Skeeter’s Second Week

We are now into the second week of Skeeter‘s stay with us.  He’s been a great little foster dog so far.  He has the energy to go all day if wanted; if an owner wanted to spend the day hiking he would be glad to go along.  Yet at the same time he is happy to lie around the house if that is the day’s activity level, sleeping most of the time and then amusing himself with rawhides to chew on or stuffies to wrestle during his few waking hours.  He really would fit almost anyone’s lifestyle.

The only obstacle in his training so far are those long legs!  For example, the traditional push down on the butt while saying “sit” did not work, it just splayed those legs out more.  Trying to bring a treat over his head makes him back up instead of sit.  So it took a bit to figure out how to put him in a sitting position while giving the command, but as soon as we did it just a few times he caught on and now will fairly reliably sit during training.  It appears he’ll be quite easily trained as long as the legs don’t get in the way!  Next we are working on sitting on command during everyday distracting situations.

Unfortunately Skeeter came to us suffering from some sort of allergy.  We’re not even sure he is still affected, it may have been something from his previous environment; but like a 2 year old child you cannot convince him not to scratch.  Because of that he needs to wear a cone when he’s asleep in his crate or unmonitored during the day as he scratches around his eyes making the eyes very irritated and the skin around bright pink.  Yuana had him for 1 day before bringing him to us; she is who introduced him to the cone and that one day greatly improved his eyes.  After just one more day spent with us you can barely tell there is an issue when you check him each morning; but if he manages to scratch or rub for just 3 seconds before you stop him then he irritates everything again; so it does seem that most of the issue is his continued scratching.

For that reason it was off to visit the veterinarian on Monday.  He and I made the longer trip into Coquitlam as the Langley vet that Dhana Metta works with had no availability until Wednesday and we wanted to see him better sooner.  The vet agreed that since he was getting better it was likely something from the previous environment with the scratching keeping his histamine levels up, but still suggested changing the food and treats to be sure.  He needs cream in his eyes and doses of Benadryl twice a day for 10 days, and already after 3 1/2 days he is doing much better.  He quite enjoys his Children’s Benadryl, it is bubble gum flavoured!  Once he is completely better we will experiment with the food to see if it brings back the symptoms, but we are fairly confident that food is not the issue.

After the vet visit we headed to a nearby off leash area in Bramble Park.  As he is new to us we would not risk an average off leash park, but this one had a completely fenced area for dogs to run without fear of losing them.  Unfortunately, it was also a mud pit.  It seems the city tried to pick the worst area in the park, we walked more of the park on leash and it was fine but the dog area is at the bottom of the drainage area.  Luckily I had his cone on since we had just put cream in his eyes; it kept his head fairly clean.  Needless to say we did not stay long.

Overall Skeet is a joy to have around the house.  He will cuddle up with either of us, he is not picky.  He absolutely loves playing chase around the couch; and he does not care if he is the chaser or being chased, and whom is the chaser changes back and forth throughout.  During these times any shyness or submissiveness disappears as his tail wags happily and he gets low to the ground, ready to go left or right at a moment’s notice.  It becomes evident that he probably was well loved and played with often before he ever learned to be scared; we’re thinking he must have had a good home in Los Angles that didn’t plan to lose him.

As we play with him, take him out on walks and car rides, feed him, and work on his training; you see Skeeter’s timidness less frequently each day.  It appears that he was perhaps scolded to much in the past;  I am hoping that did not include any further abuse.  But it also happily appears that a loving home will quickly build back up his confidence.