Walking Frankie’s Walk

We headed out to the AWLA Pit Crew training walk Sunday morning and had a blast! Frankie, like most of the dogs in the group, is working on his excitability around other dogs. He is not reactive, but if you get too close to another dog he will enthusiastically try to go say hi. . . yeah, not the politest. Honestly though I was expecting a little bit more of a show from him. He was a dream! You can tell that the shelter staff and volunteers have done a lot of work with him because he is attentive and will refocus his attention easily.

Frankie is a big dog, so it’s pretty imperative that he has at least decent leash manners. While a group walk isn’t the place to exactly teach new skills, I used it as an opportunity to reinforce Frankie for walking nicely. Any time he would orient himself towards me and therefore have a very loose leash, I marked the behavior and rewarded him. I wanted to make myself more fun than the distractions around him that cause him to pull. Between the helpful gear (front clip harness) and the rewards, he did great! You know you had a successful walk when your arms are NOT tired after walking a 75 pound dog for an hour.

Frankie and I enjoyed walking with the group and catching up with our good friends Kim (human) & Nicky (dog). Frankie and Nicky took an extra lap together after the group dispersed. Nicky liked Frankie initially until he used his all time worst pick up line on her (straight paw to the head) and she decided she’d rather play hard to get. Since he’s a gentleman he let her have her space and the two of them enjoyed getting to know each other from a distance. What a fun morning to wrap up our time together!

If you’re in the DC area and you’re interested in adopting Frankie, email me at peacelovefoster@gmail.com.

The Tough Truth About Frankie

When I shared Frankie’s handsome face on Friday, I described him as the dog he is at heart: goofy, adorable and loving. Sadly, there is a bit more to the story. Frankie has been in the shelter for six months. That is almost 20% of his entire life. Shelter life is obviously not the ideal situation for any animal, and it takes its toll on each pet in a different way.  For Frankie, it is not going well.

The staff at his shelter are doing everything they can to keep him happy, including play groups, enrichment activities, extra human time and more exercise. Something is just not clicking with him though. Here is a note written by his biggest fan on the behavior team at the shelter after some friends met him for the first time:

“When you saw Frankie, you probably couldn’t tell too much. Fridays are good for him, he gets a lot of walks and attention. But then the weekend comes and his routine is thrown off. By Monday morning, he is a wreck. It takes a staff member or volunteer at least 30 minutes of snuggle time just to get him to WANT to go on a walk. We take him outside, where he rolls in the grass, and zones out as we give him belly rubs and talk to him softly.

When Frankie is with people, his comfort and joy is palpable. As you saw, he will literally fall asleep in your lap. But without consistent human touch and affection over long periods of time, the stress of the kennels is slowly wearing him down. This is a dog who grew up in a neglect situation. He grew up without any human affection at all. Despite that, he has managed to remain at heart a social dog who enjoys the company of people. However, long periods without human contact cause him great emotional suffering and stress. Instead of shutting down, Frankie is beginning to show other concerning behaviors that show us his emotional breakdown. He will repeatedly jump at the door to his kennel, and has a difficult time settling on his own, even after the longest of walks. This may not seem concerning, but we have learned that these behaviors are the beginnings of stereotypy – repetitive behaviors caused by stress. If this level of stress goes on too long for a kenneled dog, long term effects occur as their brain chemistry will actually change.

Frankie used to relax quite well in his room after walks. Over time though, he is now just as antsy afterward as he is at the start. To help him, we begin and end walking sessions with relaxation time – body massages and belly rubs and snuggles. However, it is clear that Frankie is suffering. You can’t see it on the outside. Every Friday I go home and he is happy and relaxed. Come Monday morning he is transformed into a stressed out and anxious boy. Given some time, he comes around and bit by bit, he comes back to us. But he is in emotional pain here, and soon I fear it will be too late for him to turn back into the fun-loving, happy-go-lucky dog that he is.

I really am worried for him. The best life he has ever had is in the shelter. The people who love him most are here. And that’s okay, some dogs don’t even get that, many dogs really. But he deserves a home.”

Falling in love with Frankie is contagious. I realized that quickly and, just like the rest of the staff, became attached to him almost immediately. It probably has to do with the way he gravitates towards your lap as soon as you get on the floor, or maybe it’s the way his front paws awkwardly face away from each other beneath his big smile, only adding to his goofy demeanor, or maybe it’s his laid-back personality that is a breath of fresh air from the exuberant adolescent dogs you’re used to. Who knows. But Frankie is Frankie and he will make you fall in love with him.

It breaks my heart that I can’t long term foster him thanks to my upcoming move, because a house with no other dogs, a big yard and someone who wants to take him on hiking adventures is just what he needs (not saying anything about myself, just that my situation was ideal for dogs like him!).

The least I could do was give him a break from the shelter, so that is what I did. Saturday afternoon Frankie came home with me so I could take him to the pit crew group walk on Sunday morning. We jammed as much fun into our 16 hours together as possible, which I will tell you all about tomorrow!

If you or someone you know is interested in fostering or adopting Frankie, a big dog located in VA who would excel in an active, only-dog household, please email me at peacelovefoster@gmail.com! Spread the word about handsome Frankie!

Ask Me Anything Answers: Adoption Standards

This “Ask Me Anything” series is answering the questions and topics that you said you want to read about on the blog. As we move forward, please feel free to leave additional questions in the comments section of answer posts or regular posts. Today’s question has two parts, which I will be answering one after the other:

Do you think it’s better to rigorously screen all potential adopters in order to make sure that each pup is adopted into exactly the right home for him/her? Or is it more important to get as many dogs out of shelters and into homes as possible, even if a portion of them then end up getting returned?

This is a really great question.  If you ask the entire animal welfare community, the opinions on how much we should screen adopters would probably be pretty split. Some people think any home is better than the shelter, and some people think you must make the absolute perfect match for your animals, not lowering your standards one bit.

In this day and age, progressive shelters (note that I say shelters, not rescues – rescues are generally a little different than shelters) are moving more towards having open conversations with adopters, rather than a “prove to me why we should give you this dog” approach. I LOVE that. Lots of shelters are doing away with the traditional “home visit” and spending more time talking with adopters and getting a feel for if the animal is a right fit or not. Many people, especially who have been in this field for a long time, do not feel comfortable with letting go of home visits. They are worried we’ll be sending pets to hoarders or dog fighters (I’m sorry I just have to roll my eyes here, but that’s for a different post). But the truth is that we can’t control every single little detail of an animal’s new home. Furthermore, we have to put some trust in our adopters that they will do what is right to help make the transition smooth and give the animal the best life possible.

I know a lot of you are shaking your head thinking, “but all the animals I have seen returned because the adopter gave up!” I agree with you. I agree that there are adopters out there who are just duds and who do not want to try their hardest to make it work with the animal. But there’s a good chance that there was an opportunity to either uncover that or work through it during the pre-adoption “counseling” session. Humans tend to be pretty transparent, and if you have an honest conversation with someone it is likely that you’ll be able to get a sense if they are interested in a particular pet for the right reasons. There will also be situations where that would happen no matter how much screening you did or did not do. It’s just life.

To answer the individual question directly: I think there should be a balance. I have lots of experience in “choosing” homes for each of my fosters. Because they were my fosters and I know them very well, I was able to tell someone right off the bat if they could possibly be the right fit or not. I had to be very careful, however, that I was not being too picky. It’s tough to do when you love your animals so, so much and you want the best for them and you think you have the best picked out in your mind – but the truth is that life is not perfect and somewhere something has to give if you don’t want to keep your foster pets forever (I see you, foster failures ;-)). None of my adopters have looked “perfect” on paper, but there’s so much more to the big picture than that. Besides, now all of their new families absolutely are perfect for them. What if I hadn’t given them that chance?

What do you say to people outside the animal rescue community who complain that it’s too difficult or the requirements are too strict to adopt a dog, so they think it’s better just to buy instead?

I tell them I feel their pain! I think it totally sucks when shelters or rescue groups make adopters jump through flaming hoops. I agree that there should be standards and pets should not be adopted to just anyone, but I think we are doing ourselves a huge disservice when we make it easier to buy a dog than adopt one.  I sit here and preach about how people should look into breed-specific rescues, but then the rescue groups laugh in their face when they inquire about adopting because they do not meet the group’s “standards.” No, not all groups are like this. There are some really fabulous, flexible ones out there. But there are also some pretty rude, stuck up ones, which I think is a huge shame.

The bottom line is that I think it’s time we start putting a little more power in the hands of our adopters. Instead of trying to make it impossible for someone to adopt a dog, how about we pair them with a good match and then give them the resources to succeed! This is huge – I think we would have less returns if we made post-adoption help more readily available, including health advice, training resources and even just someone being available to walk them through the transition, should they need it.

Shelter workers are looking to put ourselves out of business. We are never going to do that though if we have the outlook that it is a privilege for people to adopt from us. Sending good matches out the door (note: “good” means the pair is safe for the community!) with resources should take priority over sending perfect matches out the door, in my opinion. It doesn’t take much to turn good into perfect before long anyway!

What’s Black and White and Speckled All Over?

Jayla!

She’s the one I told you about yesterday that I took to an adoption event (so, before you get all excited, no she is not my new foster). Mark says I’m just on a “falling in love” kick since I miss Johnnie. I say that Jayla is AWESOME and how can anyone not fall in love with her!? Let me tell you about her.

Dogs like Jayla are actually very refreshing to me (have I talked about this before? I feel like I’ve talked about this before… I’m sorry if I’ve talked about this before!). To be totally honest, it’s very easy when you’re working at a shelter to sort of have your eyes glaze over and stop seeing every dog individually, but rather as a whole group of animals who need help (Animal Farm Foundation addressed this in a very interesting blog post about the concept of psychic numbing). I don’t do it consciously, it just sort of happens… maybe it’s our mind’s way of sparing us a bit of the emotional torture that comes along with working in animal welfare. In any case, it’s not every day that I find a dog I really, truly fall for.

Jayla, like lots of the dogs in a shelter, gets lost in the crowd. At four-ish years old, in the sixteen seconds it takes for someone to walk past her kennel she is just another black and white dog with short fur and a big head. Even when I first took her out, she was distracted and investigating her new environment. Not that I blame her – new places are ohsointeresting when you basically live in a box – but it’s hard to bond with a dog like that. It was only after spending about thirty minutes with her did she start to warm up to me. And it turns out that she is a big sweetie!

Point #1 for Jayla: awesome passenger in the car. Any dog who sits nicely and even falls asleep on their first ride in the car is awesome in my book. Point #2 for Jayla: calm around other dogs. After dealing with a few “over eager” pups, boy was this a nice change! Point #3 for Jayla: she’s tolerant and up for anything. Being around her while she’s got a bully stick? No big. Hanging out with kiddos who want to run and squeal and pull on her tail? It’s nothing. Taking her to new sights and sounds? Easy peesy.

It seems pretty evident that Jayla’s wisdom and maturity comes from the fact that she’s past her teenage years (she’s about 4, remember). She’s over the partyin’ and would rather just hang out on your couch. Oh, and those belly spots? Feel free to give those a nice long rub while the both of you are enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? I tell ya, if I wasn’t moving in July this little girl would be in my house on my floor at my feet right now (whether foster dad liked it or not ;-)).

And yes, I stole her away for a bit after the adoption event and introduced her to my parents and my yard. They fell in love with her, and she fell in love with them (okay, maybe mostly the yard). Sometimes you just have to fall for one again to remember why you do it!

Looking for a laid back gal whose favorite thing to do is hang in your lap and make you smile? Email me at peacelovefoster@gmail.com.

Johnnie Cash UPDATE!

I know you all are anxious to hear about how Johnnie is doing in her now home. To put it simply, she’s doing absolutely fabulous! Here are bits and pieces from email updates I’ve been getting from her adopters (yes, they are awesome at keeping me updated!).

Day 1 – 3

“You were not kidding, she is a sleepy dog!  We bought her a dog bed and as soon as we brought it home she knew it was for her.  When we put it on the ground she grabbed it and started “nesting” almost immediately!

If anything she is an angel in the house.  Not too crazy at all, actually very calm.  Whenever she wants to play she grabs a toy out of the toy bin and starts playing with it.  Sometimes she’ll follow us around the condo and is always very interested about what we are doing in the kitchen!  We bought hotdogs, string cheese, plain yogurt and pumpkin to use.  We haven’t used the pumpkin yet.   Today I’m going to make pumpkin and yogurt ice treats to put in her Kong for later.”

Day 7

“We had a very good experience taking her over to the family house yesterday.  We walked her around the block, and then Stella and Max met us around the corner for a group walk.  It went very well and we ended up staying until 10:30!  There were a few moments were she got too excited, but we were able to correct it.  At the end of the night she was sleeping in my lap.  I love her cuddles.

Thank you so much for your continued help and advice.  Yes, it feels like the week has gone so well considering it’s been such a big transition for JC!!!  She is the most loving girl, and we are so ecstatic about her and her wagging butt.”

Day 14

We had quite the busy weekend with my family and JC!  We went to Shenandoah Saturday and took JC to Hazeltop and Rapidan Loop for nice day hike.  She did really well on the hike and we brought extra food and drink for her, too.  It rained a little on us and Johnnie gave us a classic Eeyore face, but as soon as the rain stopped her smile came back!  I attached a picture of us at Rapidan with her (and her stylish backpack!).  T and I decided to buy a year pass to Shenandoah!

Day 20

“Everything with JC is going really well!  Everyone falls in love with her where ever we go, and we keep finding more toys to give her.  We bought an “invincible” squeaky toy and she pretty much destroyed it in 10 or so minutes…

Here are some more pics to brighten your day!  My dad told me she is the most photogenic dog he has ever met!”

And with that, I will share with everyone the photos that literally made my day week month:

I know you’re thinking what I’m thinking right now: couldn’t be more perfect, right? I love her. I love them. I love their little family. I love the happiness. I love the LOVE.

A perfect way to kick off a three-day weekend! Happy almost Memorial Day!

Moving Forward

To say that Johnnie got adopted at just the right time would be an understatement. In the days and weeks following her leaving us, people would ask me, “How are you doing without her!?” The truth is that I barely had time to think about how sad I was. Of course I missed her, but life picked up to what felt like lightning speed and hasn’t stopped since. Johnnie Cash was a reminder of why I try not to foster during event season. While we all adored having her around, my understanding parents spent many evenings watching her for me while I was stuck at work for long hours. When she left it was a bittersweet relief to be able to be away from the house for days at a time (just call me ‘schlep’!!).

I know you’re all wondering what’s next. Well, I don’t have a good answer for you.  Things are changing for me right now, and in fact there is a lot about life that’s up in the air. I’m finally moving out this summer, but that means my ability to foster is probably going to be limited. It’s likely I’m moving into DC and I just have no idea what my life style will allow.

I’m also in the process of switching jobs. I accepted a part time position at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington in Virginia at the end of March and have been juggling both shelters (and commutes!) equally since then. I’m officially leaving the Montgomery County Humane Society at the end of June – a change that is bittersweet, exciting and scary – and will then continue with AWLA and other adventures, hence why I am moving into the city. It’s been an exhausting challenge but I’m thrilled to join the AWLA team and officially “cross the [Potomac] river” as they say here in the DMV!

In addition to all this, I’ve started working towards becoming a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT). I’ll tell you more about that as it progresses, but I’ve decided that I can no longer ignore how much I love learning about training and putting it into practice and watching the wheels turn in dogs’ brains as we work together. Johnnie got me so hooked on figuring out how to communicate with a bouncy dog. It’s going to take a long time – years, probably – but I’ve already kicked off my education. Not sure where it’ll take me but I am very excited about all I am going to learn.

Virgil Ocampo Photography

So forgive me that I am not running to the shelter to scoop up a new foster. I want to, believe me – but I am simply not as brave as Love and a Six-Foot Leash who picked up a foster dog right before they moved to Texas!  Because I can’t take a shelter dog home and I’m already falling in love with them right and left, I’ve thought up a few different ideas for helping them get adopted, which of course I will discuss on the blog in the coming weeks. My current crush is a pit bull/bull dog mix named Henny. I see Johnnie’s energy and happiness in her and just can’t get her out of my mind. So I will help her, just not through long term fostering.

It feels different declaring a “break” this time around than it did the last two times because I have so much on the horizon to look forward to and plan for. I’m at a completely different point in my life right now than I was after Baxter and even after Otis. It’s crazy to realize how much things have changed in just a year and a half. It’s also pretty nuts to think about the fact that you all have been with me literally every day during this journey! So we’ll keep moving forward and seeing where life takes us. Thanks for sticking around :)

Wordless [Wildlife] Wednesday

Okay, almost wordless. . . watch out for babies this spring! This adorable little guy was found and brought into the shelter after his mama and siblings were hit by a car. It’s not uncommon to find baby animals in the spring and early summer, but remember – just because they are alone doesn’t mean they need your help. Be sure to do your research before you go scooping up a little critter that might just be waiting for moms return! Luckily for this little guy we have local wildlife rehabbers that will nurse him back to health until he is big enough to released back into the wild.

All the Things We’ve Learned

To say that Johnnie has come a long way from the day she stepped foot paw out of the shelter would be an understatement. Johnnie Cash, once thought to be out of control and insanely energetic, turned out to be very bright, a quick learner and a model student. Together we learned how to communicate with each other. Training is not a one way street – I have to figure out how to tell her what I want just as much as I have to figure out what she is trying to tell me. I have loved every minute of growing and learning with this little girl.

Here are two videos of some of our accomplishments. This first one is a demonstration of how lovely she is to take outside. She learned in probably the first twenty four hours what it took to be allowed to head out the open door, which was sitting quietly. The last thing I want is a dog who drags me around, especially out the door before I’m ready! All we had to do was slowly open the door while she was sitting, and immediately close it (gently, so we didn’t squish her!) if she moved towards it. Heading out without a release = door closing! As she progressed with the polite sitting, we began to ask for eye contact. Now we are – as shown in the video – to the point where we can have the door wide open before she heads out.

You can’t tell in the video because the door frame is in the way, but she is holding perfect eye contact until I release her.  Also, notice that I do not need to use treats for this. The simple release through the door is the reward, but only after the use of negative punishment, meaning we took the open door away (negative) to decrease the behavior (punishment) of moving towards it without release. Dogs learn what works for them, and Johnnie quickly learned that sitting and making eye contact meant she would be able to head out into the world, and jumping towards the door meant it would close and the fun things on the other side would go away.

This next video is a short compilation of some of the tricks that Johnnie has learned. She demonstrates sit pretty, touch, sit, high five, down, paw and say bye.  These tricks are great for so many things, like distracting her if I need to keep her mind busy, helping to win over the public, or teaching new behaviors. Plus, they’re fun and learning them together was a great bonding experience. At one point you’ll notice I ask her to sit from a down, but then I realize she doesn’t know that (yes, “sit” from a down is an entirely different behavior than sitting from a standing position!), so we moved to another cue.

In the video you see how she does most of the tricks without treats. I gave her one at the beginning, but then she performed the rest without a reward. So many people, when they are introduced to reward-based training, get frustrated about how much we use treats or other rewards. “Will I have to be giving my dogs treats and using the clicker for their whole life!” they ask. The answer is: not necessarily. We use a high rate of reinforcement when we are teaching new behaviors, but once the dog has learned and practiced the behavior, we move to rewarding only every once in a while (there are real scientific words for these different techniques but I have not mastered those yet – check out your high school psych textbook for more info, ha!).

This ends up being a fun game for the dog because they know that “one of these times she’s going to give me a treat!” – it’s just a matter of when. Johnnie is a pro at “sit” now, so I don’t have to reward her every time she sits when I give her the cue. But, to make sure she continues to be a pro, I reward her every once in a while. Make sense? Unfortunately it works the other way too: if your dog is able to snatch something off the counter 1 out of the 10 times he tries, he will continue counter surfing because he’s waiting for just that *one time* he hits the jackpot. Also like begging. If you give your dog food from the dinner table every once in a while, they will likely continue to beg all the time in hopes that it’s one of those special occasions where they get a taste. Animals are smart little beings!

So, who made it through all the training talk? If so, congrats – you now have a heads up that Johnnie has a special announcement to make tomorrow. She promises it is one you won’t want to miss :-).

Slow and Steady Wins the Playdate

Well, as usual, your feedback on yesterday’s post about Johnnie’s feelings towards other dogs was really awesome. I hope anyone who is reading this and has a reactive dog – at whatever level – realizes your dog is not the only one, and in fact there are so, so many dog owners out there dealing with the same thing you are! Johnnie is really not that bad in terms of reactivity, but she has her struggles and it feels so great to hear everyone’s own stories.  Just last night I posed a question on our PLF Facebook page about taking Johnnie to the vet while we’re still working on ourselves, and so many of you responded with fantastic advice almost immediately!

At the end of yesterday’s post I mentioned that I finally scheduled a playdate for Johnnie. Often times a really good off-leash romp with another dog can alleviate some of the frustrations your dog is feeling around other pups. These should of course be well-supervised and held between dogs with similar play styles, and I always recommend reading up on dog behavior and appropriate play so you’re versed in recognizing behavior or body language that might be a red flag.

Many of you guessed correctly: our playdate was with Charlie! Charlie has stayed with us and therefore been featured on the blog twice, once as a Jasmine’s House foster dog and once as an adopted dog after his foster family foster failed! He’s a total doll. He was sick for a long time, but since I last saw him he has gained about ten pounds and his coat looks phenomenal. He looks like a different dog, really.

By the Sunday afternoon when we had the playdate, Johnnie had already succeeded in a few challenging situations with other dogs. Two that I mentioned yesterday - playing with the puppy and doing well during the adoption event – and then Sunday morning she met an off-leash dog while we were walking in the woods. I had noticed the dog with his person a couple hundred yards behind us, made note of them, and started to think about where we should go should they begin to follow us more closely. All of a sudden I heard a reactive-dog owners worst nightmare: “He’s friendlyyyyyyy!” I turned around to actually see a reactive-dog owners worst nightmare: an off-leash dog literally flying full speed towards us. Thank goodness Johnnie was just exuberantly wanting to play and did not care in the slightest that this dog just ambushed us. In fact, that dog was rather sassy towards her (probably because she’s an energetic puppy), but his growling did not bother her.  Anyone reading this who walks your dog off-leash, even in areas where you don’t think you’ll see many other dogs: please, PLEASE make sure your dog has a good recall! This could have ended so poorly. Thank goodness it did not!

After she passed the off-leash dog situation with flying colors, I felt very confident that her and Charlie would hit it off no problem. Cue my guard being let down – uh oh. Charlie arrived and I asked his mom to take him around back so the dogs could meet and move to the backyard. Unfortunately Rojo was in his yard as well (we live next to each other, remember), had seen Charlie, and was making a huge, vocal fuss over it. This set Johnnie off, and the initial greeting with Charlie was about as far from polite as you can get.

I’d like to pause here to talk about the one thing I want you to take away from this post: you can never, ever go too slow when introducing two dogs for the first time. It is so important to set both dogs up for success by making the intro as stress-free as possible. Face to face greetings are tough and unnatural to dogs, tight leashes increase stress and discomfort, and lots of changes and quick movements at once can be overwhelming. Keeping these factors in mind and aiming to make the meeting low key and relaxed will really help to increase the chances of the two dogs getting along.

So, despite the fact that Johnnie was basically telling Charlie to F off in a very not nice way and Rojo was in the background egging her on, Charlie’s mom and I remained calm. We immediately removed the dogs from the stressful situation and walked to the road, which was much quieter. We began walking them up the street parallel to each other. This was huge in letting both dogs get comfortable in each other’s presence without the pressure of actually meeting. I continually asked Johnnie to check in and rewarded her with treats when she did, so she was much more willing to move her focus from Charlie to me. By the top of the street we had them walking almost touching each other without much fuss. Because things were calmer and they were more used to each other, Johnnie initiated actual play instead of just telling Charlie off. The difference between her body language was clear – her body was loose and relaxed, she was play bowing, she was not vocalizing – and Charlie responded well. It was time to let them play.

We let them go in the backyard, leaving their leashes on initially in case we needed to pull them apart. It became clear pretty quickly though that the dogs were getting along beautifully. The play was pretty even between them with neither dog being too pushy towards the other. The play was also not getting either of them too worked up, which was what I was worried about. The tough thing about play between dogs is that it can go from really fun to really not fun in a matter of seconds.

Charlie and Johnnie are actually two fabulous playmates. They have a similar rough and rowdy play style. Neither of them mind getting a little dirt or beat up. They don’t get offended when the other takes it a step too far (that’s what the humans are there to watch out for though). We were so happy to let these two play for nearly an hour!

They both got so much energy out; it was really great. By the end of the session they were both able to just chill out in each other’s presence – a far cry from where they started. Because of the slow, patient introduction that lead to successful results, we can easily say Charlie is a pup we will add as a go-to friend for Johnnie. Thanks to Charlie and his mom for coming over and helping out with our learning experience – we had a blast!

To adopt Johnnie Cash & help her find friends to play with, check out her Adopt Me page.

Canoeing Conundrum? Canoeing Champion!

You probably guessed from our teaser yesterday that the exciting water sport little J Cash conquered was canoeing! We couldn’t resist the opportunity since our cabin came with a canoe and Johnnie seemed to be pretty much up for anything so far during the trip.

Not surprisingly, she was wary of the boat. Also not surprisingly, we turned to food to help change her mind about it. Nothing a little string cheese couldn’t fix, or so we thought.

While she would thoroughly investigate from the perimeter, we couldn’t get Johnnie to actually get IN the boat. We wanted her to get in on her own accord and then we’d carry the boat – with her in it – down to the water. Much less stressful than the alternative, which would have been basically just throwing her in there and saying “off we go!” whether she liked it or not. When she still wouldn’t budge with the string cheese bait, we went to the next option. Foster dad to the rescue!

Andddd we had victory! The next step was to actually get the boat IN the water with Johnnie also in it. She actually hopped out during this process, but because she’d already been in the canoe she was more willing to get in again when it was in the water. Here she is. . . in the boat during lift off!

Once I handed over her lead to foster dad, she settled in . . . sort of.

She decided that being in the boat was a little too scary and found the safest spot!

From the safety of foster dad’s lap, Johnnie finally did settle in a little better. She was eventually able to just sit back and navigate the boat while foster dad did the paddling. Look at this pair of seemingly seasoned canoers!

I know, I was totally freaking out when I was snapping these shots because of how adorable they were together. It was soon after this that Johnnie decided she’d had enough and attempted to hop out into the 10″ of water, so I helped catch the boat and bring them back to land. She was definitely happy to have her paws back on solid ground, but I’d guess she’d be up for the adventure again!

To adopt Johnnie Cash the boating dog, check out her Adopt Me page.