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A Year With Ernie - Friday, 10 April 2009

All that was in my mind was “Come on little guy. . . come on,” as I crouched on the back side of a crate, waiting for a skinny feral pup following the trail of hot dogs. It was my third day trying to catch him, and I was determined it’d be the last.

Once he was in the crate and I’d pulled the door shut, I had no idea what lie ahead of me. I didn’t intend on adding a third dog to my home. I had so much on my plate already. I had no idea how difficult it was to find a rescue or no-kill shelter that would take in a feral puppy. I had no clue how much time, energy and effort it would take to help this little guy in moving on from his very difficult start in life. All I wanted was to get him somewhere safe so he could have a chance at life.

The last year has been one of growth, frustration, progress, laughter and patience. Ernie’s challenges are greater than Jasmine & Hugo’s, and intern, have challenged me more than before. I’m proud of the progress he’s made. From a puppy no one could touch, to a dog that I can hold, carry and snuggle. He’s learned so many “tricks,” it’s hard to list them all.

Looking back at my journal entries, I found things I’d forgotten. Personality traits I started to see during the first month he was here are definitely still present:
- He is in deed funny and is quite a clown. For a while, we thought he might be a nerd and considered naming him Milton (a lot of you liked it too).
- He’s still earnest (where his name came from), particularly when it's time to "work."
- He’s smart and quick as ever.
- He doesn't just grumble now when he gets frustrated, now he stamps his front feet and whines.

I noticed a couple of other things too. When I first introduced Ernie to Jasmine & Hugo, I though E-Man loved other dogs. In hindsight, I think Ernie was good with meeting H&J because they had a gradual introduction. They smelled each other on our clothes for days. Heard each other, then saw each other briefly, then for longer periods of time. Hugo and Jasmine practiced “look at that” when Ernie was next door. It didn't take long for E-Man (who was having major separation anxiety) to see we lived with J&H, so that was additional inspiration. When I look back at pictures from the day they met, I can also see that Ernie (who was only 20-some pounds) was cautious/nervous with them, although happy too.

In less than a month, he first started showing signs of resource guarding and fear reactivity. He’d found his voice and started barking at scary things. In 2 months, he’s exaggerated startle response/PTSD began surfacing. My vet suggested that behavior modification medication might help E-Monster. I wanted to continue and pursue with his training and try more “natural” methods first. Looking back, I can see how much he grew, and I’m even more sure that we’ve hit a plateau in his learning and conquering his fears.

Taking stock in all that’s happened and working on Ernie’s new behavior modification plan, I'm looking forward to his continuing progress in the coming months. As my trainer/behaviorist says, "He's got a lot of potential!"

Mercy! It's been a while! - Wednesday, 25 February 2009

I have to go back and add some thing that have been happening to E-Man over the last few months!

One of the biggest is that he's had his first big snow! And then a second, and a third! At first, he had a hard time figuring out how to walk through the stuff. He was awkward and wobbly, using his tale as a counter balance. But then he got his snow groove going, and now he cruises through, hot on the trail of whatever smells he can find! Last week, I could see that he'd had enough of all the snowfall. We had 30 inches on the ground and he just seemed tired of it. He plays in it, runs around and goes on his walks, but he's not a snow dog who loves the white stuff like his cousins are. He's just not built for it.

This week he surprised me with a new "trick." I was working on the computer to finish something in time for a deadline, which was delaying the dogs getting their breakfast. Each dog came and reminded me that it was time for "comida"; Hugo came and nudged his nose under my arm, staring at me. Jasmine came up and put her front feet on my chair and licked my face. Ernie came and stood on the little step near the chair, stared at me and whined a little. Then he got down, hopped up with his front feet on the top of his crate, grabbed his food dish, carried it across the room, dropped it on the floor in front of me and stared at me.

After I stopped laughing, I got to feeding the beasties.

More Progress! - Monday, 14 July 2008

This week, on the 3rd month anniversary of his rescue, Ernie made it though his first thunderstorm. It was a bit scary at first, but Hugo, Jasmine, Ernie and I spent the rest of it on the floor playing with toys, and all was well. :D

We had another milestone yesterday when I took Ernie to town for socializing. We’ve been practicing sitting in the car with the door open looking at people and not barking. Well, he’s been practicing – I don’t normally bark at people. Ernie’s been too scared to set foot (paw, excuse me) outside the car, even in a parking lot with a few cars and no people.

He was doing really well, and I started having him come closer and closer to getting out of the car to get his treats. Then he surprised me and hopped on the ground and started walking around! We walked around the market and post office parking lot, and even along the street for a bit. He passed people, including someone in a wheel chair, a baby in a stroller and a few small groups and he did great! We crossed the street when 2 women were walking towards us with a baby because Ernie wasn’t ready to deal with them. There are also a number of big rocks in the lot, and he was more than happy to jump up on them, sit on and practice “shake”, “give me five”, and “touch”.

And, a man pulled over and asked me what breed my “cool looking dog” is! Ha! 100% pure rez dog! I get asked that about Hugo a lot, but this was a first for E-Man. Too bad he couldn’t understand and get a little confidence boost from the compliment. ;)

As we were leaving, I saw a friend who is one of the dogs’ favorite people, so we pulled over to say hi. Although Ernie was happy to see her, he barked at a few people again – he’d had enough for one day. So he had one more positive experience watching at a family getting in their van and ended the trip to town on a good note.