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The Peril of Animal Rescue Volunteer Work


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Thanks PSmitty and Ooky... and everyone else... for all your great and thoughtful advice. I do appreciate the thoughts and careful consideration of everyone who posted.

 

We went to go see "Sophie" yesterday and she seemed to recognize me... and she loved my husband... she walked right up to him and sat politely, as if to ask him to pet her nose... she wagged her tail at the sight of a toddler... So... after talking to the veterinary staff, whom I have come to trust over the last month, we decided to adopt her. 80% of the animals that show up in this facility are euthanized, and the ones that aren't have to have a bunch of positive behavioral traits (social, friendly, etc.), so any dog up for adoption there is unlikely to be a difficult dog (while volunteering there I've handled maybe forty of them personally and they were all good dogs, including an Aussie, another BC, and a BC/flat-coated-retriever mix who looked just like Pan). And "Sophie" was so apparently gentle and kind and sweet... and tiny! She'd been in there since July 31, going through the process and getting veterinary attention... We had talked about not adopting her and either applying to foster for, or applying to get a rescue who'd already been fostered from BC Rescue of Texas (the closest BC rescue to us), but after he met her, he just wanted to get her out of there. And I really wasn't afraid of her issues being bad. Her relationship to me had grown so much in such a short period of time... And I'd seen her react to fear a couple times in the shelter and those reactions were totally nonconfrontational and avoidance-based and minor. She just seemed so polite and stable....

 

So far it seems like my instincts were right. She has come a long way in twenty four hours. The floor texture neurosis is gone (I ignored it and praised her the first couple times she did too), the refusing to budge thing stopped because I started ignoring it when it was unreasonable and keeping on walking, then praising her when she came along, and she's really blossoming as far as confidence, her ears and tail are up almost all of the time now. We had a long walk early this morning. She met our across-the-street neighbor and his dog yesterday afternoon, enjoyed meeting both. She was great for her bath and it seemed to make a huge difference in her demeanor (don't know if she was grossed out over being dirty and having fleas, or she just didn't know if she could trust us until we fed her and bathed her) but now she is extremely loyal, almost always comes when called, and generally happy. So far she knows loose leash walking, "leave it," "no," "sit," "touch," "come," and her new name - Vala, Welsh for "chosen" - and she's learning "left," and "right." She's curled up at my feet under my desk right now. I've seen her get scared three times - once when my cat hissed at her, once because a large dog I didn't see barked at her through the fence close by on our short walk yesterday, and another time because a shitzu growled at her from about 20 feet away while I was asking the owner if the dog was friendly because they were coming toward us - and each time her reaction was to jump slightly (like not up, but just as if startled), and then press up against me and hide behind me! HALLELUJAH! She even loves her kennel. And doesn't jump up on the bed or furniture... I know there is supposed to be a honeymoon period but I swear she has a great respect and trust for humans. She seems to know she's been saved...

 

There are only two problems: (1) vet appointment tomorrow, I so hope she doesn't have heartworms, especially not bad because that intensive treatment is hard on them I know (please keep your fingers crossed?), and (2) she is getting along with my younger very dog savvy cat (the one who wasn't afraid of Pan) but she hasn't made peace with the older one who is much more wary of dogs and hissed at her. I am keeping her on a short lead in the house right now just in case I need to abort an interaction but so far she is listening to "no" and "leave it" and getting praised when she looks away from the cats to me. Since the hissing, she has been getting mild piloerection when the cats move quickly but thankfully they're CATS so they don't do that much (ha) and it stops immediately when I tell her "leave it" and she looks away and I tell her "good girl." So I think they'll be okay in a few days.

 

post-9869-1251219046_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

Vala last night in her new home (sorry about the lighting, the flash was making her eyes neon)

 

P.S. I've been meaning to say, to everyone who argued with me when I said that cats couldn't be trained - YOU'RE RIGHT! After Pan passed, I realized my youngest cat, the super mellow and dog savvy one who was often around us, had ACCIDENTALLY PICKED UP ON SIT. Yes, that's right, I have a cat that sits. Almost 100% of the time. And I have video. :rolleyes:

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OK, update, three problems, she just peed in the kitchen right after lunch... :rolleyes:

This is me, telling her no, rushing her outside, and praising her for doing #2....

(Thank goodness I actually caught her in the act! I was wondering why she was dancing around. She had really wolfed down her lunch! That's what I get for checking email during doggie lunch. Next time I'll go back to watching her like a hawk...)

Housetraining! AHHHH! :D

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I'm happy you took her in, and it sounds like she's doing very well! My only caution is just to remember to take it slow. Give her time and space and a chance to settle in and get to know you all. Give her quiet time and a place to go if she needs down time. Housetraining will take time, getting used to the cats will take time, all that fun stuff. I'm sure she's a smarty pants and learning the commands and things you're teaching her, but just don't *expect* a whole lot right now. Know what I mean? I'm not saying that you're doing anything wrong, not at all, but just keep that in mind. And yes, there is a honeymoon period, but that doesn't mean that things will get "worse", they'll probably just get better! :rolleyes:

 

Congratulations, again! She's so pretty and I hope things continue to go well.

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I'm happy you took her in, and it sounds like she's doing very well! My only caution is just to remember to take it slow. Give her time and space and a chance to settle in and get to know you all. Give her quiet time and a place to go if she needs down time. Housetraining will take time, getting used to the cats will take time, all that fun stuff. I'm sure she's a smarty pants and learning the commands and things you're teaching her, but just don't *expect* a whole lot right now. Know what I mean? I'm not saying that you're doing anything wrong, not at all, but just keep that in mind. And yes, there is a honeymoon period, but that doesn't mean that things will get "worse", they'll probably just get better! :rolleyes:

 

Congratulations, again! She's so pretty and I hope things continue to go well.

 

Thanks, yes, that's a good point. I told myself I wouldn't overwhelm her at first with obedience, only teach her the stuff that's necessary. In that vein I should probably cool it with the left right on walks, but it's really convenient and takes a long time to teach those particular commands, so I'm saying the words when we turn... and it's not like she has to know the words yet, because I'm guiding her with leash motions, it's something she'll just figure out over time. But I'm not bothering with down or off or anything unnecessary at the moment because she's still getting used to the new environs and I want to correct her as infrequently as possible right now because she did start off with low self-confidence.

 

We're introducing her to the cats very slowly. Yesterday she got one hour, today she'll get about two (total, intermittent) hours of supervised interaction with them. That will go pretty slow. And she gets lots of downtime; I'm at work 3-5 hours a day and she has to be kenneled when we're both gone. Yesterday she was kenneled for 2 hours, today she'll have been kenneled for two 2 hour blocks. (Her kennel is on the floor in the bedroom and I can tell she likes it because she'll go there anytime we walk in the bedroom. She knows that's her bed. It's so cute.) But yes the cat thing will take time and the housetraining unfortunately, also! I'm also trying to wait until she trusts me more to introduce her to other animals close up. Although we've passed many more, can't be helped, so far we've only met one animal officially - the neighbor's black lab who I knew was sweet and dog friendly - and the cats (necessary). But anyway thanks for the reminder - I'll give her a week or two of just the basics before we do much else. She's really interested in the squirrels (very BC-like stalking activity in the backyard) and at first there was some eye and stalk with the cats, but other than that she hasn't been very active. She isn't interested in frisbee or fetch or ball. Just walks and petting and sleeping at my feet for now. I'm worried about the vet visit tomorrow. She's already had one exam at the shelter and she's been treated for worms and gotten all her shots and been microchipped... All that's left is rabies and heartworm test. I hope she's all right and just getting her bearings.

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Oh! I forgot to say some reassuring stuff about heartworm treatment. :rolleyes: See, that's what I get for going off on a tangent. Anyway, fingers crossed for the test tomorrow, but *if* she has to be treated for heartworms, take comfort in knowing that many of us have had our dogs HW treated, and they did just fine. I know of several dogs to undergo it (one who was not so healthy to begin with) and no problems. Hopefully that's a moot point, though!

 

And her lack of playing right now could be due to many things: she's never played before and doesn't know how :D , she's still shellshocked from being in a shelter and now in a new home (most likely reason) or she's under the weather (deworming and vaccines can keep 'em down a bit). My friend adopted a BC at 2-3 years old and he had never played with a ball, tug or frisbee (she knows this for a fact) and it took him quite a while until he felt at ease enough to play, but you should see him now...he's a tugging/frisbee freak.

 

Good luck at the vet's!

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Congratulations! That's excellent!

 

As far as initial fear, I wouldn't worry too much. My dog used to practically go into "nervous breakdown" mode if a bike came near us, but just normalizing and desensitizing has him completely ignoring them now. Things that can seem like phobias early on can definitely turn around completely.

 

I echo what PSmitty said about taking it slow. The only times Buddy has issues anymore are times when I expect him to be normal in situations where I know he's not - too many roughhousing dogs, big strange men bending over him, etc.. If I would listen to myself and not push him, he'd be fine.

 

Good luck!

 

Mary

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Thanks for keeping us updated. Everything sounds great so far. In fact, everything sounds wonderful. I'll keep my fingers crossed for an uneventful vet appointment tomorrow.

 

Don't be surprised if Vala (gorgeous name) reacts very strongly to the vet's office, by the way. It'll probably remind her on every level of the shelter -- sounds, smells, clerical stuff, upset people and upset animals all around. She has no way of knowing whether her new life with you is permanent, or that the vet trip just a temporary thing. (When you come out again, you may find she's extra clingy, in fact. I've had that response from rescues and fosters before, when they realized I wasn't leaving them behind at the bad place, as had happened before.) Try not to feed her clingyness right now, it sounds like she's bonding at light speed and doesn't need to overdo it. You don't want separation anxiety horning in on your promising new relationship.

 

Blah blah blah blah nag blah! <g>

 

Sending you (all) big smiles and lots of good thoughts!

 

Liz S in PA

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P.S. I've been meaning to say, to everyone who argued with me when I said that cats couldn't be trained - YOU'RE RIGHT! After Pan passed, I realized my youngest cat, the super mellow and dog savvy one who was often around us, had ACCIDENTALLY PICKED UP ON SIT. Yes, that's right, I have a cat that sits. Almost 100% of the time. And I have video. :rolleyes:

 

Congrats to you and Vala! She sounds like a great little dog, and way less aggressive than you became used to! More pictures please! :D

 

And as for the above...lol, you will never convince me that your cat did not want to learn "sit"...and so he did. I had a cat trained to "sit pretty", which he did reliably on command (trained with treats). He also had a pretty good recall. But I could NOT train that same cat to stop scratching a certain chair in 13 years of training, or yowling when he thought it was time to be fed, or many many other things I would have much preferred to train him to do (or not do). Our Benway is trained to roll over on command too (trained with praise/toys), but he will NOT roll over on hardwood floors, no matter how much training energy I put into it. So I still do not think cats are trainable the same way dogs are. You can train them - IF they are amenable. :D

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Yeah!!!! So glad you have her.....and I think she did appreciate being clean and getting rid of the pound smell. Ladybug actually enjoyed getting a collar again. As odd as it sounds, she is visibly upset if you take her collar off for any reason. She'll paw at you until you put it back on. Hold it out and she'll stick her head right through it. I think she acquaints being collar-less with being left at the pound as these dogs don't have collars in their cages....

 

Go slow with new things and enjoy, enjoy!

 

Liz

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OK, we're officially worried about her now - this afternoon she coughed a funny wheezing kind of cough intermittently for about a minute - and she's been vaccinated for kennel cough (weeks ago, and they don't let them out onto adoption row when they have it), so I don't think it's that. I'm worried the symptoms match that of heartworm unfortunately (though I'm not the most educated person about the condition). But she's thin, poor skin condition (dandruff, dry, flaky), low energy, that cough... No fainting or collapse thank goodness. But the fact that she's obviously been an outdoor dog all her life, in Louisiana, makes it very possible she has heartworm. At this point I hope she's younger rather than older (she was classified 3-5, and I read dogs only become symptomatic by about 3 yo), because that would give the worms less time to multiply if she has them. Several questions before going to the vet tomorrow (the appointment is at 8 am):

(1) Is the heartworm test an instant thing or does it take time?

(2) What treatments are easiest on the dog?

(3) Which treatments are OK for border collies? (I've read collies and collie mixes can have severe reactions to Ivermectin?)

Anybody know?

Mary

 

ETA: FOUND THE TAG IN HEALTH AND GENETICS: http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.p...p;hl=Ivermectin, but questions #1 and #2 still stand if anyone has answers!

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I watch a lot of animal planet and I always watch those shows about SPCA rescues etc. You guys know the shows I'm sure! Anyway, I think the heartworm test is a simple blood test and they can tell right away....the thing looks like a pregnancy test if I recall correctly...and they just drop some blood on it and wait a couple of minutes.

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I know its hard, but avoid self-diagnosing for the moment and wait for the vet --- she might have just run into something to which she is allergic. My kitten was coughing and had runny eyes and I was sure she had feline leukemia because I picked her up out of a bunch of farm cats-- turned out she was allergic to her kitty litter!

 

Liz

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I know its hard, but avoid self-diagnosing for the moment and wait for the vet --- she might have just run into something to which she is allergic. My kitten was coughing and had runny eyes and I was sure she had feline leukemia because I picked her up out of a bunch of farm cats-- turned out she was allergic to her kitty litter!

 

Liz

 

:rolleyes: Good point! It is true that she only did it in a particular corner of the back room (several times, though, not just once), and when I brought her up front with me to go in the bedroom she stopped coughing/sneezing/whatever it is she's doing!

 

She is having fun running in and out of her carrier at the moment to play with Nyxie under the closed bedroom door. She likes going into her kennel of her own free will, and is alternately making a nice comfy nest--I swear she's proud to have a place in our bedroom, she keeps running in and out of there excitedly and smiling at me--and playing with Nyxie under the closed bedroom door. :D

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She is having fun running in and out of her carrier at the moment to play with Nyxie under the closed bedroom door. She likes going into her kennel of her own free will, and is alternately making a nice comfy nest--I swear she's proud to have a place in our bedroom, she keeps running in and out of there excitedly and smiling at me--and playing with Nyxie under the closed bedroom door. :rolleyes:

 

That's great! She's so happy to be out of the shelter.

 

The first night I brought my boy home, I slept on the couch, to keep a watchful eye for potential accidents during the night. Every once in a while, I'd wake up to roll over or use the bathroom, and Buddy would wake up, too, look around, and then come barreling over to me, ecstatic, like, "OH! I'm still HERE! You're still here, too! This place is AWESOME!"

 

Great memories. :D

 

Mary

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She looks like such a sweet girl!!

 

A HW test takes about 15 minutes from start to finish. My vet also checks for lyme and a couple other TBDs with the same blood sample.

 

Kennel cough happens. With vaccination and without it (lots of strains of KC)

 

My neighbor adopted a HW+ dog aout 5 years ago. He had been HW + for at least a year prior according to vet records. The dog had a few misserable weeks through treatment, but fully recovered and has been just fine ever since.

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OK, we're officially worried about her now - this afternoon she coughed a funny wheezing kind of cough intermittently for about a minute - and she's been vaccinated for kennel cough (weeks ago, and they don't let them out onto adoption row when they have it), so I don't think it's that.

 

Hi Mary,

 

It would not be unusual for her to come home with an upper respiratory infection even if it's not full blown kennel cough. Every dog I've had from a shelter has come home with it. It usually clears up on it's own after awhile.

 

If it's heartworm....I just recently went through heartworm treatment with a foster. It was my first time through it, and I was worried about it too, but it turned out not to be that bad. Jake was not feeling well and just wanted to sleep and cuddle for a few days before he started regaining his strength. The hardest part was keeping him quiet for a month because after about a week he wanted to play again.

 

Georgia

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Well alright then! You can count me officially on board as a Vala supporter :D

 

About the HW test: yes, HW tests often check for some tick-borne diseases as well, and my experience is that country vets often aren't up on the latest treatment protocols for TBD, so do a little reading on your own if Vala tests positive for a TBD. Tick-L is where I'd start my reading.

 

I can't remember...did someone already mention "go slow"? :rolleyes: In your shoes, I'd focus more on bonding than on skills at this point. I recently ran across a book that might be interesting. Haven't read it yet, but I'm thinking about ordering a copy: Bonding with Your Dog: A Trainer's Secrets for Building a Better Relationship . You can read some excerpts at that link and see what you think.

 

ETA: If you want to read about heartworm prevention and treatment, here's Terrierman's take: The Billion Dollar Heartworm Scam

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I'm so happy for you! Soda was a mess at the shelter. She wouldn't eat, just laid on the outer portion of her kennel and was super miserable. I got her home and she was really uncomfortable for a few days and then she started to warm up and she's a nuthead now. She's also neurotic about walking on the floor. It comes and goes. We're in a "I can't walk on the floor" phase right now, so I feel ya, but it's manageable.

 

I also wanted to say that a dog can very easily pick up kennel cough despite being vaccinated. There a ton of "strains" and the vaccine doesn't cover all of them.

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OK, we're officially worried about her now - this afternoon she coughed a funny wheezing kind of cough intermittently for about a minute - and she's been vaccinated for kennel cough (weeks ago, and they don't let them out onto adoption row when they have it), so I don't think it's that. I'm worried the symptoms match that of heartworm unfortunately (though I'm not the most educated person about the condition). But she's thin, poor skin condition (dandruff, dry, flaky), low energy, that cough... No fainting or collapse thank goodness. But the fact that she's obviously been an outdoor dog all her life, in Louisiana, makes it very possible she has heartworm. At this point I hope she's younger rather than older (she was classified 3-5, and I read dogs only become symptomatic by about 3 yo), because that would give the worms less time to multiply if she has them. Several questions before going to the vet tomorrow (the appointment is at 8 am):

(1) Is the heartworm test an instant thing or does it take time?

(2) What treatments are easiest on the dog?

(3) Which treatments are OK for border collies? (I've read collies and collie mixes can have severe reactions to Ivermectin?)

Anybody know?

Mary

 

ETA: FOUND THE TAG IN HEALTH AND GENETICS: http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/index.p...p;hl=Ivermectin, but questions #1 and #2 still stand if anyone has answers!

 

Ditto everything Georgia said above. :rolleyes: I have yet to see a dog that didn't come out of a shelter with some kind of upper respiratory thing goin' on. Even with getting a KC vaccine.

 

Now, for #1 and #2 of your questions: Yes, a simple blood test, takes about 15 minutes. Everyone already answered that one before I stumbled along. #2-check out this link:

 

http://www.heartwormsociety.org/article_1143.html

 

There is only one drug used to treat adult heartworms, and it depends on your vet which treatment protocol they follow. Some will do a two injection treatment, followed by one month of crate rest/exercise restriction. My vet insists on the three injection treatment, which is one injection followed by one month of rest and then two injections (given 24 hours apart), followed by another month of rest. Neither is easy on the dog, but when mine went through it, it was much better than I anticipated. Like Georgia said, the hardest part was keeping him quiet (for two friggin' months!!).

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I recently ran across a book that might be interesting. Haven't read it yet, but I'm thinking about ordering a copy: Bonding with Your Dog: A Trainer's Secrets for Building a Better Relationship . You can read some excerpts at that link and see what you think.

 

I have this one. Not sure there's one out there I don't have. :rolleyes:

 

It's very good, especially for new dog owners.

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