OK, it's time once again to check in with our puppies:
Still 3 puppies, sleeping in a pile. What seems to be the only difference since last week is that their coats have gotten a few shades darker. Hey, this is a whole new batch of puppies! Sweet...We'll continue to chart their ongoing progress next week.
Now onto our theme for this week, which is:
That's right, it's time to save Tillie! Not the famous Jersey boardwalk icon, but Tillie, the black lab retriever mix right here at the The San Francisco SPCA. Tillie is in our "dog-reactive" category, which means she goes bonkers at the sight, smell, or sound of any other member of her species. Just to qualify to walk a dog like her, we volunteers require additional specialized Dog-Reactive training. Today I called upon everything I learned in that training to keep Tillie on task during our walk. In fact, she's the only dog I walked today--we spent a significant amount of time on training her using a whole lot of repetition and basically fleeing in the opposite direction every time any dog came within range of Tillie's very acute senses of hearing and smell.
One thing her chart or her categorization may not tell you: Tillie's not a fighter. During one of our laps around the park, a medium-sized off-leash dog came sprinting up to us. I braced for impact. And then...there was peace in the streets. The two dogs sniffed each other, tails wagging, and that was that.
It's going to take a special someone to "save Tillie." You'll need a sense of humor to laugh at her dogged persistence in her dog-reactive behavior, but with equally dogged persistence on your part, you'll be able to have full confidence that she'll get so much better on her path to becoming her future human's best friend.
After working with Tillie, I had a thoroughly enjoyable in-room training session with Hank. He's a so-sweet 1-year old Boxer mix. At first, and only at first, Hank was jumping when I entered his room. He'd already had a walk, so we worked on getting him to change his jumpin' ways. Sometimes a dog will surprise you by how swiftly he can learn. Hank did just that--he stopped jumping right quick when I said "No!" and he transitioned into playing a nice game of sit, stay, come (repeat). He's very affectionate, which I personally think is great, but it also means that you'll need to give him lots o' attention and playtime. So if you bring home this great guy, eat your Wheaties in the morning so that you can keep up with him!
Tillie...AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION.
Hank...AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION.
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