Well, we survived the Apocalypse of July.  Buddy spent the evening in his hunker bunker, Josephine managed to squeeze under our bed (amazing!) then poked her nose out and said, “Come on in, Blondie Bear, it’s better under here.”  Blondie (4 times Josie’s size) just looked at her with exasperation and poked my elbow with her nose.  Her signal that she desperately needs scritchies.  Callie Roo curled up in a ball on a snuggle bed and trembled.

The Brown Dog Gang, are about the same.  I think Sable may be a bit calmer in her interactions with me: I haven’t sprained a finger working with her in almost a week.

Rocky is a bit more calm too.  Blaze has never been a problem in this regard, always gentle.

I have had to move the Da Boyz back into one room to make room for Luna.  This should not be an issue short term as they have learned to enjoy themselves while not in each other’s company.   And I feed them separately by calling Blaze to come out of the kennel to eat while Rocky eats inside.  I do give them treats together and Rocky is doing better about focusing on his treat and not on taking Blaze’s away.

Luna is a bafflement.

She is quite gentle though exceedingly strong.  She walks well on a leash — as long as you’re going where she wants to go.  If you want to go another direction she plants herself like a statue and refuses to move.  She reminds me of Cochise, when we first got him.  Unfortunately treats don’t sway her.

One of the issues she had at N.A.C. was that she was not eating, and her already thin frame was becoming gaunt.  She is eating now.  Because she is a Great Dane mix and Danes have a tendency toward bloat, I divide her daily kibble into three meals instead of the regular two.  I’m also adding coconut oil to them to help her pack on weight.  She has had a problem with diarrhea, so I’m also adding pumpkin to her kibble.  She snarfs this down every time I bring it to her.

She appears to have been a house dog.  She really, really wants to go in our home.  Or anyone’s home: Mom’s home, Neighbor Sam’s home, the bunkhouse, even the barn!  Anywhere but her kennel.

Now that Lemaster has vacated the House Dog position (amongst the fosters) I did try bringing her in the house after the kennels were clean and the yard picked up this morning.  That did not go well.

She does not seem to want to “go” out in the grass.  I take her out for a walk every couple of hours to encourage her to keep her kennel clean.  Only twice in the week she has been here has she urinated while on a walk with me.  She has never defecated while I was with her.  She did it once while on a tether so I could clean her kennel, and she got as far from me (and her kennel) as she could.

Dolly Dawg used to insist on going out into the woods to do her business.  She said, “Good dogs never defile their own yard.”  Maybe that’s the issue with Luna too, she is forever wanting to get out of the yard, I thought it was just wander-lust.  We went through that with Blondie Bear when she was younger.  She was quite the escape artist, I developed most of my containment techniques trying to keep her in the yard.

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