Muzzle Success!

Bella was re-shaped to a muzzle over last Saturday and Sunday... I was able to teach her to leave it alone, and to just chill while wearing it - which is a big deal considering the last time she wore a muzzle, she almost needed stitches under her eye from her dew claw.

I took her (and all the others) out of her crate - including Gyp. Bella was interested in her, and was looming over her (Grr!), and did what looked like an attempted bite once. Very discouraging that she was doing that - even more discouraging that even before Bella did that, Gyp was terrified of her. I tried treating both of them, but Gyp was just having nothing to do with Bella. It's really hard to try and get the two to get along if Gyp's going to be irrationally scared.

So, after that night, Mom started looking for a home for Gyp. I feel terrible that it's happening, but Gyp is now very defensive, even with the other dogs, who have never done anything to her. It sucks that they're considering rehoming her, but we're thinking it's what's best for her, considering now she's nervous with all dogs.

Back on track - we took Gyp into the city to meet the man looking at taking her (he gave us a lot of information, talked to us for a while, and agreed to all of our conditions on rehoming her). This was Gypie's first time in the city, and she did amazingly well. I was so proud of her, considering she's usually quite nervous and shy even away from the city. She saw the man walking toward us, and I swear she knew it was him before we did. Her bum started wiggling and she shimmied over to him. He got right now, patted her, and loved on her. She loved the attention!

We're planning on letting him take her for the day, to see how she does, and he was going to call our vet - just to check it out. He's being very wise and responsible about taking in another dog (he has no other dogs now - lost both of his oldies in the past little while). He's not going to take her until after Christmas - smart idea - and so that gives me time to take both of them in for the assessment we had planned on having done.

Bella's been doing well with all of the training I've been giving her - other then loosing some focus after two many days of long sessions - and I'm pleased with her. She learned "dead" and "legs" both within a couple of days, and she really enjoyed the process of training them - and the process of the muzzle!

As far as cross country skis go, no luck yet. Bummer. We're still looking, though... and if all else fails, I'll buy snow shoes.

That's all for now...