Author: krun15

Maggie was a little black pug born in 1999. On September 7, 2006 she lost her left rear leg to a mast cell tumor. Because of lymph node involvement Maggie went through a 6 month chemo regimen. She was given 6 to 9 months after her amp, but she beat mast cell cancer! In the winter of 2010 things started to slide; in the course of about 2 months she had 2 MCTs removed, was diagnosed with incontinence and kidney failure, and then the big blow- oral melanoma. She lived her carefree tri-pug life until she crossed over on June 2, 2010.

Elly Rocks the Balance Equipment

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I updated this blog. A busy summer working the Shakespeare Festival, some family health issues and my arm in a cast…blogging somehow didn’t rise to the top priority!

I missed blogging about Elly’s one year ampuversary although I did manage a forum post. She has been home for more than 10 months now and is really comfortable here. She is still wary of strangers and dogs and pretty much anything that she hasn’t seen before. On one of our morning walks we came across a donation bag sitting on the sidewalk- it took her 5 minutes to get the nerve to sniff it and finally walk past. Since plastic bags seem to be one of her triggers we’ve been working extra hard on getting comfortable with them. If we walk early enough in the morning there are usually several newspapers in driveways in plastic bags. Elly will now ‘tag’ them (touch with her nose) on command!

We have also completed two more classes. One was called Canine Confidence which gave us some insight on shy and traumatized dogs. And tonight we completed our third Strength, Balance and Body Awareness class. We’ve had the same trainer for all three of these and she is really impressed with Elly’s progress, especially with her confidence. Vicki was nice enough to video our second run through the equipment course tonight. I hang onto to Elly’s harness to keep her safe on the taller equipment and because I take her leash off, she freaks out when her leash drags across her back (so many issues!).

Here she is, although tired she still Rocked the Course!

Elly’s 6 Month Gotcha Day

Today marks 6 months since Elly joined our little pack. It’s the day that foster mom Ellen dropped her of for what we all pretended was a 2 week trial. The only way she was going back was if she and Obie didn’t get along…at all.

Her day started a bit on the rough side- a doggie dentist visit! She has chipped one of her canine’s and needs some other minor work. Today was just an evaluation, surgery will be in two weeks- but that’s for later.

After the vet we stopped by our puggle friend Sophie’s house. Sophie’s mom just had her first human baby and so isn’t able to take Sophie for walks. Elly and Sophie are pretty good pals and she lives just two blocks from our favorite park! Obie didn’t come on this walk… it is impossible for me to walk the three of them by myself. Besides, this was a puggle walk- over grass and through the dirt, wherever the noses wanted to go. Obie was more than happy to hang out with grandpa, in the house and close to the treat jar!

Later we did some ‘school’ and then got some treats. She was completely pooped out and went to sleep holding onto that one back leg…can’t take a chance of losing that one!

The puggle gals checking it out

Elly and Sophie

Sophie, a more traditional looking puggle

Sophie

Come on…open the gate!

Elly and Sophie dp

Wait….

Elly waiting for ball

Mmmmm….salmon!

mmmm salmon

A bully for me?

Elly and stick

So yummy and so gross…

Elly chewing

Zzzzzzzz

Elly Sleeping

Pug(gle)s At Play

Backstory:

I adopted quad pug Obie just a few weeks after Tri-Pug Maggie crossed the Bridge in 2010, he was 4 years old. Obie was neglected and abused by his original owner, he came with quite a bit of baggage. At the time Mag’s little sis quad pug Tani was about 10 years old. I was hoping that the two of them would bond, but it never really happened. The slept together and kept each other company, but Tani was never interested in playing after Maggie left and Obie could never convince her. Because of his history and the fact that his eyesight is very poor, especially outside, he never would play with another dog despite several classes and endless tries at socialization. More than 5 years after Obie joined our pack Elly came along. Elly took to Obie almost immediately and tried and tried to get him to play.

It took 3 months of pestering but finally, FINALLY Obie was playing with another dog!!!!

The first time I saw Obie engage I was so excited I didn’t think to grab my camera. Now they play nearly every day. Usually Elly starts it by licking Obie’s face, but sometimes he starts it with a bark or a play bow. This video shows just a bit of what they do when they play. Enjoy!

Rainy Day Activities

If figures that I would adopt a puppy during an El Nino year! I’m happy about the rain, we need it to get out of the drought and water use restrictions, but tiring out a puppy without any outside time can be tough. I’m lucky that Elly likes to practice obedience skills, work on core strength, and play food games. Her big brother Obie likes to play with us sometimes too.

I’m working with Elly on some tricks too…but that is for another post.

Obie sitting on the balance disc… and waiting for his treat!

Obie on balance disc 3_16

Elly on the FitBone with brother rooting her on.

Elly on FitBone W Obie 3_16

Elly on the FitBone. She is really good at two up (feet) but we are still working on 3 up.

Elly on FitBone 3_16

Elly playing Dog Twister. I feed her part of her dinner this way sometimes.

Elly and Dog Twister 3_16

Obie and his Tug-a-Jug, he loves this thing. I don’t think Elly knows how to play with this one yet, but she knows to follow Obie because treats magically appear!

Obie and TugaJug 3_16

Elly and her Hol-ee Roller ball. She is still working on her strategy with this one.

Elly and Hol-ee Roller 3_16

Elly Comes Home

I adopted Elly in October 2015, she is my second Tripawd. My first, my heart dog, was Tri-Pug Maggie. You can read her story in her Blog: Life with a tri-pug.

I decided to start a blog for Elly to chronicle our adventures together and keep track of the progress she makes.

Elly is very skittish and slow to trust. When she joined us we were her fourth home in her short 10 months of life. And being hit by a car, well I can understand her skittishness. Although her foster mom said she was with lots of dogs of all sizes Elly is kind of reactive around other dogs.

So far we have taken two classes together, a basic obedience class, and most recently a strength, balance and body awareness (sb&ba) class. I can see her gaining confidence each day, although she is still pretty reactive around any dog that is bigger than her. She is doing better with dogs her own size and smaller, we try and interact politely with every dog we meet.

Here are some pictures from our last sb&ba class. Three weeks before this she would not touch most of the equipment although we had been working with a FiTBone at home for several weeks.

Elly SBBA class 1 3_16

Elly SBBA calss 2 3_16 Elly SBBA 3 3_16 Elly SBBA 4 3_16 Elly SBBA 5 3_16 Elly SBBA 6 3_16