Couldn't say no...

[Haven]

Well, we got our last foster puppy placed in his forever home yesterday morning. My husband and I thought we'd take a break from fostering for a little bit, but then we got an email about Wilma.

Wilma is a terrier mix stray (approx two years old) that was surrendered to our humane society on October 30th. She tested great for temperment, but was "very scared" of the shelter and the noise. They tried to find a quieter place for her, but she was getting worse, so they wanted to find her a foster home. We went into the shelter last night to meet her, thinking we'd make a decision after we saw how she was doing.

Well, their description was an understatement. She was actually laying in her own urine because she had been too scared to get up and go. Meanwhile, she was burying her head to try and block out the noise. As soon as I saw her face, I knew she was coming home. She wouldn't come out of the kennel at all, and eventually we had to pick her up hoping it wasn't too traumatic. The poor baby went to the bathroom in mid-air since I was actually carrying her *towards* the noise in order to get her out of there.

As soon as we got her outside the shelter, you could see relief just flood over her. We gave her several little treats and finally got her in the car to go home.

After a quiet night of sleep and a bath, she is a completely different dog. Happy smiles, tail wags and kisses. She seems to be housebroken, and loves her crate. She hangs out in our indoor exercise kennel just in case.

We will need to do quite a bit of socialization, but it all seems do-able. She is scared of loud noises and *very* submissive to people unless she remembers them. So far the only troubling issue has been some light growling at our two dogs if they get close to her food, even though they are outside the kennel and wouldn't be able to get to it. It definitely sounds fear-based, not dominant at all. She has never even hinted at being upset with us in the same way. When she is outside, she seems to enjoy being around our dogs, though she hasn't interacted with them much yet.

So, we would like to ask for your help with a few things.

One...what is your best advice on the food growling issue? I've read a bunch, from the pennies-in-a-can shaking thing to feeding them treats at the same time. Adding to the problem, Pepper (a permanent family member) is very submissive also and will run and hide if there is even the hint of a growl. We need a way to help Wilma without making Pepper even more shy.

Two...we need help choosing a better name than Wilma. Although we find it ironic that we just found a home for our foster puppy Fred, we still do not think Wilma is a good name for this girl. Some personality hints: sweet, shy, spunky, playful, craves positive attention. While she may not win any beauty contests, her eyes make you melt and her look is very unique.

Finally, any guesses as to what mix she might be? The shelter just listed her as a fox terrier. However, she weighs a whopping 36 pounds, while still only 16" tall. Her coat is mostly wire-haired, but the white fur on her back legs is very soft. If it helps, the skin underneath her white fur seems to be very spotty. Here are a few pictures:

Her big smile:



She gets very excited about treats, but is so gentle when taking them.


She definitely prefers these accommodations to the shelter.


P.S. Sorry I write so much

[TribalRats]

OMG, I Love her. She is beautiful, she has a depth behind those dark eyes that is incredible.
She looks to me like maybe she has some Jack in her? What ever is in the mix it looks like she got the best of everything to me.
If I were at the shelter looking for a dog, she would be it. What a great girl.

[Cassiepeia]

Oh gods, she's gorgeous!! I'd adopt her in a second if I was able to.
So glad you decided to foster her.
Cass.

[Shadowkins]

I think she is absolutely georgeous,what a sweet , loving face.
As for another name, what about Hope or Cuddles...the reason for that is because now she seems so happy and full of hope for the futur and you said too that she was shy and sweet . Any ways , its probably a goofy idea but I thought I'd suggest it.
Bless you for taking her in!

[Cassiepeia]

What mix? Hmm....maybe JRTx? Or Maybe Fox Hound x terrier (something small and wirehaired)? Could be Fox Terrier crossed with something larger. *shrugs* not sure.

Names? How about 'Bonnie'?

Cass.

[Giny]

Aw, what a sweety! She does seem to have some Wirehaird Fox in her or maybe Jack or even Beagle. Your discription of her while in the shelter made me all teary. Kudos for fostering her!

[Carrie]

Oh....she IS a sweet looking dog. You should just keep her. LOL. Kudos for saving her though. I hope she does find a good forever home.

As far as food guarding with other dogs, I feel this is such a strong instinct that I wouldn't do anything in the way of punishment. I have multiple dogs and I seperate them when I feed them. As long as there's no food guarding toward you, in which case, there is a very gentle, non punishing way to deal with that. If you keep high value items put away when they're all together, it should keep any problems between them to a minimum.

If she's submissive and fearful, I would not use anything harsh in her training, including shaking a can of pennies. She's already afraid of loud noises. This is a dog who would do well with clicker training....all gentle methods.

I think Bonnie is a great name. That was my Lab's name....the one I had to pts. last year. She was a very sweet and loving dog and pretty too. You could call her Bonnie Blue. LOL. We had all kinds of nicknames for our Bonnie. Bonnie Lass (her registered name) Bonnie Belle, Belle, Bella, Wiggle Butt....the list goes on.

Best of luck.

[Haven]

Awesome responses everyone! Thanks for the name suggestions. We really liked the name Bonnie, and she seemed to respond to it, so *TA-DA* she will henceforth be know as Bonnie (at least until she finds her forever home ).

Carrie, I'm 100% in agreement. We love clicker training, it worked so well with our two dogs. I wasn't really thrilled about the other options, but at first, wasn't sure how to implement the clicker for this situation. For now, we are clicking whenever she interacts with our dogs or is around them without any signs of growling. We'll try and start doing this when she is by her food if she lets our dogs walk by without growling. Hopefully, she can make the connection. Either way, the training seems to help her confidence, so it can't hurt. I'm open to other suggestions that would help plus boost her confidence.

I see how there could be some Jack in her. The fox hound is an interesting guess as well.

We've had a great day with her today. We found out she is very athletic and adores to play fetch. She takes flying jumps off of our deck and runs like a deer. So much fun to see her when she is having such a good time.

[Carrie]

Oh, that's great news...sounds like she's going to be just fine. It's such a joy to see a dog having such a wee of a good time.

I'm open to other suggestions that would help plus boost her confidence.

If she learns to "give" you something, you can play tug of war and let her win. Make it lots of fun and then trade her for a treat or ask her to give, then give it back.

Just learning new things can make a dog more confident....obedience skills, retrieving etc.

Things like agility build confidence. You can set up some low make-shift jumps since she seems to love leaping and running and teach her how to jump. You can get a piece of pipe or something like that and lay a 1x6 board or wider so it's balanced and coax her with treats to walk on it. Start out with just the board on the ground before you make it teeter on the pipe.

Let's see....If you have a couple of barrels, you can teach her to walk around the barrels while you stay on one side so she can't see you the whole time that she's walking around. If you can, after she has some basic obedience, get her into an agility class. It's tons of fun and really builds confidence and it's ALL fun...nothing serious, not one negative word because that defeats the purpose. Anyhow, find a trainer who teaches that way.

If she's afraid of noises, you can buy CDs with sounds of storms, thunder, rain etc and play them at a very, very low volume while she's doing her every day stuff. When she's busy playing a game or doing sits, downs, come etc in the house, she'll hear the sounds of thunder but will be too busy to think much about it and will associate it with an OK, in fact, fun time. Over months, gradually turn the volume louder until it's quite loud. If it's gradual enough, she'll hardly notice. That may help her not be afraid as much when a real storm comes along.

Anyhow, there are some ideas. Maybe someone else will come up with something unique. Hope it helps!

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

The suggestions have been awesome! Just wanted to peek in and thank you Haven for taking Bonnie in!

[AstraChapman]

I think she would come in first place for a beauty contest.

[Jamila]

such a cutie pie

[Haven]

Well, we thought we had dodged the bullet, but no such luck. Bonnie got a full blown case of kennel cough today. It takes about 7-10 days after exposure, and since she was so stressed at the kennel it's not a big shock. We had hoped we had gotten her out of that environment in time *sigh*. She was such a doll with the vet tech when they were checking her out this afternoon. Very sweet when being touched, and every few minutes she would lean against me to ask for a treat
I hope this doesn't slow down our socialization exercises too much. Of course, we will be keeping her away from other dogs for a few days.

Unfortunately, Bonnie has turned out to be one of those dogs who hates taking medication. We tried placing her pill into a piece of hot dog. She licked it, but would not eat it. Then we covered it in peanut butter, which she completely rejected. We tried to place the pill in the back of the throat. She seemed to have it down, but then she forced herself to vomit to get it out of her throat, yuk. Finally, we crushed up a pill in some yummy wet dog food, which she usually likes. She tasted it and promptly ignored it.

I had to go back to forcing it down her throat, which worked at last. I absolutely hate doing this since she is so submissive and acts like I am punishing her, no matter how I heap on the praise. Arghh! Any other ideas out there?

Edit: forgot to thank astra and jamila. Or should I say Bonnie thanks you?

[iloveamlet]

i would have taken her in too....i would not be able to say no to a pup in need like that. if i had the time and resources i'd reeeaaally like to foster. i know this is odd since they are such big dogs, but she looks like she has irish wolfhound in her. i'm thinking some kind of hound.

[annie_so_pink]

she is sooooo cute!

as far as the pills go, my dogs have always eaten theirs with food...hmmm, have you tried in like a piece of "lunch meat" like the deli chicken, turkey, roast beef or anything like that? I don't know but that always worked for Theo...We would take a pill and rap it up in the meat, like a big ball...But thats all I really know of what to do...