Our Foster Dogs-Daisy
Back to Our Foster DogsFor more information on Daisy contact Meredith.
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Daisy continues
to be a good girl. She is doing great
with her house training. I don’t know the
last time she had an accident (at least 2-3 weeks!).
Daisy has been playing more with toys.
She still will not play with her toys and other
people, but it is very cute to hear her tags jingle, look
over, and see her playing or chewing on something. Daisy
does like to chew and chews appropriate items such as bones,
hooves, antlers, etc.
Now that she is
all healed from her spay and
tooth
extraction she is more relaxed. Daisy still can stress and take time to adjust, but she is
doing much better. When she sees people
she has met before she now is showing that she is happy to
see them, wags her tail, smiles, and lightly jumps on them.
When she does this she is so very gentle and you
almost do not feel her front paws on you. Daisy continues to do well with other dogs; she has not
shown any problems. With some dogs she
prefers a bit more personal space. With one
Daisy has had another opportunity to play with sheep and does very well and has nice balance. There are many things Daisy likes in life, but her top five favorites, in no particular order, are:
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Daisy has recovered from her tooth extraction and spay well. She also takes her antibiotics like a champ. She will take pills if you put them in a tasty treat (cheese, sausage, etc), eat it if you put it in with her food and also has no problems with me opening her mouth, dropping the pill in the back of her throat and her swallowing them. Daisy walks nicely on leash and has been good with meeting other people and dogs. Little Miss Daisy continues to like her crate. She will hang out with people and when she thinks it’s time to take a nap or bed time will go to her crate. When she’s not enjoying a walk, laying in the grass, or taking a nap Daisy has a list of other things she has decided she really likes. Miss Daisy loves to look at you with her large brown eyes and if that doesn’t work to get her attention she will then push her nose under your hand to try to get you to pet her. She likes chewing on bones. Daisy is interested in sheep and hopes she can have another chance to play with them. She especially likes to play with the hose. Daisy likes to pretend she’s a magician and with the power of her good Border Collie stare wills the water to come out. When it does she bites at and plays with the water.
Daisy is handling stress and new situations better now
that she is healing and feeling better. She meets new people well, but takes a
bit to bond with her people. A quote from the movie
Driving Miss Daisy reminds me of this lovely Daisy the Border Collie.
In the movie it took Miss Daisy some time to warm up to her driver, but once she did… Daisy: Hoke? Hoke: Yes'm? Daisy: You're my best friend. Hoke: No, go on Miss Daisy. Daisy: No, really, you are... [takes Hoke's hand] You are. Little Miss Daisy the Border Collie will bond and be her person’s best friend and companion by their side once she is given a chance to trust and bond with them. |
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August 11, 2010
 My my, this little girl has been through a lot in the past week. Late last week, we took Daisy in for her spay. While the surgery seemed to go okay, she did not want to be bothered afterwards. They also noted to us that she had a bad tooth that was infected and needed to be pulled.This was likely causing her additional pain, so again she was back at the vet a few days later for a second operation in a weeks time.We were toldthat small wound on the outside of her snout that was not healingvery well was likely a cause of the infected tooth inside her mouth. Keeping in mind that Daisy just had two surgeries in the past week, weare letting herrecover and heal. She is in good spirits and happyto be at a home again vs. the vet, that is for sure!
In the days preceding her surgeries, we did
start to see more oftrueDaisy coming out
of her shell.Although she looked a little
confused/uneasy whenour dog and
theneighborbeagle started playing
together,she soon found out that she wanted
in on some of the action.At first, she let
outa cautious but quiet growl at them, but
then the tail started to wag and all three
of them were taking turns playing. We kept
the session brief though, butlater on,
sheshowed us that she was perfectly
comfortable with "startingsomething" with
our Rica. To us, thisexhibited good
progress, because Daisy was learning what
its like toenjoy life and have funbeing a
dog.
Although Daisy still has accidents indoors,
she is getting better. She doesn't always
give a clear signal of when she needs to go
outside. We have a pretty good schedule
down, but one thing we noticed is that she
doesn't want to take care of all her
business at the same time. She would rather
go once, then an hour later. Many times
this will occur after we have been gone for
a few hours. Part of her not wanting to
take care of all her business is just that
she wants herattention first, but we make
sure to hold out on the additional pets
until her "job" is done.
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August
1, 2010 Daisy sure does crave attention. She just wants to be loved and pet all day long. Daisy has done significantly well over the two weeks that we have had her. She has started to come out of her “safety” spots and visit with the humans in the house on a regular basis. One thing we learned about Daisy is she is really good with little kids. Our neighbor’s one year old little girl has been over on several occasions and Daisy just comes up to her, kisses her face, and tries to sit next to her. Even when the little girl is learning what “gentle” means Daisy is patient enough and more than willing to be the example. When Daisy first arrived into foster care she was not impressed with toys. Over the weeks Daisy has found the toy basket and has enjoyed throwing the toys around the house, de-stuffing the toys, and even conquering the Kong. Daisy seems to prefer playing with her toys alone. If our BC Rica has a toy that Daisy wants she sits in the shadows with her best manners until Rica is done and will quickly sneak in to get the toy. Typically if we walk up to Daisy when she is playing she will just drop the toy and beg for attention. We haven’t had the opportunity to determine if she knows the rules of “Drop it yet”, but will be working on that this week.  Daisy continues to like her
crate and we truly believe she thinks of it has her
home. We leave the door open to the crate during the
day and she will enter and exit on her own free
will. At night and while we are away from home,
Daisy spends the time in her crate sleeping,
relaxing or working on a stuffed Kong toy.
When Daisy
feels the need to relax or get away she either goes
into her crate or into our bathroom.
Speaking of bathroom, although Daisy seems to be pretty well house trained she still has accidents in the house. We take Daisy out several times a day to go to the bathroom outside, which she does, however a short time after we are back inside she is going to the bathroom in the house. This has been the top priority of training for us and Daisy. Daisy thrives off of praise so we make sure to get ultra excited when she goes to the bathroom outside, then praise with a treat for reinforcement. We are hoping with this training and overtime that this will help Daisy know to go to the bathroom only outside. Daisy is still learning how to walk on a leash but has improved over the week. She needs to build up her endurance for longer walks, since after 1 mile she is ready to retire. She hasn’t seemed to mind other walkers or dogs while we are out. We have worked on recall with Daisy over the week and she seems to be improving. She really enjoys praise, love, and attention so we make sure to treat her with that before giving her food praise. Daisy has a lot of potential but there is still work to be done. |
 July
26, 2010Meet Daisy! She is new to foster care this week. She came into rescue as a stray from a full shelter in Missouri where her time was up. She was very unsure of everything around her when we brought her to our home and terrified of walking up one step into our home for the first time. She thought that she would be better off tucking herself into a corner of our garage on a 90+ degree day. Eventually we convinced her that it was okay to come in the A/C and rest up after her long day. After her rest, we brushed out her matted coat and embedded dirt clumps. She has a small cut on her snout, and looked like she might have rubbed up against paint at one point. Despite this, she was calm/patient, with us as we worked though cleaning up her coat. We ended up waiting until the following day to bathe her, as there was no need to stress her out any more.  The first several days, Daisy only wanted to come out from her key safety spots for some head rubs (she can be very affectionate and begs softly for attention). The second we stopped petting her, she would retreat back to her spots, either alongside our bed or under our L-shaped computer desk in the den. Fortunately, she also likes her crate and seeks comfort there on her own now when we are sleeping, gone, or just wants to relax. She rarely barks and has only had a couple accidents, both which were on our way outside. Over the past couple days, she has started to get courage and venture around the house on her own. She has met our Siamese cat and met our resident dog, although hasn’t showed any interest in play yet. We witnessed a small victory when she picked up a tennis ball first time and started playing with a Kong toy filled with different treats. She has gone through quite the culture shock and is showing slow but steady progress in adjusting to life inside a home. As such, we have not tried to push too much on her yet. Daisy has done well on walks with us around our neighborhood, but clearly has not spent much time on a leash before. Sometimes she drops behind, pulls, or zigzags on walks. I’ve tried to jog with her, but only been able to get participation from her briefly so far. We have met a couple other dogs on walks and she has been good with introductions. We also spent some time out in an open field with six other BC’s. Although the other dogs were enjoying splashing in water and running, she stayed pretty mellow and independent of them. Of  course, all of this was new to her; people,
dogs, being on a leash, and the area.
She has shown that it takes a while for her
to open up to all the newness around her, but shows
us a little more of her personality with each
passing day. One thing we learned about Daisy this week is that she is frightened by storms. We had huge storms roll though the Milwaukee area and Daisy was not a fan. Inside the house, she just wanted to curl up into a ball and be left alone. But when there was a break in the storms, we tried multiple times to go outside, only to have her drag us back to the garage/house. The lightning flashes were in the distance and thunder was gone. It is something that her forever home will have to be sensitive to when bad weather is approaching. Daisy is a sweet dog who has a lot of love to share and once she gains courage, shows that she is eager to please. She needs a forever home that will be willing to take her to training classes and consistently work with her to build and develop confidence. It appears to us that she has been on her own for a while, but if it were her choice, she would have rather been with people. If you think Daisy could be the dog for you or have specific questions about her, please let her foster home know. |
September
2, 2010
of her foster
sisters she will try to control space, but they work it out
without any problems or altercations with her other foster
sister she will try to initiate some play. With her foster brother and other dogs she is fine
co-existing. Daisy has gone to meet other
people at their home and did well in the new setting.
She also has now earned the right to go to a training
facility where she quietly watches some other dogs have
class. She has been fine with the dogs, people, etc going by
her while crated or out on leash.
August 21, 2010