Sunday, September 27, 2009

Reunion at the Humane Society

The Greenville Humane Society had a festival weekend to promote adoptions and awareness.  Part of it was a reunion for those who had been adopted.  We were excited to go and glad the weather had worked out - it had been raining all week here, but at 10 am this morning, the sun decided to make an appearance.  People and dogs of all sizes and ages came out to show off .  We all compared notes and swapped stories.

Shadow started to make some other friends, but it's hard to wrestle and play on a leash.  The great part was to have people recognize him (by name) and remember when he was there.  It's only been 7 weeks and I get the feeling he was a bit of a celebrity while he was there.  Large, nearly pure bred, and quite "energetic".  One staff member asked.  "So, what happened [that he calmed down]?"  I just told her basically he's very social and isolation in a crate for the kennel cough was just more than he could take.  I also told her about all sorts of means that we've taken to wear him out.  All of that has made him happier and more responsive.

Now - we are still working on lunging at other dogs (which is one reason I took him over there!) But I have to say he did better than most. Of course every mama thinks their crow or in this case lab is the blackest!

3 comments:

Life Looms Large said...

That reunion is a cool idea!! It's great that they remembered him. He is a memorable dog though...so gorgeous!

And congrats on working with him enough that they could already see a difference in his behavior. I've had some pretty difficult shelter dogs (along with a non-difficult one), and the changes they make over time are amazing!!

Your fostering was such a success story.

Say hi to Shadow for me!

Sue

Theresa said...

Oh what a fun day! Lots of proud parents,happy dogs, sunshine and likely treats of all sorts.
Dennett was very dog aggressive when we got him. A gentle leader and some good timing with the "watch me" command did an enormous amount of good for him. Shadow isn't aggressive, but leashes do do funny things to dogs. The GL only went on when we were going to do a meet and greet or a foster was coming into the home, but it got him over that initial meeting.

Jennifer said...

We've been thinking that exposure to more dogs will help him behave better with them. He gets a "dog fix" so to speak, so he's not so desperate to meet another dog. Actually, we like to gauge if his "tank is full". (You know that works for people too...)

He is improving, and we still have more work to do. He's really doing well. I'm now watching that he's up to 86 pounds!!! At 90 we're going back to the vet just to check that this is growing!