Pupdate on Gypsy

We're not believing the change in our sweet girl after only 26 days.  (I'd say 27, but it was only about this time on the 1st that I got home with her.)

She looks a little worried in the early days. 

The first few days, she was so afraid of everything.  I guess six months on death row will do that to a girl.  If anyone approached, she hid behind me, trembling.  The slightest noise would make her startle and cower.  She pulled on the leash like monsters were after us.  Couldn't let me get up from the couch for a glass of water without coming with me.  There was more, but this pretty well sums it up. 

After some dedicated training--just basics like Sit, Down, Stay, Wait, etc.--she began to calm.  We took her everywhere with us, to all the dog-friendly places we could find.  Home Depot, Ace Hardware, Tractor Supply, as well as all the pet stores and all the parks we have nearby.  I took home-made beef jerky with us, and enlisted kind strangers to help Gypsy understand that people really are nice (and somehow magically have the same yummy stuff as Mom makes!) 

We started reading furiously about Positive Training.  Zak George, Victoria Stillwell, and others.  I learned, to my horror, that it's a miracle my poor Schultz survived such harsh training as I'd done with him--back in those days, the dominance theories were all I'd seen or heard of.  Poor guy.  It makes me cry to think of how much fun we could have had learning positively to live together.  Well, regret won't help unless I turn it around in this moment--and it's AMAZING how eager a dog is to learn when you treat her with respect!

Gypsy is enrolled (with her humans) in training at PetSmart--the whole shebang, for 18 weeks.  She'll earn her Canine Good Citizen Training when we finish.  We've only gone to two classes, but the trainer was amazed at how she'd come out of her shell just between the first and second classes.  Being unafraid with other dogs, not jumping and shivering at every noise or passing stranger...such a change.

So much reversal of all that fear--she is still a little spooked when the furnace comes on, but if the radio is on, she'll settle.  She and Tater are buds now--Willie is still hissy and afraid, but is down off the high places all the time. 

Walking on a leash is a joy because little by little, Gypsy is learning to stay close and not to pull.  The mysterious Jekyll-n-Hyde behavior of early weeks (sudden on-leash fits of leaping, lunging and play-biting) have almost extinguished entirely.  We gave up trying to find the trigger for this--we can only figure she was ignored and alone in a back yard and never taught to play without being screamed at.  So now, when she starts to jump, we silently stop, turn away from her, and ignore her completely.  No treats, no eye contact, and no scolding.  She's ready to walk normally after a minute or two of this.  It seems like a miracle, because that biting thing was scary!

Worn out from Saturday's class, long walk, and tug-of-war.  The tongue out says it all.

The last thing to add: we got her DNA test back!  So it's official: she's half Great Pyrenees, a quarter Red Heeler, and a quarter mix of terrier, herding, and guard dogs.  I believe we got the best of the mix--she never barks, she has a manageable coat, the perfect size, and an energy level and willingness to learn that guarantees we will live in harmony for many years to come.  We love her. 

Oh, if I had a hammer...

Listening to the hubs working on our front gate.  We had taken it off when Schultz passed, as it's much easier to get a wheel barrow through, and just the general bother.  But a little over a week ago, we decided to bring another dog into our lives.

Gypsy, the red heeler and who knows what mix. 
We got a DNA test and the results should arrive in a couple weeks.

To that end, I drove down to a shelter in Phoenix, intending to meet a 5 month old puppy there.  It just wasn't to be, for several reasons, and I probably should have just come on back up.  But I made the "mistake" of looking around, and I met Gypsy.  The shelter does as well as they can, given the lack of funding so many of these places work through, but they just about told me whatever I wanted to hear to get a dog out the door.  Gypsy was "good with cats, dogs, and kids" and "lived in a house her whole two years". Well, to start with, her paper work says she's three years, not two.  And she's a red heeler mix, not an aussie mix. 

Well, I did test her with a cat--unfortunately it was a mascot shelter cat who was afraid of nothing, and when Gypsy went nose to nose with him, of course he didn't run.  So she didn't chase.  Until I got her home to our two cats--who definitely run.  Enter prey drive. 

But she's smart as she can be, and in less than two weeks, she's learned (mostly) that chasing the cats is verboten, and that she need not be afraid of men.  She is potty trained--not a single accident since she came to live with us.  She sleeps peacefully in her crate by the bed each night.

So Phil and I no longer wonder what idiocy it was, me bringing her home, and we are all learning that we have a lot of fun hiking and training to do in our future.  We have lots of work to do on manners and socializing--she's still skittish at Home Depot, etc., and we've yet to test the dog park.  But our lives are full of dogness again, and we needed that so much. 

We don't even mind the dog hair.

Her Other favorite human.

Most of the time, she really is as innocent as she looks.

And when she's really tired in the evenings, the cats get all brave and join the fun.