Shiloh arrived here on the evening of July 28th, 2017. I picked her up from the mobile spay/neuter clinic after her surgery. Fortunately I used a large transport box for this because it took hours before she was able to stand and walk about on her own. I have a loading dock on my workshop, so I just slid the box from the back of my pick-up onto the dock and into the workshop and let her rest until she was ready.
Articles from July 2017
Kibble Inspector: A Privileged Post
One of the things I do as part of House Dog training with our foster dogs is to teach them to control their food frenzy. The first step is done in the Kibble Treasury.
If the dog gets grabby or goes bucket diving, they get evicted and I’ll dish up kibble behind a closed door for a couple of days. If they can reign in those urges, they get a sample. When they master this, they get a special job to do.
Sometimes he gets dual inspectors:
We feed foster dogs in their crate at first. As they learn to control themselves (so they won’t be shoving the others out of their bowls) they get to eat on a blanket outside of their crate, and eventually on their blanket around the dining table with Cochise, Blondie, and (now) Josephine.
They also learn to get chewies as a group activity. Any growlies or grabbies and it’s back to their “room”.
Food training also includes lessons about NOT standing up to cruise the kitchen counters or the dining room table. Four on the floor, sit on your blanket at the table and wait to be served, and no grabbing anyone else’s food if they are slower than you. When they master those lessons, they get their gold star in food etiquette.
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Invasion Force
On Sunday I noticed Cochise shaking his head and scratching at his ears. I checked him out and found some gunk inside, which I removed with Q-tips. I made a note to stop into Tractor Supply and get some ear mite medication, just in case.
This morning I checked him again and found both ears swollen and hot. I decided to put a call in to Doctor Sandra and make an appointment: I assumed he’d scratched at his ears enough to cause an infection.
Before I could do that, during the morning poop patrol, I found what I believe to be the true source of his discomfort: a yellow jacket nest in the play yard.
Giving People Medicine to Your Dog
If your dog has mild allergies, you can treat them with over the counter medications intended for humans (people medicine) and avoid the risks and cost of prescription drugs like Prednisone.
There are a number of reasons you might want to give your dog Benedryl (diphenhydramine – also available in many generic brands). Diphenhydramine is an antihistamine, so it helps in relieving itching from contact allergies or bug bites or stings. It can be used to reduce swelling and pain from a snake bite. It will calm a hyperactive dog or reduce “terrors” during fireworks or thunderstorms.
The usual dosage of Diphenhydramine for dogs is 1 mg per pound of dog every 8 to 12 hours (two to three times daily), but a single dose can be doubled to 2mg/lb if needed in an emergency such as a snake bite. This suggested dose is for formulations containing the active ingredient diphenhydramine only — NO Tylenol. Tylenol (acetaminophen) is poisonous to dogs. Overdosing on diphenhydramine for an extended period can be lethal, but there is a wide margin of safety.
If you need something stronger, Cetirizine (Zyrtec) and Loratadine (Claratin) are also safe for canine use and available in affordable generic forms.
Sylvia Steele: Notes On A Rescue Dog
Sylvia is a 7 year old Shar Pei mix with a checkered past. She is affectionate but not clingy. She shares the yard with most other dogs, but does not usually engage in play other than running.
She’s kind of a loner.
Last updated: Nov 11, 2017
Fast Facts
- She has been spayed and all her shots are up to date except rabies and she is on heartworm preventative.
- She has been crate trained and pee pad trained.
- Sylvie currently bunks in a pen and has had multiple neighbors: male and female. She has gotten along just fine with all of them.
- Amy says Sylvia gets along great with CATS.
- She does show strong alpha-dog tendencies including an insistence on peeing on all the spots the male dogs have marked.
Sylvia’s Story
Sylvia is one of 20+ dogs taken to the Humane Society of Jefferson County after Animal Control removed them all from a single hoarding situation. Most of them are Shar Pei mixes. All of them exhibited some degree of fearfulness. Some of them had never had ANY human contact and had had to fight for the little food that was occasionally tossed out for them. During Sylvia’s stay she tested positive for heartworm and the shelter was not equipped to properly care for a dog going through HW treatment so they appealed to Steele Away Home – Canine Foster and Rescue for help. But not before she stole the hearts of the shelter staff.
Sylvia and another dog in the group had recently given birth to litters of puppies. The other momma dog attacked Sylvia’s litter and killed several of them and wounded Sylvie. The other momma had to be euthanized because of her “killer” behavior, leaving her pups motherless so the staff tried giving them to Sylvia. She eagerly adopted them and mothered them until weaned. But she needed special accommodations because she was so protective she’d charge the fencing if any dog was walked by. Once her foster mother duties were completed, she went into foster care herself for treatment.
Amy Huff was her first foster home and brought her a long ways from the terrified, defensive dog she was. Amy had cats, which Sylvie got along with just fine, but no dogs. Sylvie needed more group interaction, so Amy began bringing Sylvie here to play in our yard, meet our dogs and to meet me. That went well and after a few weeks of visits, Sylvie came here to live, and I’ve been working on socializing her further.
Sylvia is now quite accepting and friendly with both me and my wife, Marie, and has been friendly to strangers who visited. She has gotten along well with all of our dogs … except Blondie Bear. At first Sylvie ignored Blondie while they were in the yard together. But after a while Sylvie decided to challenge her:
I needed to step in quickly to avert a potential fight. That antagonism continues, but only toward Blondie Bear – and we don’t know why. Blondie is the sweetest, most gentle thing you can imagine.
This means she cannot come in our house because Blondie lives in the house, so further house-manners training is out of the program unless I can resolve this. She does, however, dance on her fencing with a toy clutched in her mouth when the others are in the yard, “I want to play too, I want to play too. See: I have a TOY! Let me play too.” She really wants to get along, but her insecurity gets the better of her on the rare occasion.
Sylvia plays with “The Gang” in the yard. Cochise is missing: he’s taking a nap. (This was shot a while back)
She plays better with Julian when Josie is not in the mix. She doesn’t like to compete for the attention of her playmate.
As you can see, Sylvie can play well with others.
Sylvia knows how to cool off on a hot July afternoon! She stayed in there for the longest time, then stepped out, shook off, and went to sunbathe on the doggie-cabin’s front porch.
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Buddy Golden: Notes on a foster dog
Buddy is a 92 pound, senior, Golden Retriever picked up by Animal Control as a stray and delivered to an animal shelter. The shelter vet looked at him and decided he didn’t have any obvious, serious health problems, but could not tell for sure what shape he was in without a good examination and blood tests. Because he’s a senior, and because he does have skin issues and wounds on his feet, it’s not likely the shelter will invest limited resources in that examination, nor is it likely he will survive long in an over-crowded shelter. So I brought him home as a foster-project.
June 30, 2017
I took him to Cedarwood Veterinary Hospital right away and it was no trick at all to find out that we has infested with fleas and ticks (even I could see that) but he also had three large hot spots where the skin was raw and the flies had laid eggs, resulting in those areas being infested by maggots. Two vet techs and I gloved up and worked for over an hour and a half to pull around two dozen ticks off and cut away the fur to expose the hot spots and clean out the maggots.
