Jeri Wagner, Dog Behavioral Therapist & Master Trainer with Bark Busters Home Dog Training chronicles her dog foster experience in the hopes of inspiring and helping others on their dog foster journey. Read along to follow Jamie’s progress!
Jamie has been with us for one whole month! While her progression hasn’t been without up’s and down’s, I’m pleased to see some real positives alongside the challenges, especially considering where she started.
One noticeable area of improvement is her relationship with Craig. She continues to do well with him – she even jumped up into Craig’s chair before bedtime two nights in a row to say goodnight and gets pets, pressing her head against him and sniffing his face (and even giving him the tiniest of kisses)!
She is still hesitant to go up to Jason, however, unless he has a treat. He started giving her pieces of ice cubes to eat, which led to some humorous moments at first – Jamie would lick the ice and roll it around, but now she has them figured out. She periodically barks and growls at Jason and usually retreats, but she also charged at him twice this week. I am hoping this will improve over time.
Jamie is showing visible progress on walks and goes out the front door without hesitation. She even seems happy to go out front! This week, I took Jamie and Jason took Zoey. I gave her a lot of freedom on the leash so she can get used to being out front and in the neighborhood. She walks next to Jason with no issues, so maybe that will carry over to their indoor relationship. My next challenge is to see if I can get her out front without Zoey and work on her leash manners. She still is doing well on the leash in the back yard.
Jamie remains stressed around the house, so I am continuing with her four melatonin treats per day. She has put on a little weight (I can’t see her ribs!), however, so I decided to lower her food intake slightly to two-and-a-half cups per day – one cup with breakfast, ¼ cup in a Kong for lunch, one cup with dinner, and another ¼ cup in an interactive toy at 10pm. She is also sleeping through the night, even making it about seven hours a few nights this week.
I am continuing to work with Jamie on her sit, down, and stay commands without a treat. I am also working on getting her to not jump when she is so excited; for the most part, it’s now rare to catch her on the kitchen counters! For similar reasons, she is always leashed in the backyard, as I am not convinced she wouldn’t jump the fence to chase birds. On nice days I will have her on the enclosed deck with Zoey for some sunshine, but she is often distracted if I am in the house and wants to come in
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Going forward, I would like to be more hands-off with Jamie. I am still only letting her out when I am around; otherwise, she is crated for her mealtimes (or any time I can’t supervise her) and gated in another room if there is any human food around. This will be an ongoing project, but if Jamie’s first month is any indication, I am optimistic she will improve.
Read Our entire Foster Diary here!
