Quick Update and Thank you from Me!

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to give my thanks to all of you! This was my first time starting a blog as well as fostering and everyone has been so encouraging and supportive! Thank you everyone! And I do read all the comments and they are very appreciated :D!

On that note, if there is any questions you have about the pups or if there is something in particular you'd like to ask me or would like me to post about please feel free to write it in the comments section below each blog post! :)

As for the dogs...

Carlin

Carlin has been walking well on leash though he does tend to try to keep his nose to the ground when he can and loves all the smells on walks!

We took both pups to the ball park during a game to help them get used to more people and new places. Carlin hung back more than Chika, though once I asked the kids to ignore him and not look him in the eye he became very curious in them and began standing and sitting beside them and sniffing them all over and even came over for pets! :) He does not get fearful he just seems to move back at fast movements towards his face from above him, such as kids hands moving in too fast to pet him. But that is very understandable, considering when greeting a dog it is always encouraged to not look them in the eye and not move your body/hands over them but instead move sideways and keep your hands low. That works very well with him! Once he starts getting love he moves his butt over for more butt scratches! :)

Chika

Chika is more advanced on leash, but that also stems from her being more submissive than Carlin and she follows much more readily and I walk her on a loose leash already! Though she does stick to your side a bit like glue at times and then looks across the street and if I don't notice I sometimes bump into her nose with my leg! so she is learning to walk just slightly off to the side though she does prefer to be close.

She also met a cat on the walks! That made my day! The cat wanted to be petted so came over and meowed at me so, while watching Chika, I crouched down and petted the cat. The cat did not give the dog the time of day besides a few glances and just wanted pats. Chika slowly came over and the hair along her entire spine was up! She looked like a porcupine! So I stood, and walked her in a slowly past the cat and back again and in only 2 passes her hair flattened back down and now she was curious about the cat and wanted to sniff it. The cat was fine with this and just about touched noses with Chika! I was kicking myself for not getting my phone out in time to snap a shot! After about a minute Chika gave one little bark at the cat. It was what I would call a talking bark, it wasn't aggressive and not necessarily playful and not fearful or excited, it was just a very neutral bark. The cat was very funny! It walked over to Chika and gave a little swat in her direction, no claws or hissing or even "cat-posturing" or hair raised or anything! Just a little swat as if you say "Behave you!". Chika just stared at the cat. It was all very amusing! And it was nice to she that she is interested in cats but still respectful! I'm sure if the cat ran however, I may be telling a different story ;) But I was glad the cat didn't it was a great experience for Chika!

She was also very good at the game and was at home with all the people there and wanted to run and play!

Scotty

Scotty is doing very well! Not sure if I mentioned it, but I have been teaching him the "Heel" command, and he is doing very well with it, he just sometimes gets excited during training and needs a minute to calm down. I have also been doing a little agility with him, and have been running some obstacle courses. He does very well with the obstacles! I give him half a second notice before I run around a street pole but he jumps around it and is at my side in a second! With the agility -- he does well though the jump freaked him out a bit at first, but I kept it at its lowest setting and kept running over it with him and now he is quite comfortable with the jump itself though he is still learning to master the "Hup" command for the jump.

Otherwise there is not too much new news on our cuddly guy! Sorry, Scotty, your life just hasn't been all that exciting lately I guess! I'm sure that will change soon though! Life's never boring with you have dogs in your home! :)

The pups have been doing well with car travel :) Carlin seems to get a little bored and tries to play if he's not tired yet, so a toy usually solves that. Chika is content to lie down as close to us(in the front) as she can from the back. Rikki was the little calm Mama watching over her foster pups :) Here are some car pics I snapped, as well as a funny picture from the ball park ;)

And now here is the one we consider the funny one...

We took the puppies and Adam's dog Rikki to the ball park, we wanted to take Scotty but the puppies needed more experience and there was only the two of us so we already had our hands full of leashes!

Adam's dog Rikki (now 10 months old) was adopted from the SPCA. She has a story that I don't believe I've mentioned before... She and her litter were dropped of at the SPCA in Quesnel at 1 week old!! She was hand raised until 6 weeks then sent to the Vancouver SPCA where she had just happened to arrive as Adam and I were heading there to hang out with some dogs! It was love at first sight! I couldn't have dragged Adam away with all the strength in world, and I didn't want to! She was an adorable little thing and was the calmest of the litter, which is what drew us to her! Adam applied and luck was with us and he was approved :) Her name originally was Ricky, but for a new life with Adam and his family he wanted to give her a new name, but after much deliberation he realized that he like the name Ricky (and she also already responded to it) but did not like the spelling as it was too "mannish" for his little girl! So he decided upon Rikki :) And she's been the calm, sweet, happy apple of his eye for the last 9 months :) As a gift for christmas I secretly got her DNA tested (through Wisdom Panel) and we found out she is a Pittweiller mix! Officially she is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier X Rottweiller Mix (there is some coonhound, doberman, and some schnauzer mixed in there too!). Adam has worked with her tons and I'm proud to say I've had the opportunity to help where I can, but she is most definitely Adam's dog :)

Now back to the story... While at the ball park everyone who saw Carlin and Rikki thought they were siblings!!! We thought that was funny since to us they look so different, but the more we looked the more we noticed the similarities! So we snapped a shot of them together so comment and let me know if you think they look related!

10 month old Rikki and 4 month old Carlin!

Thanks again to everyone reading this!

Will post again soon!