Help I need a new place to live

[angelbears]

Love hearing the progression of the new family! Keep the updates coming, please.

 

[CynJ]

Awesome, awesome, awesome night (and morning)!!!

Maggie had the run of the house last night for the first time. And she and Nadia both slept by my bed without incident. They kept rotating positions but dealt quite politely with each other.

This morning I had them both out in the back yard. Nadia doesn't mind doing the back stairs and up to this point has been slinking back up them when I bring Maggie around so she doesn't have to deal with her. Today though, Nadia met us at the gate and wasn't grumpy at all when we approached. Got Maggie inside the gate and let her off the lead, she did some laps and had fun running around like a fruit loop. Nadia let Maggie get a really good butt sniff for the first time (with her tail up and happy too!). Maggie tried to get Nadia to play but Nadia isn't quite "there" yet, although she almost gave in to chase Maggie when Maggie body checked her in her running around- it was very close but she decided against it at the last second lol... stubborn Dogue. The body check/chase game was her favorite game to play with Peanut. Finally I went and sat down in the grass and ended up with Nadia on one side and Maggie on the other. Both very very relaxed and enjoying the fresh air.

I am so so pleased with all of this. I really had expected it to be a couple of weeks before they reached this comfort level. I don't doubt that they will be playing together soon. I think Nadia wants to, but is just being a bit...Nadiaish lol... It took her a solid month when we first got her to play with Peanut so I think time is answer. It's only been a week

On a side note- I SO want to go "neener neener" to my nay-saying husband who really doubted they would ever get along (lol after he witnesses *one* of their canine fistfights... )- man of little faith. He really ought to know better by now. He said Myra would never accept Peanut (she did in two days), and that Peanut would never accept Nadia (she did in just a few days), and now he said Nadia wouldn't accept Maggie (she did in a week). lol I can't imagine being that pessimistic (and wrong!) all the time.

 

[Bloke]

seems like a new avatar is required :razzberry:

 

[CynJ]

:lolbangtable:

I've been trying to get a picture of them together but neither will cooperate. Stubborn mules the both of them, lol.

Maggie's had the run of the house for two nights now without incident. When I went to go to bed last night this was what I saw:

She was all curled up on the doggie cuddly and had dug a new friend out of the toy box. What is funny is that she won't actually "play" with any of the plush dog toys, she just likes sleeping with them.

I have figured out her aversion to the back stairs. They are all open treads so there is no back to stop her foot from sliding off the back of the stair and it terrifies her. She totally gets the idea of the stairs, they just frighten her a lot. I'm going to work on engineering a fix. I'm thinking about getting some landscape fabric that I can staple tightly to the backside of the steps along with some traction paint. I think that would be the quickest way to fix this for her.

The two girls have certainly turned a corner in their relationship as Nadia now shares "her" futon with Maggie. And I've gotten back to feeding Nadia in her normal place in the dining room with Maggie in the kitchen- no issues. They even wanted to bowl swap without growly face. Food and treats are the one thing I'm being a little careful about as I know that Nadia used to have some really strong guarding behaviors over food and treats. Peanut had learned quickly not to mess with Nadia when she had a rawhide or was eating and I also worked with Nadia to assert that being a twit over a bone would get said bone taken away. What is great is that none of those behaviors have come back out in Nadia with Maggie. I think part of those behaviors came from the fact that where she was raised a) Nadia was kept very lean, and b) she was on a raw diet with a lot of whole chicken thighs which take time to eat and "need" to be guarded so the other dogs don't steal it. Now that's she's with us on a kibble diet and now has an addition 18lbs on her, she's realizing that she will always be fed and that Mom won't let the other dog steal her food.

Maggie's got another day's worth of ear meds, but she hasn't been digging at it at all so I take that as a good sign. She's going in for a re-check on Wednesday.

That's all for now

 

[Bloke]

We are so happy she is doing great. I have been copying and pasting this to my own motorcycle forum and everybody is loving it especially the people who met Maggie lol

 

[CynJ]

So Maggie has now figured out that the back steps are not really trying to kill her lol. She will go up and down them very slowly if I walk beside her. This is awesome as she loves going out in the back yard. I'm still working on a fix but I can live with walking her up and down them for now.

She and Nadia are really starting to bond nicely now. Lots of ear licking and snorfling and they are very content to sit/sprawl right next to each other. Nadia's tail is up and wagging more than it has been since we lost Peanut in February. Giving Maggie a lot of credit for this as Maggie isn't "in" Nadia's face all the time and is quite content to go off and chew her bone by herself if Nadia wants to be left alone. Maggie has really picked up very quickly on reading Nadia's signals and body language. The two of them can even eat cookies a few feet apart without issue (and again Maggie gets the good dog credit for not trying to steal Nadia's and causing an issue).

Earlier we were outside and I finally managed to get some great pictures.

Here is Nadia doing her "I've been killed by a sunbeam" routine (lol she lays like this for HOURS out in the sun)


Maggie stood there staring at Nadia just lying there for a long minute then rushed over to see if there was something wrong with her lol. She then proceeded to join Nadia in sunbathing. She all but sat on Nadia's head! (who didn't even blink for the record lol)


They enjoyed themselves out there for a half hour like that until the sun went behind a cloud. That got them both up and completely dopey from OD'ing on sunshine. They came over and sat in front of me like it was somehow my fault the sun went away.

(this would have been such a great video moment for them- they kept washing each other's ears and nuzzling each other)

So life is good here at my house. We have achieved peace and love and harmony


(also note, Bloke, my new avatar )

 

[Amanda F.]

What a great story! I'm so happy to see the girls sitting together

 

[NYDDB]

I am enjoying reading your story, and the daily progress reports. So nice to hear things turning out so well!

*By the way...I am stealing the "killed by the sunbeam" quip-- it fits my Dogue as well; I hope you don't mind.

 

[musicdeb]

Very happy to hear that the family is becoming a true family. *Bravo!*

 

[Mooshi's Mummy]

Loving the updates and so happy that this is working out for everyone and most importantly you have proved your husband wrong yet again!

 

[Bloke]

this awesome to read, sadly my current two decided tonight to duke it out now i have bloody everywhere and two dogs with lots of new holes in them, they would not stop i ended up hurting myself trying to pull them apart, the little fella wanted to play and Murphy didn't and off it went!

 

[Iymala]

This is such an awesome story to follow. I love the updates and look forward to the next ones.

Sorry to hear you had a rumble at the house, Bloke. Hopefully no one is too badly injured.

 

[DMikeM]

this awesome to read, sadly my current two decided tonight to duke it out now i have bloody everywhere and two dogs with lots of new holes in them, they would not stop i ended up hurting myself trying to pull them apart, the little fella wanted to play and Murphy didn't and off it went!

Man Bloke that really sucks. Will they and you be ok? I have had to keep my 2 boys apart when I am not home for years. Only thing that stopped them from killing each other is me picking them up by the fur during the battle. i hope everything turns out ok.

 

[CynJ]

this awesome to read, sadly my current two decided tonight to duke it out now i have bloody everywhere and two dogs with lots of new holes in them, they would not stop i ended up hurting myself trying to pull them apart, the little fella wanted to play and Murphy didn't and off it went!

Oh, no. Sounds like Murphy was grumpy. I'm so sorry. That sucks. You think she's upset because Maggie's not there anymore? Or maybe Norm's getting in her face more now because he doesn't have Maggie to play with?

I hope this was a one time thing for your household.

 

[CynJ]

So Maggie got called "the little monster" for the first time this morning when I realized when I got up that not only did she eat the adjustment strap off of my Merrell clogs, she tried to eat the plastic buckle off of my favorite sports sandals. It was a stupid human trick is what it was though- Bloke warned me she had a taste for shoes but she hadn't even nosed a shoe since she's been here and I got lazy about putting them in the closet out of sight. What really stinks for me is that I have a nasty bone spur in my heel that aggravates my Achilles tendon, the Merrells were my "house" shoes that helped keep the heel pain at bay. At least my brand-new trailrunners were safely in the closet. ::sigh:: Well - I wanted a new pair of clogs anyway lol.

Took Maggie off to the vet for a re-check on her ear after a week's worth of drops. All cleared up. And the replacement tear drops have really taken away a lot of the redness and irritation from her eyes. Once she's finished growing we're going to have her eyelids fixed surgically, it will be much more comfortable for her for the rest of her life. Vet also checked out the nasty egg-white sized snot she's been sneezing out the past few days. It's relatively clear and there's no sign or other symptoms of an upper respiratory infection. We're actually leaning towards a pollen reaction. We have totally different pollens in our environment up here in CT versus where she was born in GA and right now the pollen out there is just ridiculous (its everywhere and we haven't had any rain to help tamp it down or wash it away- it just keeps blowing around). It may take her body a season to build up an immunity. If she keeps it up he will set us up with an antihistamine of some flavor.

After the vet we went off to Petsmart for the first time. She was NOT a fan of their shiny, slippery floor. It was a lot like Bambi on Ice. She was very social about letting people pet her and her interest in the other dogs was friendly but not ripping my arm off to get to where they were. She was extremely well-behaved the whole time. Couldn't get her interested in any toys or chews though.

From there we went to the other end of the plaza to Lowe's as my husband asked me to pick something up for him. Their nice concrete floor worked well for her and again she was perfect in the store and even waiting in a ridiculously long line. Everyone commented on how "calm" she was. ::rolls eyes::

I have decided that I want to get Maggie her Canine Good Citizen test as the first step to being a therapy dog for senior citizens and adults with physical and/or cognitive challenges. She is so gentle and adores being petted and treated. She would be an ideal therapy dog.

I've been looking at the CGC test requirements and I think for most of the items she's going to do fine with. The "come" command seems to be one that doesn't get past her mastiff selective deafness. But I'm going to start working with her on all the items, she's very smart and picks things up quickly. I don't see it taking that long to get her CGC.

She has officially mastered the back deck stairs all on her own without any stair modification from me. She just takes them very slowly both up and down which is a-okay with me. She's been really running around and getting some great exercise in the yard and she's got Nadia running around playing in the yard for the first time since we lost Peanut. It's so funny to watch. Maggie will do 2-3 laps around the yard with Nadia watching, then all of a sudden Maggie will just run up to Nadia and whack her butt with a paw as if to say "tag you're it" then take off running again. This of course gets Nadia to chase her and they both do that until their tongues are hanging out and they need the water bucket. What is great is that Maggie can read when Nadia's had enough and she happily goes off rooting and exploring on her own.

Speaking of rooting - we have both oak and hickory trees in the back yard and there are always acorns and hickory nuts in the grass. Maggie roots out these treasures like a hog looking for truffles and proceeds to crunch them up. I'm going to have to work on breaking her of this habit lol

That's all for now!

 

[CynJ]

Loving the updates and so happy that this is working out for everyone and most importantly you have proved your husband wrong yet again!

lol you'd think he would have learned by now, no? :lolbangtable:

 

[CynJ]

I am enjoying reading your story, and the daily progress reports. So nice to hear things turning out so well!

*By the way...I am stealing the "killed by the sunbeam" quip-- it fits my Dogue as well; I hope you don't mind.

My original boxer Myra (a dark brindle) used to love to do this as well. There's just something about dogs and sunbeams

 

[Kelly]

so enjoying the updates, thank youbfor sharing. maggie soundscso sweet.

Bloke are u ok? dogfights are awful.

 

[Bloke]

Bloke are u ok? dogfights are awful.

yep bit battered and bruised i came off worse than both the bloody dogs!

 

[CynJ]

yep bit battered and bruised i came off worse than both the bloody dogs!

Have things settled down at all between Norm and Murphy?