She looks so happy..

Thank you

She is doing very well... Food issues are getting better. No longer in the kitchen during prep. No longer eating Tika's food. No longer standing right beside us while we eat.

She lays close and stares at us still, but small steps you know?


counter surfing has also been at a minimum, though in all honesty we've worked her too hard to want to do it I think. Alot of exercise for the pup and she is just snoozing for the most part.

Tika has also been a godsend!!! We purchased our Friday smoked beef bones we always do, and got one for each pup. She still has issues with the bones as she will growl and bear teeth , but with Tika's help, who we used to get close and show her the bone wasn't being taken away, it seemed to lessen quite a bit. near the end of the night they were both chewing their own bones almost side by side with no issues at all.


DOG PARK:

Today we went to our local dog park / hiking trail. They both had alot of fun (We got eaten by bugs) and they are now passed out. Feather also showed alot more interest in other dogs today as she even played with a random dog at the park. She still needs alot more socialization but she is doing well.

SHE LOVED HIKING... can I express this more? She was out in front the whole time smelling EVERYTHING.


NAME:

Hence forth Feather will be known as Ripley (From Aliens). We feel it suites her more and she never really responded to Feather anyways. We wanted a BIG BUTCH name and that one just seemed to fit.

Ripley is currently passed out and going to meet my in-laws tomorrow where she will be put to the TRUE test of not begging . Wish us luck

~Chris~

I love the name Ripley! Good luck tomorrow!

Tika wrote:

NAME:

Hence forth Feather will be known as Ripley (From Aliens). We feel it suites her more and she never really responded to Feather anyways. We wanted a BIG BUTCH name and that one just seemed to fit.

I was wondering if that's where it was from. Badass

It's great to hear how well she's doing, you guys are awesome!

Congrats, so glad it's going well and she's happy! More importantly, your entire pack is happy!

Nothing to say other than

Update PLEASE How are they doing? Has she stolen your hearts for good yet?

Ok Tori
I will give you a quick rundown, we might be able to fill in more over the weekend.

So renamed Ripley, still seems to listen to me better than Chris, we think the tone thing is the issue, but shes learned her name and responds to it.
We brought both dogs over to my parents house last weekend (first test with both around a crying 2 month old) Tika was fascinated, like what is that tiny thing making that noise!? and would follow my poor sister until we broke her concentration. Ripley was more interested in the people. smelled the baby, charmed my dad with her quiet demeanor, though he was less than impressed with her begging. I had to hold him off to get her away from the BBQ in our fashion (my dad doesnt hit dogs, but he beleives in scaring them) given Ripleys reactions to a few scruff grabs and quick movements, we try and reinforce claiming and not physically dragging her away from stuff.
My dad quickly understood thankfully and used our methods, by the time we left she spent most of the afternoon snoozing in the shade of their apple tree.

Tika: the Spazz has come out in FULL force when she decides she wants to play with her, and its generally easier to let them do it outside where they have tons of space to run around (and a five and a half foot tall fence) they both get very vocal when playing too. And they are less likely to run into walls/cats/people/plants

Yesterday she met Buddy (Tika's FAVOURITE Golden Retreiver) and promtply put him in his place. a little bit of a power struggle but they sorted it out and then were fine. Ripley is SO much more dominant than Tika, its quite the difference. I plan on taking the girls to the park with Buddy this sunday.

She is working up to the exercise now. That was a pretty big adjustment for her.
Chris and I alternate moring exercise in the week, Chris rollerblades with them, and since Tika is so much more active, he drops Ripley off halfways through his route, all in almost 6 kms (4 miles give or take)
When its my morning I take them jogging, but let me clarify this, Tika is a slowpoke morning dog, my leisurely jog with her is NO problem. I added Ripley and was NOT ready for that. I started jogging, Tika beside/behind as she sort of woke up, but Ripley took off at a dead run...that woke ME up in a flash....it took me a few times to get it right, but now I can jog with them for about 2.5 km (1.5 miles, please dont judge, i'm working on it, this only started really a few weeks ago and I am slowly getting back into my pre-wedding shape) Practice makes perfect though and I hope by the end of summer to be able to jog about 4-5 km with them.

All in all things have been going well, Ripley spent her first night out of the cage last night but was teathered to the bed with a leash so that she couldnt counter surf while we slept. She did well, I woke up a few times hearing her loooong claws ticking on the floor.

We have a vet appointment for her next saturday (it took us time to make the appt because we wanted to change vets and weekend appointments are not easy to get) Nails will be clipped and lime/heartworm test will be done. Hopefully that goes well.

I will try and post some photos this weekend, she turned out to be a total sunbather BTW. I have found her more than once snoozing in a sunny spot.

pics soon!

~Kelly

great update kelly! i love the new name,Ripley. pictures, pictures, pictures

YAY

Soo... dare I ask if you are her forever home? I think you have a whole forum rooting for you guys

We honestly want to give her a really long fair trial before deciding.....We would love to be her forever home, but we have to be honest with ourselves if we can or cant handle the second dog.
Its already so much more hectic, just because its SO much dog! lol. I dont know how people handle more than 1 kid, wrangling them both is a huge challenge!

That's honestly fair. We can't blame anyone for that!

I will tell you that the first month or so IS really difficult. The dogs are adjusting to each other, you are adjusting, etc. Personally, I wanted to quit so many times when we first got Hailey. But once the initial adjustment was over, I can't imagine only having one dog! I love having two

i think if you can make it the month it should get better, since we only had sierra for a month before adding jack in for me it was not that hard, since after all we went from no dog to 2 huskies in 2 months so i knew my life was gonna change and get crazy! and like tori said, i would not have it any other way now!

Yeah like Kel said we're still in this initial phase of it all. We want to do what is right for Ripley in the end, but we need her to evolve into herself before we can see where and what that is exactly. She is still a bit in her shell, needs a bit more training, and needs to get into a bit better shape before we know what is going on.

That being said she is doing very well with everything. I work her less then Tika but she still gets a good solid work out. She might just naturally be more relaxed then Tika, which isn't hard to do, but she is getting her runs ins and is loving, from what I can tell, the new found freedom she has.

Food is slowly getting better. Begging has gone down considerably, though it is still ever present. Bone guarding is all but gone... I came into the front room two days ago to see them both laying on the doggy bed, chewing a bone side by side. When one would get up to get water the other would steal it and they would trade bones.... There was no teeth, no growling.

She also did surprisingly well at my in-laws.... as she let everyone eat in peace.

She has also become more outspoken. She voices her dislike of the crate when we leave for work now. Nothing loud but we can hear it. She has also taken to demanding pets, which is beyond funny. I play computer games and when I get frustrated with them she walks over, lifts my mouse hand with her head, and stands there looking at me waging her tail.... You really can't help but smile after that.

Tolerant also is not the word for this dog.... Tika pesters her all night long and she just stands there and takes it. If you had a younger sibling who just screamed "PLAY WITH ME!" over and over and over while punching you in the arm I'm pretty sure you would kill them.... Ripley just takes it and sits there. every now and again Tika touches that raw nerve that forces her into play and then it's on for about 15 mins of running, biting, growling, jumping, and pining. She has taught Tika how to play like a true Husky.

Tika follows her all over the house.... There was never a second of resentment we brought another dog home... As far as Tika is concerned Ripley is nothing but her toy, albeit Giant toy that bites back.

We had a SMALL issue last night on a walk but I'm not worried about it at all as I think it was Tika's excitement that caused it anyways. We bumped into a dog Tika has known since she was a puppy.... She gets EXTREMELY excited to meet this dog, more so then normal excitement. Tika's first instinct is also to submit to any dominate dog right away, she will roll onto her back and let the dog dom her.

Ripley took GREAT offense to this and stepped between the two dogs and proceeded to climb on, and position her head above this other dog. Ripley has been around other dogs before, but never another dominant one. Tika instantly going into submission seemed to trigger that reaction. In appeared as if she was protecting Tika, which would be the Chow.

There was some growling and barking and then everyone calmed down and they just ignored each other after they got to smell and separate. Tika ran in and out between them and there was never a repeat offense. During the whole thing there was No teeth, no biting, no fighting. Just positional dominance. It was very interesting to watch, and I'm unsure yet what to make of it... Protecting is fine with me, but on my terms... I know how Chows can get, so I'm keeping on eye on that.


We're also in the process of changing Vets... Because of that we have yet to get her in to see our new one. We have an appointment next Sat. I'll keep you updated on the slue of tests and what ever else we put her through.


Last night was the first night I left her crate open while we slept. She was tethered to the bed, but I figured she had earned at least a bit more room.... She slept in her crate all night anyways.


We also e-mailed the original owner with pics of the meet up at the park with you Tori, and the video of them playing. We kept it very PC and expressed our commitment to "Feather". She wrote back exclaiming how happy she was she had a friend to play with and a good home.

All in all Ripley has been doing great... I can't really complain. She is a gentle old soul. One we love very much. She is indeed a handful and the two of them can drive us nuts at times. But it is going very well and there have been no "bad" surprises at all. The only things that surprise us is how good she really has been.

The second we get back from the vet I'll update more info . We're also going to a new dog park this weekend I think... Maybe Kel can grab some shots

~Chris~

Quote :

i think if you can make it the month it should get better

Oh we refuse to even contact the rescue by us until the 2 month mark. We've decided that about how long it would take for us to really find out who she is and if she can keep up with the energy level in our house .

We wanted to know exactly what Ripley needed before we placed her or kept her... and 2 months seemed like a decent amount of time . My family is coming over this summer, there will be children and lots of dogs. Ect .

It also gives us time to work on her bad habits if she should be rehomed.

~Chris~

Let's be honest - seems like she is fitting in just fine!

I've been silently following and have really enjoyed the updates. I just wanted to say that I know individual dogs will take their own amount of time to show their true colors, with our sibe it was 3 months before we saw what an amazing dog he was. Before that 3 month mark it was quite a challenge and I honestly didn't think I could handle him, can't imagine life without him now though. Just sayin' some take a bit more time, that's all. I love what you have done so far for Ripley she's a lucky girl no matter what happens.

Sounds like you guys are being fair and loving towards her, and there's definitely a period of getting used to the second dog. Once everyone (incl. Ripley) gets into a routine, it gets SOOO much easier! Good luck!

OK, I posted up some photos from the past few weeks with Ripley in Tika's scrapbook, had to share a funny story from this morning.

Chris and I take turns on the morning walks since Neither of us are "morning people"
This morning was my turn, and we successfully jogged 3 k without me falling on my ass (almost 2 miles). its disgustingly hot today with humidity it is getting over 40 degrees celcius here (104 F)
so thankfully this morning wasnt too bad, though I still felt like I was running through a swamp.

I have gotten the hang of jogging with the girls, and normally at the start, Ripley leads like a bat outta hell and Tika just sort of prances along behind, frequently stopping to smell the flowers.
This morning they were both at a decent speed right away and I decided to run an extra 1 k and see how we managed. We all did great and even though it was rough, I didnt quite feel like I was going to die like I did about a month ago when I started.

1 block from home, we were running along the side of the road, and either it was hurt or it was the most unobservant pidgeon to ever roam the earth, but Ripley was within INCHES of killing it. I think she scared the hell out of it as we ran past and she went for it right away. the pidgeon sort of jumped and shuffled its wings like it had been rolled and then walked off! it didnt even fly! meanwhile all I was thinking was the phone call I would have to make to work if she had caught it! Sorry I cant come in, I'm taking my dog to the vet to get decontaminated after she ate a pidgeon!

~Kelly

Tika wrote:

OK, I posted up some photos from the past few weeks with Ripley in Tika's scrapbook, had to share a funny story from this morning.

Chris and I take turns on the morning walks since Neither of us are "morning people"
This morning was my turn, and we successfully jogged 3 k without me falling on my ass (almost 2 miles). its disgustingly hot today with humidity it is getting over 40 degrees celcius here (104 F)
so thankfully this morning wasnt too bad, though I still felt like I was running through a swamp.

I have gotten the hang of jogging with the girls, and normally at the start, Ripley leads like a bat outta hell and Tika just sort of prances along behind, frequently stopping to smell the flowers.
This morning they were both at a decent speed right away and I decided to run an extra 1 k and see how we managed. We all did great and even though it was rough, I didnt quite feel like I was going to die like I did about a month ago when I started.

1 block from home, we were running along the side of the road, and either it was hurt or it was the most unobservant pidgeon to ever roam the earth, but Ripley was within INCHES of killing it. I think she scared the hell out of it as we ran past and she went for it right away. the pidgeon sort of jumped and shuffled its wings like it had been rolled and then walked off! it didnt even fly! meanwhile all I was thinking was the phone call I would have to make to work if she had caught it! Sorry I cant come in, I'm taking my dog to the vet to get decontaminated after she ate a pidgeon!

That's my girl! So happy to see her coming out of her shell. Kelly, she looks SO HAPPY with you guys!

She has quite the little personality, thats for sure. Last night both of them ended up in Time out in the Bathtub. Tika was a spazz as always, jumped on the couch after swimming and refused to get down. Strike one....then she picked up a shoe and dragged it to her bed (something relatively new for her) so it was an immediate time out since we want to get the behaviour out before she starts chewing the stuff she drags to her bed.
it started a few weeks ago while we were at work, she dragged every peice of laundry and shoe she could get and put it all on her bed. at least its making me keep the house a bit tidier.....lol

Then Ripley chased a cat downstairs twice! We had decided to leave the baby gate off to see how she would do, and to try and enfore the "invisible" barrier. Tika just doenst go downstairs, but we have to enforce it in Ripley. so after both times she ended up in the tub.

then they both sat beside chris giving him the "I'm Sorry" eyes.......


~Kelly

Tika wrote:

She has quite the little personality, thats for sure. Last night both of them ended up in Time out in the Bathtub. Tika was a spazz as always, jumped on the couch after swimming and refused to get down. Strike one....then she picked up a shoe and dragged it to her bed (something relatively new for her) so it was an immediate time out since we want to get the behaviour out before she starts chewing the stuff she drags to her bed.
it started a few weeks ago while we were at work, she dragged every peice of laundry and shoe she could get and put it all on her bed. at least its making me keep the house a bit tidier.....lol

My sister's dog used to do this. It's usually a cry for attention. I know that Ripley is super cuddly, but does Tika do anything in the evenings? Does she cuddle? Get a playtime or something?

She swims with us like crazy, she gets loads of attention, Chris and I normally jump in the pool when we get home, and she always joins us. we played with her for about half an hour in the pool before she pulled that little stunt. She also jumped in with just me right before dinner.
Chris always plays tug with her a lot in the evenings, I think she was a little disgruntled because I wouldnt let her up on the couch soaking wet.....being a brat!

Tika wrote:

She swims with us like crazy, she gets loads of attention, Chris and I normally jump in the pool when we get home, and she always joins us. we played with her for about half an hour in the pool before she pulled that little stunt. She also jumped in with just me right before dinner.
Chris always plays tug with her a lot in the evenings, I think she was a little disgruntled because I wouldnt let her up on the couch soaking wet.....being a brat!

So it IS for attention She wanted something she couldn't have, lol. The little stinker

This is not a criticism just an observation. If you let the dog on the couch normally (when not wet) you can't expect them to differentiate it from when they are wet. They will (at least mine do) get frustrated / destructive when something is allowed and arbitrarily in their mind disallowed.