Happy 2nd Gotcha Birthday to Phoenix!!!

 Phoenix, on her second day with me!

I can't believe I've had her for two years already!!!

I am one of those people who believe in fate, things that happen are meant to be and that there is a reason for everything. Phoenix is one of those things.

Preparedness - Rescue Dog Mistakes - A Series

I took this photo on the morning Zoe and I went to meet Phoenix at OHS.

"Really, Mom?? We're doing what?!?"

Doesn't Zoe look thrilled?

This is my new series on my mistakes with my rescue dogs. I'm going to do these posts at least once or twice a month on Thursdays. In these posts I will talk about some of the mistakes that I think I made and what I would do differently. I hope that reading about my journey with my two rescue girls will be helpful to anyone else looking to get a dog.

Mistakes I made with my Rescue Dog!

 

Phoenix & Zoe

I've been reading a lot of posts about "do-overs" and in the spirit of my favorite quote from Bark and Lunge by Kari Neumeyer: "You did then what you knew how to do, and when you knew better, you did better." (originally by Maya Angelou) I am going to do a series of posts about what I think I did wrong with my rescue dogs and what I wish I had done instead or how I'd handle things that happened now. I completely understand that there's no going back, we can only move forward but if someone else can learn from my mistakes and not make the same ones I did then it's totally worth it for me to talk about it. 

The blog posts will mostly feature Phoenix since I had absolutely no experience with reactive dogs before her. These posts will go up on Thursdays since it's also kind of a "Throwback Thursday" sort of thing. I will start this series next week. 

Going to the Vet with your Fearful Dog!

I have the most perfect "fearful" dog. She is an absolutely wonderful companion to me and my husband. She is funny, silly and loves to play. She snuggles with me when I don't feel well. She makes me laugh and takes away my pain. She is absolutely perfect in every way, except for two things. She is afraid of strangers reaching for her, to the point she will flail at the end of her leash to try and get away. (She has never growled or snapped at any human. All she wants to do is get away from them.) She trusts the people she knows to a point but is mostly uncomfortable being handled by anyone other than myself and my husband. Her other problem is that she is afraid of large dogs and she can be a little or a lot reactive with them depending on the situation.

TBT - Phoenix meets Marley & 911 Tribute

This was the first time that Phoenix met Zoe's best friend, Marley!

Phoenix has her own park! Wordless Wednesday

This is a really nice park in the Sacramento area. :D

Happy 3rd Gotcha Day to Zoe and B&W Sunday

I really can't believe it's been 3 years since I got my baby girl. Zoe is the dog that completely changed my life and the way I view dogs and training. It's hard to imagine that three years ago today I was begging my husband to go with me to "just look at the dogs." I felt like I was the only groomer in the salon without a dog of my own and I desperately wanted one.

 This is her Gotcha/Birthday Movie!

Dog Reactivity Win - Positive Pet Training

When I got Phoenix 22 months ago she was extremely reactive and motion sensitive. She would react to one of my cats walking by, she'd react to dogs walking by. She'd flip out if there was a fence between her and another dog and fence fight. She was impulsive and never stopped to think about anything she was doing, including biting another dog if they happened to get in her face. She was extremely frightened of people and would not even allow us to touch her.

B&W Sunday - Races!

 

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to the races! We saw whippets, italian greyhounds, ibizan hounds, afghan hounds and rhodesian ridgebacks! All the dogs were having such a great time and their people were so nice to us!

Zoe putting her toys away!

I started out training this by having her pick up a toy and target my hand and then slowly moved my hand over a basket but it wasn't working very well.

Zoe's first time at the Dog Park!