(Ottawa Dog of the Week for November 7th, 2011)

“Marley is a Yorkie/Cairn Terrier and she’s a cottage girl at heart, there’s no doubt about it. The Yorkie side of Marley makes her a nervous little one so the idea of strangers, loud noises or car rides make her extremely anxious. But as soon as you say “Mar, wanna go to the cottage?”, she’s up on her hind legs jumping for joy. Nothing makes her happier than long boat cruises with her family, listening to Bob Marley or Jimmy Buffett. Getting dunked in the lake and chasing squirrels come a pretty close 2nd and 3rd though. For such a tiny dog, she really does run the place (and the neighbor’s too, actually) so after a long day of fun in the sun, we can always count on a snoring pup on someone’s lap by dinnertime.

The pic of her on the boat really captures (what I like to call) her pirate side. She HATES the car but for some reason has a love for boat rides. She’s always the first one in the boat when we go on cruises at the cottage. ” Marley’s Human, Vicky.

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Once again it feels like forever since the last post about Wellie. This month has been full I tell you.

First up, almost immediately following the last post was Westfest. It was a blast and we had a great time. On Saturday (the longer day) I brought Corduroy and she just loves it – she laps up the attention and still wants more. On Sunday I brought Wellie and she did really well for her first big festival. She was very well behaved and went on two long walks with Rolph, the dog walker for Bark & Fitz. The only thing was that she was a bit overwhelmed with all the people. I’ll probably just stick to bringing Corduroy next year, but it was nice for Wellie to go once just to experience it.

One thing I did find out during Westfest is that Wellie really hates skateboards. She actually went crazy nuts barking and trying to get to the skateboards when some kids were skating around at one point on Sunday. I’m not sure where that is coming from, but I’ll be sure to watch for the next time we see a skateboard and we’re not around a bajillion people, to really see what is setting her off about them. The sound? the fast pace?

Once again I wish I could report more success in housetraining, but I am sad to report it’s actually gotten a lot worse. Ugh. While we seem to have the pooing under control, as long as we make her go at her “usual” times (6am and 4pm), but it’s just the peeing now. Well to be honest, I don’t fully trust her not to poop inside yet either, but I’m sure she’ll earn that in time.

So the peeing. It’s not a physical issue, because she holds it every single night. It’s a choice – she’s choosing not to hold it and going all over the house. We haven’t been able to catch her (aside from last Saturday, which I’ll get to in a moment). And the funny thing is that she does it mostly while we are home. I am wondering if it’s something to do with attention seeking? What is working in the mornings is taking her out on a leash, I just don’t know how long I should keep this up for – taking her out on leash every morning. Every once and a while at 4pm if she’s not going poo and just wandering or wanting to go in the house, we’ll put her on leash again and walk her around the yard. I just don’t understand why she would rather always be inside than out – but then tries to dart out the front door every chance she gets. Ack! I think she is singlehandedly keeping the “pee stain remover” industry in business! haha. Continue reading →

(Ottawa Dog of the Week for May 16th, 2011)

“This is Zoey, a 21 month old, 6 lb Morkie (Maltese/Yorkie). She came into my life last fall shortly after the death of my beloved Benji. In Zoey’s first 6 months she had had 4 owners, 3 names and weighed only 3.1 lbs. She was not house trained, barked a lot, hardly ate, and was very hyper. We are still working on the barking but other than that she is a wonderful little girl, loved by everyone that she meets. If you love doggy kisses then you too would love Zoey. Her favourite pass time is playing soccer. It is hard to believe that such a small dog can pass, stop and head butt a ball the way she does. The other thing she likes is to tear apart stuffed toys. I no longer buy them at pet stores, second hand stores and garage sales are the way to go. Must be the terrier breeds in her. Recently she was diagnosed with a collapsed trachea and will eventually need to have surgery. The road ahead will be hard for her and costly for me but I know now that is why she came into my life. I am the first one in her life that is not going to give up on her. ” Zoey’s human, Cathy. Continue reading →

Sometimes I look around and can’t believe that we have three dogs. A friend was joking with me right after we rescued Wellie and said that even though we have three dogs, they are all so small that combined they really only make one big dog – kind of like those Transformers that combine into one big one. Sometimes I really notice we have three dogs, and sometimes it’s not really obvious at all. One will be sleeping while two play, or they will all be napping at once – or alternately, all playing at once. What I do know, is that Wellie belongs with us and it was the best decision to rescue her.

This week has had its ups and downs. Jane and Sonnet were here until Sunday and Sonnet and Wellie played a lot. Sonnet got braver and braver as the week went on and by last weekend she was launching herself on the other dogs and grabbing onto their hair in her mouth. They didn’t like it much and it only really worked on Wellie at actually getting her to play. Wellington was the only one who seemed to actually like Sonnet, whereas the other two just tolerated her. Jane left back to Kingston on Sunday and Wellie kept going in the basement looking for both of them.

Since Jane and Sonnet left, Wellington has been really testing our patience. I’m not sure if she’s angry that Jane isn’t home with her all day during the work-week, but she’s been having housetraining “accidents” all over the house so frequently now it’s not even funny. On Monday, while I was at work and Thomas was teaching, she peed all over her organic pet bed – so much pee. And this is the second time she’s done it! What is even worse about this is that because it’s organic, I can’t wash the stuffing and the cover isn’t waterproof, so the stuffing got pee in it too. Argh. The store told me to wash the cover and leave the cover and inside poof out in the sun and that should help – something about the sun getting the smell and stain out with UV rays. I’ll also be spraying it with pee stain and odour remover to see it that helps.

As If that wasn’t enough, Wellie then proceeded to poop and try to eat it right in the next room while I was doing laundry (washing the bedding she peed on!!) and then had three pee accidents later on in the evening. Then another pee accident overnight on Monday night – the first time in a few weeks! So many setbacks all at once!

It’s not that she can’t hold her bladder, because she has shown us she can. I really think now it’s behavioural. We have been urged to try to tether her to us so we can catch her in the act and correct her immediately by putting her outside, so we tried that last night for the first time and it seemed to work – no accidents yesterday! She doesn’t mind being on the leash either so that’s good. Wellie is also being, what my husband has been calling, meddlesome. She is getting into everything and it’s been trying our patience. I think that having her tied to us all the time will help with this as well…I hope!

I know that when we were raising Paddington and Corduroy from puppies, that the puppies learn quickly and then go through a “rebellion stage” where they test you (and their boundaries) like teenagers do. Do rescue dogs do the same? Even ones that are over 1 year old and should be done with their teenage stage? Wellie is really leading me to believe that yes, they do, but I’m not sure if that is just me rationalizing her behaviour.

Last night we went to the Small Fries Social at Bark & Fitz in Westboro and all three dogs had a great time. While there, they all got their nails trimmed and Wellie did MUCH better than the last time. Our vet showed me how to calm her and it worked so well. We have also been touching her paws a lot and I think that helped as well. I was so proud of her! She wasn’t perfect, but is well on her way to being ok with nail trims.

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We weren’t looking for a third dog – not at all. …But she was looking for us.

This story all begins months ago when I found out that Petfinder had launched an iPhone app. Now anyone who knows me knows that my iPhone is pretty much glued to me at all times, so I decided to download it and try it out. I tested it out by putting in my postal code and let it find the dogs all around me. The app has a favourites button and I started favouriting dogs that I thought were cute to see how it worked. One of the dogs I favourited never really left my mind.

A few weeks ago my Mother decided she wanted to adopt a dog and in the search for a dog, I came across the same little face, still waiting for her family. I thought to myself that someone will adopt this sweet little girl and tried to forget about her.

But I couldn’t…

Fast forward to three weeks after and the sweet little face was still there, on the website just willing us to come to our senses. Thomas and I talked about it and we thought a long time on how a third dog would affect our family. I spoke to several people about it for their advice and on Tuesday morning we sent in the application to adopt her. We heard back quickly, by that afternoon and had an appointment to meet her on Wednesday evening.

From the moment we were approved we knew she was a part of our family. After speaking with one of the amazing volunteers at Animatch, I knew that this little girl was exactly like Paddington was at her age – a spunky little ball of energy that never stops moving.

So everyone, I’d like you to meet Wellington (or Wellie for short), our newest family member. She is a one year old ShihTzu/Yorkie mix and she is just wonderful. She is getting along with Paddington and Corduroy very well and we couldn’t be happier.

I haven’t told many people this but for the past while I’ve felt that there was a little soul out there searching for us, and now I know that it was Wellington.

She was just waiting for us to come to our senses.

Some videos if you read more Continue reading →

(Ottawa Dog of the Week for May 31st/10)

“This is my new puppy Basil. He is a Schnorkie (yorkie + mini schnauzer). He is the most adorable little guy. He is 9 weeks old now and loves to snuggle on people’s laps. He enjoys his walks and meeting new friends. I have attached some pictures of him trying on some new outfits. He actually loves to try on different clothes.” – Basil’s mom, Bonnie.

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