[jimnc]

"Z" is a very lucky dog to have crossed paths with you. On behalf of dog lovers everywhere, thank you.
Please don't give up. I'm quite sure you'll succeed. "Z" needs your help.

[Abby10]

I'm so impressed with your patience and kindness in trying to train your foster dog. What a lucky pup to have someone like you and your wife to love and encourage her.......really enjoying your journey on here. With all the season finales on television these past couple of weeks, I look forward to this becoming my new thing to "watch". Keep the updates coming!

[plimit56]

What type of dog are you fostering? Is is from the SPCA of Sumter County? Cannot wait to hear more!!!!

[ajbrown]

Originally Posted by plimit56

What type of dog are you fostering? Is is from the SPCA of Sumter County? Cannot wait to hear more!!!!

Originally Posted by snippet from OP

This dog will remain anonymous. If it seems to resemble a dog you know, it is coincidence only. Remember this is the Internet, for all you know, I may just be making this up to get my post count up?

Nice try

I do not know why I wish to keep the name anonymous, but I do for now. I will give some clues:

She is a sweet heart, with one caveat that she might want to eat a dog

My wife told me which SPCA she came from, but I forget. This is not my fault, as my wife will attest, it seems I never listen

[Boomer]

aj, about the exercise, it might not be ideal but if you have an open stretch of space inside your house, maybe she would like playing ball. I know that might sound a little silly, space-wise, for a big dog because there would not be enough room to get up any speed, but sometimes it is simply about playing and having fun and bonding and interaction with people.

I know a dog that is about the size of a lab. He is obsessed with playing ball. He lives in a relatively small house......but that house does have a staircase. He will play ball as long as anyone is willing. He goes to the top of the stairs (at the landing part) and catches most of the pitches. He then drops the ball back down the steps to the person who is playing with him. (He tries to talk anyone who comes to the house into playing ball, including the plumber.) This dog gets to go for walks, too, but his ball-playing career is very important to him. It seems to be about concentration and/or entertainment. When he used to have a bigger yard, he could play ball there. In fact, when he would run the ball back, he always had to touch his nose to a certain tree on the way. That tree seemed to be some kind of base. But now he has adapted to more of an inside life with walks and staircase ballgames to look forward to.

Of course nobody has a staircase in TV, but as I sit here looking at our Villages house, I am thinking where I could play ball with a big dog......maybe from the front door to the back of the lanai but........might get a little dicey for you...... if the dog is really big.........or if you collect and display Waterford......

Oh well, just a thought. Keep us posted.

[ajbrown]

"Boomer", you have no idea how much I appreciate comments to help us. There are many folks on TOTV who have more experience than me and I appreciate any insight.

Z does not care about the ball. We do play in the house with ball, but unlike my previous dogs she loses interest after a few throws.

[JSR22]

Originally Posted by ajbrown

"Boomer", you have no idea how much I appreciate comments to help us. There are many folks on TOTV who have more experience than me and I appreciate any insight.

Z does not care about the ball. We do play in the house with ball, but unlike my previous dogs she loses interest after a few throws.

A lot of dogs that are not interested in retrieving like tugging. There are good tug toys at Pet Smart.

[CFrance]

Maybe she would like one of those puzzle/treat toys that you put treats in. My friend's Rottie had one that was roundish but split in the middle. He would spend a lot of time playing with it to get the treats out.

[Barefoot]

Originally Posted by ajbrown

We lost our family dog about 6 months ago. Full disclosure, I am not a fan of getting another dog yet… or maybe ever to be honest. I have had a dog or dogs for all of my life. There is a freedom that comes with not having a dog. Do I miss having a pooch around the home, of course I do, but I also enjoy staying in bed when it has to go out at 4 AM and the freedom to hop on a plane and visit somewhere/one with a moment’s notice.
That said, my lovely wife has been talking about a particular dog for quite a while. Finally I caved and suggested we foster the dog and see what she is really like. There seems to be a common denominator whenever I cave… good times and vodka. A beautiful night with friends and a few vodka tonics and when I get home I am silly putty, emphasis on silly. In the morning I tried the old ‘I did not say that’ which failed, I knew I said it, I never have that much vodka that I forget.

This is our first foster. I am not sure how this thread will go, I am not sure how long it will last, I am not sure how up to date I will keep it. I am not much of a writer, I just figured it maybe interesting for me to try and share our foster experience.

Folks may enjoy it, I also may get some help from people with more experience at handling dogs. I consider myself a decent dog handler. With time I can have a dog able to be off leash, stay, come, etc., but I am ‘no dog whisperer’. I am amazed by someone like Cesar and his understanding of behavior and the timing of his actions. The only thing I can do like him is stay calm and never take an action out of anger. This dog will remain anonymous. If it seems to resemble a dog you know, it is coincidence only. Remember this is the Internet, for all you know, I may just be making this up to get my post count up?

I'm enjoying your tales of being a foster dad. Thanks for giving Z a safe place to learn her lessons.
She is a lucky dog to have you in her life. Please keep up the good work, she needs your help.
On behalf of dog lovers everywhere, a sincere thank you.

[Boomer]

Originally Posted by ajbrown

"Boomer", you have no idea how much I appreciate comments to help us. There are many folks on TOTV who have more experience than me and I appreciate any insight.

Z does not care about the ball. We do play in the house with ball, but unlike my previous dogs she loses interest after a few throws.

You bring up an interesting point. I think different breeds have different things that interest them........

My ball-playing friend has retriever in him somewhere.

We had a bird dog, a Brittany Spaniel, for many years. She lived in the house and was never trained to hunt. But when she was outside, she always had her nose up to the wind and she would go into a point sometimes. She just knew how to point, knew from somewhere deep inside her DNA. She was gorgeous, orange and white. And she had the longest concentration span of any dog I have ever seen. She came from a line of field champions. But I did not even know what that was. I just thought she was pretty and the perfect size for our lives at the time. We did give her lots of outside time to practice with her natural gifts. Even though she never got to actually hunt, I think she liked her cushy life with us.

And then there was the 80-pound dog who was given to me when she was a puppy, given with the promise that she would grow up to be only 35 pounds. She had a beard and a tail that looked like it was stuck on with Play-Doh. She was beautiful in her own way. She had lots of different breeds in her DNA, but she had a whole lot of retriever. She would sneak out of the yard and steal, uh....retrieve things from the neighbors' yards. I trained her to bring in the morning paper for us. But....alas, she would sometimes bring the neighbors' paper, too.

I know some Corgis. Corgis are herding dogs. Those Corgis are so much more relaxed when the whole family and any company are all in the same room.

Our last dog showed up at our back door. She chose us and lived with us for 16 years. She was a beauty. I called her breed "Nature's Finest Genetic Engineering." She looked like she might have had a touch of Afghan Hound. Afghans are sighthounds. They gaze into the distance and have speed and endurance. She watched for deer all the time, from the window and when she was outside. She knew they were somewhere out there. And she knew the approximate time to expect them. She joyously chased those deer and would not have it any other way, no matter how much we called her back and no matter how fast Mr. Boomer could run after her--he was never fast enough. We had to get an Invisible Fence--of an acre. I really think she probably got lost from her original home when she went on one of those high-speed, long chases after deer. She could not help it.

(sigh) Dogs.........all with different interests and different gifts.

[marianne237]

Please keep your tale of fostering a fur baby current. I haven't found anything on TOTV in quite a while that I wanted to really read about. Truly enjoying your adventure.

[CFrance]

I think you had a retriever, didn't you, AJ? They love balls. They love to retrieve. They love to have things in their mouths.

Perhaps, as Boomer suggests with her many wonderful descriptions of her dogs, you could determine some of the genetics of Z and from there develop things she might like to do. One thing... are her paws "webbed"? She might like to swim. If so, Flagler Beach with Z on a very long line comes to mind. Especially in summer you are not overly likely to encounter many dogs, and they must be leashed.

I suspect you probably have your hands full right now with just getting Z used to surroundings. But things to think about for the future.

[Sable99]

I was just reading your posts to my Mom and aunt and we all got a chuckle!! Love hearing about "Z" and your progress! Keep up the good work. Have you tried Chris Kinstler here in The Villages. My Lexi took classes with Chris through the Lifelong Learning College and Chris was going to have classes now at Doggie Do Run Run. Chris is wonderful with dogs and also does private lessons. I have her information if you want it.

[ajbrown]

Originally Posted by CFrance

I think you had a retriever, didn't you, AJ? They love balls. They love to retrieve. They love to have things in their mouths.

<snipped by Alan>

Caly was a lab, she had no papers to prove it,but she was...

She loved to chase balls and swim. What was funny is when we first had her she would not jump in our above ground pool (in Massachusetts). We took her down to a lake and let her wade in to get her ball. After a few times her ball drifted away and she walked out and to her surprise she was swimming. That was that, we brought her back home and she would jump in the pool.

She could also get out of the pool on her own. I used to enjoy sitting on the deck watching her play by herself. She would take a tennis ball and drop it in the pool, the current would take it around and when it got towards the other side she would jump in, get the ball and climb back out and do it all over again ...

I was fortunate in life that I could spend a lot of time on Martha's Vineyard (thank you Dad). I would take Caly down to the beach in Oak Bluffs and throw balls into the ocean. The fun part was she could carry two tennis balls. I would throw one out, when she got that one and started to head back I would throw the second one 30 feet or so to the left. Off she would go and get that one and then come in. People would stop and watch and they got a kick out of it...

You should have seen her in the surf of 'South Beach, MV', holding on to her ball as waves threw her all over the place.

It has been six months since Caly was put down. Just typing this post causes my eyes to well up... this slide show puts me over the edge

Caly Memories Slideshow by ajbrown2007 | Photobucket

[ajbrown]

Originally Posted by Sable99

I was just reading your posts to my Mom and aunt and we all got a chuckle!! Love hearing about "Z" and your progress! Keep up the good work. Have you tried Chris Kinstler here in The Villages. My Lexi took classes with Chris through the Lifelong Learning College and Chris was going to have classes now at Doggie Do Run Run. Chris is wonderful with dogs and also does private lessons. I have her information if you want it.

Thank you, we are researching places and people to go and learn. The classes would not be for Z, but for us. I do not need a lot of help with general obedience, but would love to understand behavior.

The art of helping a dog be 'calm submissive' is something I would love to be able to do.

We have no plans, but it is something we are seriously considering...