Savvy's Foster Dogs: Rosie, Tippy, Ruthie, and Jett

Big changes around my house this week! 2 dogs gone, 2 dogs added. I've also started using the dog room more and more because the weather is finally nice!

The dog room. Last week I had used it a couple times during the day while I was at work. It wasn't particularly warm out, so I didn't open any windows. Yesterday I was headed down to the daycare for a couple hours, so I put the dogs in there, and decided to open the windows because it was supposed to be over 70 degrees. I quickly discovered that whoever designed that room was a fool...they put the screens on the inside of the window (meaning I had to remove them to open the window, then put them back in). As I was running a bit behind, I only had time to open one window, and then I also opened the window in the door so there cold be a little bit of air flow. I put a fan in the window, partly to help the air flow, partly to provide noise so they wouldn't bark the whole time, and partly to block the window because I had a slight fear they would break through the screen and escape. Well, I got home about 3 hours later to find that my window with fan was still in tact (yay!), but they had completely destroyed the screen in the door. I don't even know how they managed that.

This is how I discovered the screen door when I came home.

Needless to say, I switched all the windows in the room so that they open from the top now. So no chances of dogs breaking through screens to escape.

Last week I was at the daycare 3 times! Thursday I was in the area with Rosie for a vet appt, so I stopped by to pick up Ruthie. Before I left Lori gave me a ton of doggy clothes. So you will be seeing pictures over the next few weeks of dogs wearing various outfits I think.

Rosie in a t-shirt, Tippy checking it out, and Ruthie in a t-shirt of her own.

My little Rosie-bear did have an interested family last week. Unfortunately she was so shy when they came to visit that she wouldn't even go near them. Even with the lure of treats she was very hesitant. So even though I thought they were a wonderful family, Rosie was just not the pup for them. But this brings up an excellent point that I should make to anyone who is interested in Rosie in the future. On your initial meeting she will be extremely shy. She was like that when she first came to the daycare, and she was like that when she first came to my house. But look at her with me now! She's my cuddle bug! She follows me everywhere, she listens to me, she has even learned to sit on command! When I have guests, she is very shy around them at first. But given an hour or two, she warms up enough to at least sit near them, sometimes even on them! I know that seeing past that initial meeting when a dog won't even come to you is very difficult, and I don't fault anyone for being turned off by that, but just trust me when I say that Rosie is an exceptional dog and it will get better.

Tippy is quite the little ham lately. He's certainly not a puppy, but with all these young dogs I have now he acts like it. He plays and runs around with them like it's his job! He doesn't have any accidents in the house anymore, and he also hasn't been marking his territory. I don't want to say he's housebroken yet, because he doesn't let me know when he needs to go outside...my fault, considering I leave the door open so he can just go whenever he wants without letting me know. But him recognizing that he needs to go out rather than having accidents indoors is a huge accomplishment.

Ruthie might just be one of the best looking dogs I have ever fostered. She has such a rich brown color that I love. I might be biased because that's the same brown Hardy was when he was a pup. She's also quite the sweetheart. She was a little shy of me at first when I brought her home, but she very quickly warmed up to me, and now whenever I'm sitting or laying down she is right next to me with her head laying on me. As I mentioned yesterday, they said while she was at the daycare she was a nonstop barker. I think that may have made her a little hoarse. I'll be keeping my eye on her to see if her barking improves or if this is something that sticks around. Otherwise, she has such a fun personality. I have this little squeaky lizard that she just loves. She likes to toss that thing around all the time. She is also very good with the other dogs. She and Rosie play quite a bit, and this morning she was playing with Jett. She occasionally tries to get Hardy to play, but he is the biggest party pooper and won't give in.

Ruthie playing with her squeaky lizard:

Ruthie running around, playing:

Jett is just a ball of energy. I think he's the youngest pup I've ever fostered. He seriously just bounces around all the time. He's still getting used to the concept of sitting on couches, I don't know how many times he rolled off last night. But it was so funny. He would roll off, stand up, look around like he didn't know what just happened, then jump back up. 10 minutes later...same thing. He is adorable! Another thing that I think is because he's so young...he hasn't figured out how to lift his leg to pee, and he doesn't mark territory. Both are going to make the transition into living in a house very easy for me (no marking from him means no re-marking from Tippy and Hardy). He's not housebroken at all yet, but being so young I have no doubts that he'll learn quickly. He also follows Rosie around, which is really good, because she's a great potty mentor for him. Speaking of Rosie, doesn't he look like her little mini-me? There were a couple times last night that I had to do a double take because I thought I was talking to Rosie and it turned out to be Jett or the other way around. I did put Jett in a crate to sleep last night. Being a puppy who isn't housebroken, and who fell off a couch several times, I just didn't want to risk all the things that could happen leaving him loose. So at first I put him in a crate in the dog room. He was not happy with that at all. So I moved his crate into my bedroom, right next to the head of my bed so he could still see me. He whined for about 5 minutes, then laid down to sleep and was silent until I let him out this morning. That is very impressive. I see no problems getting him crate trained!