It's Not ALWAYS About Lewis

Although life actually centers around my daughter, the dogs are right up there in the grand scheme of life.  And in the scheme, usually Lewis is the one demanding the most time.  However, I still feel it's important for all the dogs to get one on one time with us.  So, this past Sunday, we had one of those days.  It actually happens quite often; they get individual walks, but not usually big events.  It started with a nice long run with Lewis-see it always starts with Lewis.  Then, Daisy and I had training class.  I am taking her to get Canine Good Citizen tested next month so we need a little more work with socialization.  Then, after dinner, my husband and I took Gus to a new local dog park.  We were a little sad because there was only one dog there, but then a few more came.  PERFECT!  Another lab that just wanted to run and play with our big 'ol Gusser!

They had SUCH a blast!  They ran through the mud together, they chased each other, they peed on trees together.  MAN, does it get any better than that for a dog!?!?!!?  Our Gus, is just such a well balanced, mellow old guy.  But you wouldn't know it by this picture.  Playing like a puppy in this picture, even though he's almost 11!

What a good boy!!!!!!!

The other dog's family decided they would let their lab go swimming in the river that runs along the park.  I wasn't sure I wanted to let Gus go in, but.....





...how could I resist this amount of happiness?!?!?  They had so much fun playing in the water, fetching sticks, wrestling around!  Man, it just doesn't get better than this for a happy old guy! 

And who can resist that smile?  His happeness is contagious.  Sometimes I get sad for Lewis and Daisy because they aren't able to let themselves enjoy other dogs like Gus does.  I don't let it define them as "unsociable" or "bad" dogs, they're just different dogs.  But, when I see how much fun Gus has and how happy he is to be around other dogs, I wish that the other 2 could experience this same pure joy once.  Maybe someday, but if not, I love them just the same ♥!

And now, it's time to take my super happy dog and go home....for a bath :)

Have a great day, and for goodness sake...LIFE IS SHORT, PLAY WITH YOUR DOG!

Tracy
   

Personal Trainer

My Mom decided that I should have ANOTHER new job, her personal trainer.  But, I think sleeping in the sun is a MUCH better idea.  You see, my mom likes to go running, and she says that if I don't get enough exercise, I tend to bounce off the walls.  Well, maybe she's right.  I really do like to bother my sister, Daisy, and I DO like to zoom around the house and yard jumping onto things and bouncing off them again, so....I guess she's right.  Personal trainer I am.  But this has to stop soon because I am already very busy as Super Hero-Defender of the Back Yard! 

So, my mom takes me running, just enough for her to get a good sweat goin and me to be super tired.  This is what happens to me after a good run....

I like my kennel and if I go in there after our training session, she won't bother me anymore and I can snooze the rest of the day away.  Sometimes I like to lay on the couch...

...but then people bother me.  I mean, geez, can't you see how sleepy I am?  Oh, well, I love this girl and she loves me so I guess it's not too bad.  She plays with me and gives my lots of love, so I guess I can put up with her smellin my toes.  She IS pretty cute, huh?

In the end, I'm happy to have so many different "jobs".  My family, even my dad, really likes to play with me and teach me new stuff.  I get to play frisbee, and catch the tennis ball.  Oh, I'm super good at digging holes, too (mom and dad DO NOT like that so I have to run real fast to get away-good thing I have this personal training thing goin on).  Mom takes me to agility, too, where I'm learning new stuff like walking on boards, jumping over poles, jumping through hoops, and running through tunnels.  It's soooo much fun! In the end, my totally favorite thing to do is hang out with and play with my sister and brother, oh, and my 2 cats.  I love them.

I'm such a lucky dog, I love my life.

Have a great day everyone, and remember, life is short-PLAY WITH YOUR DOG!
 Love,
Lewis♥
 

Super Hero Lewis

Hi Everyone,

I thought I would share this picture with you.  This doesn't seem like any big deal to most people.  After all, Lewis is laying on a bed next to a cat.  OHHHH, but wait.  This is a big moment, indeed.  Lewis LOOOOVES to chase Kit Kat.  Kit Kat, however, doesn't think it's so fun.  She HATES it and, in all honesty, she hates him!  She bats her paw at him, she hisses at him, she puffs up her fur when he comes around, and Lewis, well, he LOVES it!  As far as he's concerned, these are all ploys for him to jump and bark at her, because in his mind, these things mean, "let's play".

Here, Kit Kat was already sleeping on Lauren's bed when Lewis jumped up to join her.  At first, Lauren told him to get down, but I said, no, let's see what happens.  Kit Kat was already in a relaxed state of mind so it may be ok.  And Lewis was tired so this may be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  Well, it never got quite to that point, but the two stayed this way for quite awhile and things are a little more peacefull ever since.  He does still love to chase her, though.

  In these pictures, Lewis sees a squirrel.  That sounds like the title of a children's book.☺ He watched those little demons run up into the front yard, then up into a tree.  Then back to the yard, then back up a tree.  This continues for a few minutes.  Usually he is jumping and barking and screaming at the little monsters, but this time, he stood at attention and whined a little.  Just enough to let us know a killer rabid squirrel was on the loose.  We have decided that Lewis sees himself as a super hero of sorts.  *que super hero music*  "LEWIS-DEFENDER OF THE BACK YARD-NO SQUIRREL (or rabbit) SHALL PASS THIS WAY"  All he needs is a cape!
After realizing the little fur demon wasn't coming back to the front yard, he had to double check the perimeter.  Off to my bedroom!  And there it was, that little bugger!  Right under the window.  I swear it was laughing at poor Lewis.  Wiggling it's puffy little tail, and snickering "na na na you can't get me, you're inside".  Just wait you little demon squirrel, you're days are numbered!
When it was all over and the little monster left, tail high in the air, my hubby actually said OUT LOUD, that Lewis is getting better.  He talked to Lewis about how nasty that squirrel was to tease him like that.  Lewis tried giving him a kiss. 
In the end, everyone had a greater appreciation for eachother....even though my husband will never admit it.  *he secretly like lewis*  Sometimes we need to take a different look at how we approach things.  No more yelling at the dog to SHUT UP, which is how most people go about these sort of things.  Now that I see how my super hero dog thinks, I can appreciate it.  Adding a little humor to anything helps!
Until next time----LIFE IS SHORT-PLAY WITH YOUR DOG!

Camping...Not so much!

It's the 4th of July and like quite a few other Americans, we like to go camping.  But, most campgrounds only allow 2 dogs per site, which poses a little problem for us.  Which dog do we leave back?  I can't decide.  So, we chose to set up camp in the back yard, in a tent.  No fancy shmancy camper here!  We spent the day, yesterday, swimming; got home, grilled up some burgers (black bean for me, please), and started the bon fire.  My daughter and I got our sleeping bags and pillows and got everything ready for our slumber in the great outdoors.  We decided Lewis needed the camping "exerience" so we got his bed and a blanket for him.  What a lucky dog, his bed was the softest of all of ours.  Darn Dog!

When it was time to hit the hay, we attached the flashlight to the top loop in the tent.  This was the beginning of the end!  Lewis layed down, and stared at the light.  His eyes were big as saucers.  Then he got up, looked out the window to find an escape route, and, when realizing there was no way out, he slinked along the outer wall of the tent and curled up in a little ball in a corner as far away from "the light" as he could.  Of course we felt bad for him, but we couldn't let him bail on us.  We were in this together.  The 3 Musketeers!

As the night went on, and I tried desperately to sleep, I looked over to see what the sleeping arrangement between Lewis and Lauren ended up being.  Lewis, in a ball, on Lauren's sleeping bag, and Lauren on Lewis' bed.  Me....on the hard ground.  How did I end up with the short stick?  I'm the old one.  I'm supposed to have the softest bed.  Nope!  Not in this house.  The kid and the dogs (and cats) rule the roost.  That's ok sometimes. 

We all coldn't wait for the sun to rise so we could "say" we camped this week end.  As soon as it was light enough, Lauren woke me up and we all went inside where my VERY SMART husband had stayed all night.  My bed had never felt so soft.  And, Lewis, well he got to sleep on the people bed too. 

Healling Touch for Animals

Last time we talked, Lewis was going to be seeing Linda, his "therapist".  Linda works on the basis of Healing Touch for Animals.  healingtouchforanimals.com  When you go to their website, you will see what they are all about.  They work with the energy of the animal.  This is similar to Reiki, with the difference being that Healing Touch helps to "reset" the energy to balance.  This is exactly what Lewis needs.

So, Linda went on a walk with us so she could see the real issues we have been dealing with.  And, wa-la!  We were a little worried that we wouldn't see other dogs since the weather wasn't fabulous, but then there they were.  She asked a man to help us with our training.  She had him stay in their spot and we worked on Lewis calming down in the presense of the other dog.  It took quite awhile.  She made him lay down and he couldn't get up until he was calm.  In the mean time, he was very loud and talkative.  When she was finally able to release him, he shook it off and away we went.  (btw-i have done this before, but it has never helped)
 
After seeing what we have been going through, she came to the conclusion that what I have been saying all along is right.  Lewis has extreme anxiety which causes him to get overloaded.  She doesn't believe this is all from the attck that he encountered 1 year ago; she believes there is more to it.  Our next session is going to be a trauam release session.  She is bringing in a friend who is also a pet communicator.  THIS, I can't wait to see.  I am really interested to see what my crazy dog has to tell us.  Now, I know most people don't believe in this stuff, but, hey, I do.  And, if you don't, I hope I can prove you wrong.  I hope that Lewis can tell us what is going on, and we can communicate to him that he is ok, now.  Then let's see how things go.  Man, it would be soo great to have a completely relaxed walk with all 3 dogs.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Until next time, life is short----play with your dog!

Tracy & Lewis

A New Beginning

If you have followed our blog before, welcome to our new home.  If this is your first time, you can visit past blog posts at fosteredpets.com. 

I  decided to change our home since Lewis isn't a fostered pet, he is our dog.  I guess that really doesn't matter much, it's just a title, but this fits us better.  So here we go.

In our last post, I talked about energy work.  Does it work?  Well, we met with Lewis' energy healer, Linda, twice since that post.  Lewis has had some pretty chaotic stuff happen to him before we even brought him home.  Of course, at this point we don't know what that was, but whatever it was, it has caused some major shifts in his energy.  He is not a "balanced" dog by any means.  Well, no kidding, we already knew this...hence the energy healer. 

But, it was good to hear her say this out loud so I can affirm the fact that he is a crazy man!
 
According to Linda, Lewis' heart is very open, which means he is ready to accept love, he's VERY good at this.  If you know the pit bull breed at all, they like to be touching you at all times!  They firmly believe they are lap dogs and will lean into you to get as close as possible to you.  They love love.  They are total love hogs!  I have never met a breed that loves getting love more than a pit bull type dog!  (except maybe the Boxer)  That said, Lewis is pretty closed off in any of his other 6 Chakras.  If you aren't familar with Chakras, they are the 7 points of energy that we all have.  You can google it if you want to learn more.  Most of his other Chakras are either completely closed or close to it.  This is a problem because it means he isn't accepting good energy in.  He is holding onto the old bad energy that happened to him in his past and this isn't allowing him to move through his issues, especially when it comes to trust.

So, Linda did her stuff, and I saw improvement the very next time we walked.  Lewis and I walked in a different neighborhood where he didn't know what to expect and neither did I.  He did great.  I told him to trust me, and he did.  He didn't scream at other dogs at any point on our walk.  Then we did it again the next day, same thing.  Next we walked with my husband and our other 2 dogs (the pack).  BAD!  Right back to where we started.  So, we had another session with Linda about 5 days later.  This time Lewis began trusting other dogs in his obedience class.  This was a first.  He went over to the German Shepard in our class and smelled her nicely, even tried to play.  Things were going good.  The next week in class he tried to play with a little dog that he trusts.  He was doing great when it was just him and I. 
Then we walked as a pack...HORRIBLE!!!  My husband recored the nightmare on his cell phone and I sent it to Linda.  We have another session this Thursday.  This time we will go out on a pack walk so she can work with him in the real world.  I can't wait!!!!!

When it's all said and done, I ask myself if it's all worth it.  I mean, really, this dog just can't seem to handle being out in public with his own pack.  He truly gets sensory overload and can't handle it.  It's very sad for me to watch.  I have been told he will never change, I should put him down.  But then I look into his very loving face and feel soooooo very bad for him.  I don't let that rule my allowance for him, though.  By that I mean, it's not an excuse to allow this behavior, he has to own this and move past it.  I can't let it control who he is and allow him to behave like this.  I feel more that he is trapped in his mind and can't navigate around in it.  Almost like he has a learning disability.  He can't help it, he just IS this way.  I see how silly he is at home and how much he loves to play, and be a normal dog; and I KNOW he's worth it!  He is so full of love for his family, and he trusts us with all of his being.  I just have to continue to teach him to trust me enough to allow him to succeed in the world.