Treats Unleashed

After I wrote earlier today, we took the girls for another walk and it went well.  Then we had some hang out in the living room time all together.  Bailey and Delilah haven’t had off-leash time yet, the folks from MOGS recommended spending a week with them constantly on leashes and after a week allowing them to be around each other supervised with leashes on but dangling for short periods of time.

We took Nancy (from MOGS) advice and took another step toward socialization today too.  We visited our nearby Treats Unleashed store with both dogs to get the food Delilah had been eating at her foster home.  Turns out there aren’t many places that sell Fromm around here.  Also turns out that stuff is expensive.  The dogs did great for the whole experience!  I walked Bailey around the store (with a purpose) and had her practice various commands to earn part of the treats they gave us.  Delilah did not seem to be interested in her treat, so Bailey got 1.5 treats.  That may have been the moment Bailey decided having a sister may not be all that bad.  We told their stories (as much as we know of them) to the girls working and they were very understanding of Bailey needing space and they thought Delilah was super super sweet (because she is).  The girl we were talking to did make a comment that Bailey seemed like a good dog, even through the socialization, so that made me feel good after the confidence plummet of Delilah’s adoption.  They also gave us some great ideas about some other places we could take the dogs to help them assimilate into society, so we’ll be hitting those this week!

When we got home, we went for yet another walk.  It sounds like we’re walking a ton, but they’re all very short walks at this point.  Delilah seems pretty tired after them, but we want to establish our pack so we are going on walks when we can to help with that.  Bailey also got a walk alone because she’s used to a little more activity and I think it helps to calm her down.

All in all, I think it was a pretty successful day, apart from the neighbor dog, Murphy (Bailey’s bff) not seeming to get along with Delilah too well.  It takes time to adapt for everyone.  Bailey only growled at Delilah once-VERY early this morning and since then we’ve had some successful sniffs.  We give Bailey lots of love when she lets Delilah sniff her and praise her when she sniffs Delilah too.  We’re keeping them away from each others faces for now, MOGS said to wait for the nose to nose.  Another thing we’re doing is lots of scent transferring; petting D and letting B sniff our hand, taking the blankets they’ve been laying on and switching them…

 

Day’s totals:

Growls: 1

Walks: 3.5

# of “What happened to your dog?”: 2

Things we’ve learned about Delilah: She must have lived in a house with stone steps in the front, because she wants to go up every stone staircase we pass.  She has a similar fascination with dirty dishes in the dishwasher as Bailey.  She loves the smell of chicken.  She does not seem comfortable with us touching her front paw.

Things we’ve learned about Bailey: Turns out that having another dog may be good for reinforcing good behavior.  She’s never walked so well on a leash as she did when she and I walked this evening.

 

Another picture of Bailey waiting outside the door for Delilah to come out because I thought it was cute.