Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I so understand this. When I lost mine last year, I just knew Id never have another. Id never love another like the one I lost, and no one would love me like that. Well...I saw the picture, called, and bought him that day. No he's not like my others, he's his own little man, and makes me laugh every day.
We are home. I picked him up about an hour earlier than they normally allow, but I wanted to beat the rush hour traffic home. Since he was snipped in the morning, he was allowed to leave earlier.
Because he is only 3 pounds more than Sakari, I figured her harness would fit, and I could use it, for now, until I find him his own. I need to know his personality, first. And I was right, it fit him perfect. On her, it was a bit loose, but on him, exact fit.
Had him walk around the grounds outside of the shelter so he would conduct his business transactions before leaving, which he did.
I opened the passenger side front door, and he hopped in, then hopped into the back, almost like he was used to hopping into a truck. I buckled him in since I never took Sakari's seat belt out. And just like Sakari, it is pointless to even try to protect the seats because they both mess up the towel, immediately.
This is him all ready for his ride to freedom. He rides in the car very well. Stuck his head out the window, and just like Sakari, could barely see over the edge of the door. Hilarious.
We caught part of the rush hour, anyway, but it wasn't too bad, and when I got home, I walked him around my lane in the complex. He marked everything along the way. We were going to walk the whole lane all the way around, but a lady and some guy came out, like they were moving out, and the lady had pillows in her hand. That spooked this little guy. He stopped, and then started backing up. He then decided, 'Nope!' and turned to walk the other way. So, we just went back, and went into the house to meet the cats.
What a fun time that was. Child was ticked! She got all feral acting on him. She side ways walked towards him, back all arched, fur all poofed out, doing that 'I'm about to kick your backside' yowl. I just stepped in between them and kept moving.
Of course he was interested in the cats. He followed them everywhere, but he didn't chase them. He wanted to sniff them, he wanted to see how they were, and they let him know, under no circumstances was he to get in their space. And, he wisely backed off each time. Right now, Child is sitting on the bed, and the new dog is about a foot away from her, and they are all calm. He's small enough that they can get in a good swipe, if necessary, but he is a dog, so I'll watch and see how things go. He's completely different than Sakari in this, because Sakari was all like, 'I don't like you, either. Don't touch me!'
I was sent home with a bag of Hills (sigh) because that's what they feed the animals at the shelter. I fed the cats in front of the new dog, and he was really good about backing off when I calmly told him to and just walked in between the cat bowl and him. The cats ate, and the dog was letting me know that he wanted to eat. So, I opened the bag of dumb Hills, put out 5 kibbles in front of him, and he said, 'I don't want that garbage'. Good boy.
I tested out a few pieces of human food...he didn't want them. Please, please, please be a meat eater. I got out some sausages that were frozen, introduced one of them to him, and he wanted it. I heated it up in the oven for a bit just to thaw out, and he was delighted to eat it. Good! It will be a breeze to get him on the raw diet.
I made myself some chicken nuggets, because I needed to be able to keep an eye on everyone, and then I did what I always do, climb into bed, get on the internet, pick out some Big Bang Theory (the show) videos to watch while I eat. He actually watched how the cats behaved during this. He noticed that they were not coming up and shoving their faces in my food, so he also didn't shove his face in my food.
Here he is, not shoving his face in my food, but very much wanting to do so:
I like that he was learning from the cats. Smart little boy.
And let me tell you, this dog is affffeeeeccctionate! My gosh, I've never had a pet be this affectionate. That whole 'put his paws around my neck' business? He keeps doing it. He also likes to put his head under my chin and get in real close to be petted and loved on. He is unbelievably affectionate.
I keep wondering, 'Why on earth would someone get rid of this dog?!'
Maybe they couldn't afford to keep him? Maybe they weren't very active, and he was too much? It is clear that someone loved this dog at one point, and he has been trained. He knows 'sit'. He knows when to back off without me doing much of anything other than saying, 'back' and taking a step or two towards him to keep him away from whatever it is I don't want him near, like the oven when I was wanting to open it to get the chicken nuggets out.
He lets me kiss his little nose all the time, just like Sakari did, and again, I'm telling you, the right side of his face is pretty much all black, so when I see his profile on that side, it is like I'm looking at Sakari's face. I can't even believe how much they look alike in their profile.
He's supposed to be calm today, being mellow...yeah, right, a BC mellow? But he's supposed to be since he just got snipped. They told me 14 days...Shasta never took that long to heal. Maybe 5-7 days, but it didn't take Shasta 2 weeks. Regardless, as I learned when Whitey went through his surgeries, and wasn't supposed to be jumping up and down and running, animals will do what they think they can do, so I'm not going to worry about this one jumping up and down on/off the bed, 300 times every 10 minutes.
I'm trying to kind of ignore his requests for attention to go do something, because this is day 1, and yes, he needs to calm down. Heal first, kid. Plus, I'm really tired. I got up way early today to start working because I knew I was going to lose a few hours this afternoon.
So, this is our first day together.
*Great car rider.
*VERY quiet so far, although he did let out a tiny little high pitched bark at one of the cats - not a mean one, more like an 'I'm sooooooooo interested in you! Let me know you!' type of bark.
*He's going to be easy to train, I can already tell - once again, making me look like the Dog Whisperer, and once again, it's not me, it's the intelligent dog.
*I can't say 100% right now, but I think he's going to be okay with the cats. He's not trying to attack them, he's trying to get to know them. It's the cats who are being all uppity and 'I don't want your dog germs' attitude.
*We will need to work on his attempts to show dominance every so often, but I just get up and walk away. That's the end of that. I'm not going to let him have an inch - I learned well from Sakari.
At one point, he was hugging me, and was pushing his face on mine, and trying to climb on me. Well, no, it was okay in the cage, yesterday, but no more. He can hug, but he doesn't get to force his hugs. He can sit in my lap, when I give permission. He does not make those choices, I decide if I want a hug right then and there, or if I want him to sit in my lap and cuddle, right then and there. I'm not rejecting him, I'm simply letting him know, right off, that I have boundaries, and he must be invited in to my boundary.
I taught that to Shasta and Sakari and it makes a huge difference in how they act around you all the time. Very more respectful in their manners when you let them know that. "This is my space, and you must ask to come into my space, you don't barge into my space".
So far, it is going well. He's bored right now, but he doesn't want peanut butter so 'peanut butter filled Kong' is out. He doesn't like the little bones from the pet store, (I had some left over from Sakari). He doesn't care for toys. Even if I had a herd of sheep for him to run around, he couldn't right now because he is supposed to rest and heal.
He's had a big day, hopefully he'll take a nap. I plan on taking him with me later tonight to work for about an hour or 2. As the weather cools down, I would really like to be able to take him with me for a few hours, just so he can ride around and see the sights.
There's a lot of Sakari things about him, and there's a ton of just his things.
I'm still trying to think of a name, but most of my pets don't get named right away. I like to see who they are, and it will come to me. BOGO is not going to be his name. I've just been calling him what I called Sakari - 'dogarino'. Old habits die hard.
This dog is pretty awesome. I fell asleep last night, and he and the cats apparently had a meeting. They are still a bit wary, but overall, they seem to have gotten on well enough. I actually witnessed Child and the new dog, ever so slightly, and with some hesitance, touch noses. Whitey acts like he's been betrayed, but he'll get over it. Things are looking pretty decent on the dog vs cat thing..but I'm still going to make sure all is well.
I got up at way too early this morning because I knew this young boy needed a good walk. I live on a lake. I hate mornings, I don't want to move, but this dog was good all night long, I had to get up and go walk him around the lake.
I've learned a few things:
He does not like any male running towards him. At one point, we came upon a guy who was jogging. As he got closer, the boy started yelling at him. The guy passed us, going the opposite direction, and we were walking on when the boy suddenly started looking back, repeatedly, and started barking. Apparently the guy had reached one of the 'turn around' points for many joggers, and was coming back our way. The boy was not having that. He yelled and yelled and yelled at that guy.
So, I thought, well, maybe it's just that guy - although to me he seemed harmless.
Another guy came by, same thing. This boy does not like males running at us. I mean, he was going off on them, "Stay away from her, I swear I will cut you!" type attitude. When a girl ran by, he didn't care one bit. Interesting.
He also doesn't really care for other dogs. He barked at them, too. Even docile dogs. It wasn't out of fear, like with Shasta, this dog just has a dominance issue that I can already see, so, as I said yesterday, we are going to work on that. I think this is a soft dog, too, like Shasta was, when it comes to training, so I'm going to do it that way.
We walked around the lake, he barked at every dog that went by him, except one. An older lady was walking her very calm German Shepherd, and we had taken a few steps towards the edge of the lake, so just a few feet further away from those passing us, and this boy was perfectly fine. He looked at them, but he didn't bark at them or make a move towards them. He just watched them pass by. Maybe he just likes little old ladies and German Shepherds.
This is our halfway point from where I live:
You can just see someone coming onto the bridge, and he's very aware of them, even that far away. (We were about halfway across the bridge at this point.)
He barked at a few people on the bridge, but not all of them. Weirdo.
He has a very fast pace, and he wants, very badly, to go after the squirrels, so a lot of times, on the uphill parts, he pulled me up those hills. I used to tell Sakari to 'mush!' because by the time we get to the uphill parts, I'm exhausted. Sakari would be like, 'No'. This boy was charging on, and I was pretty much dragged up the inclines. I'm okay with that.
We got back home, he looked a little bit tired, but I'm sure he could have gone around again before being wiped out. I needed to take a shower - because even though it was actually cool this morning, this dog made me sweat.
He behaved very well while I was in the bathroom, and didn't tear anything up, didn't chase the cats, there were no hissing and spats going on...he was very quiet...relief.
I decided to sit down and look at the photos I took of him on our walk, and realized he wasn't on the bed. I got up and looked out the bedroom, and there he was, on the screened in porch, resting, looking out at the forest, QUIETLY, unlike another dog, *cough Sakari cough* who would use it as her soapbox. "Ahem! Excuse me, everybody! I have something to say..." And she would talk the entire time out on that porch, loudly, to the point that I couldn't let her be out there for long as we are not allowed to let our dogs stand out there and bark, annoying other neighbors.
But this boy? He was lying there, quietly, staring out at the woods. I tried to be sneaky about taking his pic because whenever he sees me, he'll get up and come over. I was zooming in, and right when I was pushing the button, I got caught. He turned his head and saw me. The picture took before he got up, so here he is, enjoying the porch and the forest and the scenery, QUIETLY:
The only time Sakari didn't stand on that porch and say something was the day she died. She never sat down on that porch, never rested peacefully, she always had to talk to everyone.
So, she was mouthy but ridiculously friendly to everyone on the entire planet. She didn't hate a single person.
The boy is very quiet, and barks at people. He doesn't try to attack them, he just seems to be quite protective of me, already.
And I love the way he lifts his paws when I come towards him - almost like he's going to shake, but doesn't. He goes back and forth between the right and left paws, almost like he's dancing. And he was on his hind legs whenever he saw squirrels - standing on his hind legs, raring to go after them. Very cute.
Edit: After writing the above, I gave him his first piece of chicken. He gets bone in chicken for the next 2 weeks to help him transition to a raw diet. I handed it to him, he took it, dropped it, licked it, and then backed off. Did that a second time, and I realized, he couldn't believe that it was for him, and since he didn't want to get into trouble, he sat next to it, not touching it.
I literally had to hand feed him the chicken drumstick. I had to hold it while he learned that it was okay for him to eat, keep eating, and finish. He was very happy when he was done, like he couldn't believe he was getting something so delicious.
Also, forgot to mention, but he just reminded me, yet again, that he's turning me into Sheldon Cooper every time I go back to my bedroom, and he's lying down in the area that I use when I go to sleep, and have to tell him, 'That's my spot.'
Last edited by Three Wolves In Snow; 09-17-2022 at 09:01 AM..
What a cutie! I am happy for you-----that this dog has come into your life.
As my heart dog died around the same time your Sakari did, I've been following your story with special interest.
I will be very honest with you: These first 2 days have made me very happy, and have helped with some of the pain. But, these first 2 days have also made the pain much more painful, because I'm constantly thinking of Sakari. The lake walk this morning - I kept thinking, 'Why couldn't she have lived this long so I could have done this for her before she left me?'
The right side of his face, when I see it in profile, it is truly like I'm looking at Sakari's face - it is not 'kind of like' it is 'exactly like' her profile. And it makes me feel a little good, and it make me feel a little pain, because I get to "see her face" still, touch it, kiss it, but I don't get her back.
I don't know if this is 'too soon', and at the same time I know that this boy would have been adopted by someone else, or snatched up by a rescue making it next to impossible for anyone to adopt him...
It makes it less painful, and it makes it a lot more painful.
But, this dog needed a home, he's exactly what I wanted, he has some Sakariisms, and he has a lot of his own things.
All I can do at this point is to take how much I absolutely adored Sakari, and pass that on to this one, by using everything that I ever learned with Sakari along the way, to teach this one, without all of the mistakes.
Amen to that! Love the photos. I love Border Collies, and he looks like a special dog. Back in the 60's my uncle had a Border Collie exactly like Sakari and dogarino, except he was a little bigger. Murph was an amazing dog. Excellent walking companion and kid dog too. But he was definitely my uncle's dog above all else.
Nice that you can look at dogarino and see Sakari's profile. I would love that in the future after my own doggos are gone.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
