had her for 4 years and she has brought many happy memories into my life, but its selfish for me not to give her the life she deserves. she could be the best dog ever! even as a trial run, i would always take her back if it didnt work out.. i beleive the perfect home is waiting for her out there..

What, exactly, goes through people’s minds when they are getting a dog? I know — stupid question — the answer many times is: nothing. No thought is given to what this dog is going to be doing; the person getting the dog has one thing in mind: A new playmate or companion to fill the person’s needs — little if any consideration is given to the dog’s needs. And when the new owner discovers that the dog has needs, their initial reaction is that the dog needs to go to someone who “has more time.”

For some reason they assume that if the dog was going to be their perfect companion it would have been born that way and no training would have ever been needed. I always wonder if it was socially acceptable for parents to give up their children, how many kids would actually stay in their birth homes to adulthood? Given the situation in Nebraska this summer, I have a feeling we’d see a lot more kids in foster and institutional care if the option was available:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27706078/

What has happened in our society that adults seem not to be able to educate and raise another creature be it child or animal? What is going on that we have become so selfish and needy that we’re unable to put the slightest effort into helping another being grow and learn?

“I don’t have time for my dog?” Good grief! You have to feed it, take it for a walk, integrate it into your household and give it some love. How hard is that?

One of the cross posting lists I belong to was circulating last week a plea for help with medical expenses for an abused pit bull. This dog was barely a year old and obviously his owners weren’t what you’d call the compassionate type. The irony is that poor Fred is a sweet, loving dog with apparently not a mean bone in his body.

Fred’s situation once again made me think that there are definitely situations worse than death for these poor dogs. Generally, I like pits. Most of the ones I’ve met have been gentle, loving dogs and I’d not feel uncomfortable having one living with me. However, I know that’s not true for all of them, and the scary thing about a pit is that they can inflict major damage without even intending to. My leg is just healing up from a bite inflicted about two months ago by a very sweet pit — her owner was stunned; had never seen the dog that excited before — and after things settled down I spent a little more time with the dog and she is indeed a nice dog. But that bite really brought home to me just how dangerous these dogs are, even when they’re not trying to hurt you. This dog’s bite was her equivalent of a herding dog’s heel nip. She didn’t intend to hurt me, she was just excited and my leg happened to be right in front of her mouth; I doubt she even knew what it was. Thank goodness I had on jeans because the damage was severe enough with my leg somewhat protected — I shudder to think what it would have looked like if I’d not had any protection on there. Continue Reading »

Last weekend I was doing a “meet the breed/adoption” event at a pet supply store in Portland. I’d notified a few of our adopters in the area and invited them to stop by and say hello if they were out and about. Oddly, the first pair who came in was the last pair I expected to see. Continue Reading »

Well, the research has been done; all the sides have weighed in; the interviews conducted; and the semifinal decision has been made: Either a labradoodle or a Portuguese water dog will reside in the Obama White House.

From my rescue-centric point of view, I’m a little concerned. Rationally I understand the Obama family’s concern about getting a dog that does not exacerbate daughter Malia’s allergies (I’ve seen off-the-charts allergic reactions to dogs, so I take such allergies seriously). President-elect Obama said in an interview with George Stephanopolus that they still planned to get a shelter or rescue dog & all of us in rescue hope that will be the case. However, a quick glance today at the PetFinder (http://www.petfinder.com/) dog listings shows only eight PWDs; on the other hand, the listings for Labradors, chocolate labs, yellow labs; and black labs number well over 20,000 – I’m guessing that some of those are labradoodles since PetFinder does not have a classification for labradoodles. Continue Reading »

Quite often during the last ten years, I’ve had folks comment to me that they’d love to be able to do what I do (& I admit that dog rescue is my passion — I wish were putting as much energy into our business as I am into rescue); one woman commented, “What a great job to be able to help dogs and deliver them to new homes.”

And I love that I *can* help dogs and see the joy on people’s faces when they walk off with their new family member. I need those days to make up for days like today, which is probably a more typical rescue day: I got up at 4:00 a.m. because the puppy who spent the night with us was awake & yipping — she needed to go to the bathroom, but after she was done, she was not willing to go back into her crate — she wanted to stay up & play & would have been yipping even more vehemently if I’d tried to put her back to bed. (Anyone who’s had an Australian cattle dog puppy knows what I’m talking about!) If it was just me in the house, I might have been tempted to let her do this, but I knew my husband wouldn’t really appreciate it much.

So, I fluffed out the quilt on the couch, laid down with Puppy & after about 15 minutes she finally consented to fall back to sleep & slept for another couple of hours — which means I got to get in a couple of more hours too. After getting up, I wanted to take my shower, but I couldn’t leave Puppy’s sight because she’d start barking; so I couldn’t just put her back in the crate. I ended up letting her come into the bathroom while I showered; then she supervised the breakfast preparations, after which it was time to head out to meet her new family. Continue Reading »