Snickers and I are halfway home from having delivered Sophie to her new home in southern Florida. Yes, I drove ALL THAT WAY to take her personally instead of putting her on a rescue transport. She has a tendency to be anxious and need reassurance about new situations; a transport would have been too stressful for her. Plus, I just love to see my fosters in their new homes.

Sophie has a new “mom & dad,” two teenage human sisters and a Shiba brother, Remi. So far, all reports are that Sophie and Remi are doing well and have enjoyed several long walks and some indoor Shiba 500s together. Here are a few pictures from her first day at home. I took the one of Donna and Sophie before I left. You can see both Remi and Snickers wandering around as well. Donna took the other two of Remi and Sophie later in the day after they’d been playing together.

PS Thank you Donna for being such a gracious hostess and feeding me lunch after my long trip.

I’m always a bit dismayed when people give up on integrating a new dog into their home after just a few days. It is UNREAL the number of people I have spoken to who think (1) that they can tell if their dog would be happy living with another dog based on an initial meeting and (2) that it is hopeless if the dogs fight in the beginning.

What A Difference A Few Weeks Makes!

Secret, Snickers and Sophie waiting for treats together

Actually, Snickers has fought with every new dog that has come into our home, other than Secret. He and Shayna (my favorite foster dog EVER) fought like crazy at first but ended up madly in love with each other after a few months. Sure, some dogs will get along right away, and they might even live together well right away, but that’s the exception, not the rule. The good news is that you don’t have to have any special skills – other than patience – to successfully integrate another dog into your family!

It’s all about baby steps. You don’t throw new dogs together in a house, feed them together, give them access to each other 24/7, and expect them to get along perfectly. You crate the new dog when you’re sleeping and when you’re not home. You gate off parts of your home, so they can spend time apart. You feed them where they can see each other from a safe distance, but not get to each other. You gradually increase the time they spend together. You gradually decrease the distance between them at key times.

Three weeks ago, I couldn’t eat with all three dogs on the same side of the baby gates. Food + close proximity = dog fight. Now, however, all three dogs will sit side-by-side waiting for bites while I eat. I still don’t leave them alone together when I’m not home, but I’m perfectly willing to let them roam the house and yard together all day when I AM home – whether I am actually watching them or not. They still fight sometimes, but not often and not as wildly as they did before.

Remember, traveling the path to peace in the pack requires patience and baby steps.

Sorry about the blurry pic. I was trying to hold their attention with treats in one hand and take the photo with the other hand!

I took all three dogs to the vet today. Sophie’s checkup went well. She gave the vet tech kisses and she wasn’t anxious about anything, even when they microchipped her with that huge needle! The vet says she’s very healthy and in great shape.

He’s not too concerned with the “fly biting” behavior. Since she is so young and it seems to be triggered by anxiety, he thinks there’s a good possibility that it isn’t neurological and it may just go away. I’ve seen some improvement this week, which could be because she’s more used to living with us or because I’ve almost finished switching her from her kibble to our good food, or both. He suggested keeping a log of when she does it so we can determine if there are any specific triggers. The important thing was that he wasn’t really concerned.

Sophie and Snick had a great romp together today before we went to the vet. They started playing in the house and then went tearing out the back door and ran Shiba 500s all over the back yard. It was awesome fun to watch. I want her to go to a home with another dog, so she has someone to play with.

Last night she snuggled with me on the couch. She is like a stuffed puppy when it comes to snuggle time. She definitely needs an owner who will let her on the furniture for snuggle time!

If you’re interested in adopting Sophie, please submit an adoption application! I would prefer to adopt her out locally (or semi-locally) but I will happily drive her to the right home.

Today has been a good day for dogs and a lazy day for me. Friday, I spent time figuring out what I do, why I do it, and what I really should focus on. Yesterday, I ran errands and did chores – a typical Saturday. Normally, on Sunday, I would work… work on rescue stuff, work on NSCA stuff, take Snick for his shelter visit, answer email, do some web development or updates for clients or one of my clubs/charities, etc. NOT TODAY!

I started the day with good intentions, but after making breakfast for me and T, I went outside with the dogs and my Brugo full of fresh coffee and it was 52 degrees and sunny. Our yard has been alternatingly frozen and flooded for the past few weeks, so we were all happy to lounge in the sun for awhile. Here are a few photos and videos of our sunny yard time. As you can see, Sophie tries really hard to get Secret to play with her. She mostly steers clear of Snickers so they don’t fight.

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I’ve been working on getting Snickers and Sophie to play in the yard. I usually have to chase Snick around and, once he’s running, Sophie will join in and they’ll run some Shiba 500s together. We’ve done that every morning for the past few days. I never get that on video though, because I’m running around like a lunatic, waving my arms and saying “Get her Snick. Get her!” (I’m sure my neighbors are ready to have me committed.) Even with playing a little outside though, they’ve still been fighting in the house. Whenever they end up in a small space together, Sophie gets excited and starts fly snapping or barking and Snick interprets it as aggressive or rude and attacks her.

Well, today, we had a HUGE breakthrough. I put baby gates up a day or two after Sophie arrived. I lets Snick and Sophie be around each other without fighting and that seems to be helping. Sometimes, when Sophie is relatively calm, I let her out to hang out in the den "with the big dogs." She was pretty good and Snick eventually decided to get off the couch to play with her. I was worried. When he first invited her to play, she play bowed back at him, which was ADORABLE. They played briefly and then she started barking at him. That’s about the time I got the camera running, so this is pretty noisy footage. I was VERY proud of Snickers that he didn’t attack her for barking. It did start to get too heated right at the end though, so I stopped the camera and split them up before it turned into a fight.

So, like I said, today was a good day for dogs. I spent most of my day going outside and back in with the dogs. Of course now I’m paying the price, scrambling to do a bunch of work I should have done earlier today. The dogs are all happily snoozing though, so it’s all good. I’ll catch up on the other stuff.

Note at 12:17 AM: Snickers and Sophie just had their worst fight so far (of course). On the upside, it ended with Sophie cowering upside down in a corner, so maybe she’ll start to figure out she needs to respect Snickers. Maybe.