Animal Allies

The Luther College Animal Allies group spent their entire Friday evening socializing the foster puppies at our house. All of the puppies will be going to their new homes this week, as well as their mother. Despite the extra work, I will really miss all of them!

Good news! Sweet Halle is also getting adopted this week! I'm very happy for her, she has a heart of gold and will make a wonderful family dog.

New Foster Dog

Halle is an 18 month old yellow Lab that we just took into foster care last night. The poor girl isn't feeling well after her spay yesterday so we haven't gotten to meet the "real" Halle yet, but so far this girl is a sweetie. She was roaming with another dog for a month and then got taken into the city impound. At that point we were called and Halle came to our house. Hopefully it won't take long to find this girl her forever home. The Collie babies and their mom are all going to their new homes next week!

Dog Walk

I enjoyed a nice walk with Jacki and Linda, both UITC members, at the Decorah bike trail on Saturday. This is the start of a regular tradition that we are starting to visit and enjoy the company of our dogs and one another. Here is a picture from our walk.

Humane Society of NE Iowa

Well it's been too long since our last posting. Both Scott and I have been volunteering for HSNEI (Scott is the new president), which has included fostering dogs. We are currently fostering a Collie named Emma and her litter of 6 puppies! They are 6 weeks old and all have wonderful homes waiting for them in two weeks. It's sure been an adventure. For more info about HSNEI visit their website at www.hsnei.org

This is a pic of one of the collie babies, Brooklyn.

Therapy Dogs during Finals Week

At Luther College, I am the adviser to a student group called Animal Allies. The students in the group worked hard all semester to get the college to allow a stress relief day with dogs during finals week. Their hard work paid off and this past Sunday (Dec. 12) Luther hosted its first stress relief day with dogs. We had four dogs there --three of them were ours--Paloma (Australian Shepherd), China (American Staffordshire Terrier), and Jack (Pug) and then Bugs (Border Collie)who used to be our dog, but now belongs to a student of ours who has her working daily as a therapy dog for special needs children at an elementary school in Iowa. All of the dogs were a big hit, but everybody was especially attracted to Jack--he's pretty damn cute--he's a Pug afterall.

Many more students participated than we had expected. With them coming and going over a period of about 1 1/2 hours, we must have had upwards of a 100 people. We plan on doing this every semester, but we are definitely going to need more dogs. All of them were absolutely spent by the time the session was over--in fact, the last 20 mins. or so they kept coming over to me with a look that said "it's time to get me out of here."

Dogs really are amazing critters. Whether its companionship, stress relief, therapy, or service work, they have a remarkable ability to impact our lives in meaningful ways.

Scott

China and the raccoon

About two months ago I was out walking my dogs on the land behind our house. I had Paloma, Maya, China, and Sula with me. I usually have all of them except China run off-leash. This time was no different, although when we were coming up to a stream I decided to let China loose--she loves going in the water, so I thought I would let her play in it a little without a leash restraining her. This was a BIG mistake. As soon as I let her off she dove right into a pile of brush sending two raccoons up a tree and getting in a fight with a third--the biggest damn raccoon I've ever seen. I'm hearing them growling and snarling at each other and then "boom" I know they are fighting. I see the coon run out of the brush pile with China following and eventually latching on to its back. Now there was no way to call her off--she's an Amstaff for crying out loud--a terrier through and through...but I tried. Paloma wanted to join the fray, but I called her off and had Paloma, Maya, and Sula all lay down while I tried to get China's attention. Oh yeah, did I mention I had Eva, our then 10 month old daughter, in a backpack on my back? So at this point I'm freaking out--I can't get close enough to drag China out of the pile because of Eva(it would have been a stupid idea even if I didn't have her) and I'm thinking that the King Kong of raccoons is tearing my 45lb dog apart--I mean I've heard of coons killing coon dogs and they're pretty tough and a lot bigger than China. So I high tail it back home with the other dogs and Eva. I put the dogs away and as I walked in the house, I handed Eva to Carmen and said, "I'm going upstairs to get my gun."--never in my life before moving to Decorah, Iowa did I ever think I would be uttering those words...so Igot my .22 and headed out the door and as I stepped outside, Carmen said--without skipping a beat--"do you have ammo with you?"--I raised my hand in the air with my clip in it and set out back to China.


Now it turns out I never had to use the gun; the fight was over--I couldn't hear anything anymore and I'm thinking "China's dead." But I called her and out she came from behind the brush pile--her face was covered in blood--the coon's and her own. No sign of the coon, but I suspect she ended up back in her den and probably the worse for it all. China appeared to be okay, but she had bite marks and scratches all over her (thank goodness she is up-to-date on her rabies)--a few days of antibiotics and she was in good shape. Like their cousins the pitbull, and other terriers for that matter, Amstaffs can be very aggressive toward animals they perceive as "varmints"--unfortunately, in their minds "varmints" often include cats and small dogs.

Please, please if you have an Amstaff or a Pitbull be very careful about letting it loose around other animals and please don't take these breeds to the dog park....that can be a disaster. The problem is you never know what might flip that switch in their brains. Don't get me wrong, I love these breeds--all bullies, but especially Amstaffs and Pitbulls, occupy a very special place in my heart. They can be the funniest and most affectionate clowns around, but just as with any breed, people need to remember what they were originally bred to do.

Scott

First Obedience Trials

Well, Scott and I took the plunge and entered Sula and Noel in their first obedience trial, the first weekend in December. We only entered one day since we have other commitments that weekend, and also to see how things go with them. While the first trial with a new dog isn't quite as nerve wracking as the very first trial ever (with our first competition dogs), there is the still the stress of the unknown. What will they do at their first trial? Will they get distracted and nervous in the strange environment? Will they freeze and forget everything we've taught them? (this is unlikely but something we still worry ourselves with!) We have worked hard getting them ready for this, practicing in new places and with all types of distractions, but there are still no guarantees. However there are a few things we can do to make sure the day goes as smoothly as planned: First, arrive early at the trial and allow ourselves plenty of time to get crates set up and get checked in; Second, allow the dogs some time to get acquainted with the new setting before being put in their crates; Third, remember that this is just a dog show and in the whole scheme of life is not a big deal; Last but most important, have fun with our dogs - that's why we do this in the first place!