Off to Maryland we go!

It's been a while since I updated so I'll do a few tonight. Tuesday the 7th we went to Maryland! A dog from the shelter found a new home in Maryland, so we drove her there, she was a senior German Shepherd, who had Degenerative Myalopathy, so she couldn't walk very well anymore. So anyways Angeline was invited to go along.

Angie loves other dogs, and got to nap the whole way!

She was so thrilled to get in the car and see another dog! So after being excited and giving Freedom the German Shepherd lots of kisses, she laid down next to her for a long nap. When we first got to the house, she was a little nervous, we took her and Freedom in the large fenced yard together, and Maureen held Angeline, and I got Freedom used to the place, and the other dogs came out one by one, then Angie was let off the leash to run free in the yard.
Angie loved the yard, and that brown blur is a German Shepherd.

She did fantastic with Pat the adopter of Freedom, she was very well behaved, and ran through the yard exploring, there was one little spat between her and the younger shepherd of the house, but it wasn't a big deal, the shepherd nipped her on the rear when she ran by, she retaliated but after a little "No!" it was over.

We ate lunch, and she enjoyed some table scraps, then ran around a little more, then we left. She was such a good girl, and got to spend the day getting used to yet another new place! Good things for Angie

!

Going to Grandma's house!

I know this isn't in order, but Wednesday night Angie took a huge step and went to visit Grandma's house!!! I had to go home anyways to pick up paperwork for my new job, so Angie went along with Maureen and I!

So she loves the car, by the way, which is GREAT! Because she goes everywhere with us!


So we get to my mom's house and get her out of the car, and I am scrambling to find treats for my mom to give Angeline when she came out. But of course, my mom knows what she's doing, she already knew all about Angeline, and knew she was nervous and scared. So she comes out with this huge fat hot dog, which Angie took from her then jumped up on my mom and mom petted her and they got on great! This was good.



Angeline LOVES her Grandma!!


So we took her inside, after meeting my parent's beagle outside, that was fine, a little sniffing, then they went inside. We baby gated off the dining room, so she could only be in the living room and kitchen, so I let her drag the leash, while my mom fed her cheese, and just fed her tons of food, and she became friends with my mom. Then walked around exploring.

Waiting for Cheese, the beagle in the background.



Getting and loving the cheese!

We ate dinner, and she got up on the couch next to Maureen, and sat there happy, then got down, and got back up, and got down, stole the beagle's chewie, then got back up, and was content.




Loving the chewie she stole!



She's such a smiley dog!

Then my brother came home, not expecting a strange dog to be in the house, he didn't know Angeline either. So my mom told him to be careful, I told him she was scared. He sat down across the room, she jumped off the couch went right to him and let him pet her right away, he was rubbing her face, and petting her back and she sat there enjoying it!! I was so thrilled, and praising her big time!




She just loved my brother, Uncle Nathan!

Then it was time to go, and we took her for a walk, she met a goat, the goat seemed more shocked than Angeline did.

Then my dad got home, I wasn't sure how this would go, I tried to keep calm, I know the dogs can sense when you're nervous. My dad had a dog go after him once, and I wasn't sure how he'd be about her, and he's not a fan of Pit bulls, even though she's a mix, mostly boxer or something.

We walk up, I say Hi, and Angeline thought she'd say hi too, and jumped right up on him! And let him pet her! She was just fine after all!



Angie meeting Grandpa! Still shy and fearful, but no hair up, no growls, and not even any big scared googly eyes!!


After this great trip I was so thrilled!! She will be a success, I just know it. It will take a lot of time, and patience, but she will succeed, because I just know she will. That scared dog in a shelter, afraid of people, has been blossoming into a new dog, thanks to our constant work, and tons of thanks to my friends Missy and Dave, who took her in, with no real notice, and has made her extremely comfortable in their home, with their own canine crew of working dogs. Without this calm and routine atmosphere, she wouldn't be improving at all, because at the shelter, in the chaos she slowly crumbled...

But Angeline is getting there, and much faster than I expected!

And all of this work results in a beautiful, but very sleepy Angeline!



Angeline says a huge thank you to everyone that has helped her this far, and will continue to help her!!

I will try to update this daily!

Weight Pull Training

Since Cooper, Eli, and Scooby all love weight pulling so much, we think Angie will love it too, and we already have a harness that will fit her. It will be really good for her to have a job, and another thing to keep her mind working. So we took her for a few walks with the harness on, to get her used to the feeling, but she was already used to the backpack, so she got used to the harness right away.


Bad photo, but Angie doesn't mind the harness at all.

The next step was to get her used to noise behind the harness, and some weight or resistance on the harness, so we took a drag weight on a walk with us, and she used it on and off, and had no problems at all, just chugged through.



Another not so great photo, but she really did enjoy the weight pull practice!

Then we would stop her, Maureen would go up ahead of her about 10 or 15 feet and call Angie, and Angie would go right to her with no resistance. Which was great!! She seems to enjoy it already!

Backpacking, Bakeries, and Bringing Her Everywhere!

A new element of Angeline's life has been the addition of a back pack on her walks, she actually loves it! It's not loaded heavy or anything, it only has a can of food on each side, I feel it makes her feel like she has a job to do, it keeps her mind working too.



Angie on a beautiful hike up to the Appalachian trail. I just love this photo!



Going back down the mountain, she's so happy now!



A not so great photo of Angie and Maureen on a nice trail right along the Schuylkill River in Hamburg.




Enjoying the water. She's still a little afraid of it, but is getting better.





Angie found a little tiny toad today, it was so so so small, it was smaller than my thumbnail, but she found it, and wanted to EAT it!! But didn't.




Where we walk her is such a beautiful scenic trail, we went there today, it was gorgeous!!



Angie actually getting a little deeper in the water, she was spooked by it about a week ago, she got in and something moved, like a leaf, and made her afraid since then, but she is getting better.


Also, since she's moved, she's gone to Sasha's Canine Bakery, Dog.Com in Hazleton, and she went back to the vet today, I had to pick up her UKC paperwork today.

Big improvements since the first week!! At Sashas she met the owner and was very good to her, no hair up, not even a scared look!

Then at Dog.com, she let one of the workers crouch down and pet her, she needed a little reassurance from us, but then walked up to her and let her pet her all over! I was so proud!

Today on my trip back to Mountain Shadow to pick up my UKC papers we took her in with us, and she was great, despite the large amount of people in the waiting room, and the loud screaming poodly dog, that wouldn't stop screaming!

Two of the techs came over and were petting her, and she did great with them too! No hair up just a scared look, then let them pet her. I see PROGRESS!!

We also took little Angie for ice cream at Rita's the other night, she did really well, no issues what so ever, there were kids and people around, no hair up, or growling, just paying attention to us and her ice cream.



Enjoying her vanilla ice cream!



Angeline says, "Yummy!!!"

The more positive experiences she has with other people, the better she gets, and the more she understands that no one wants to hurt her, anymore...

Lots of work!!

So the very first thing we did after Angie got settled in at Missy's was to get her a vet appointment. So two days later, we got her an appointment, it went very well. I got the appointment with a vet I had taken shelter dogs to, and knew he would be good with her. She went in, and was nervous, I had called before I went, and told them she was very scared, and had to stay with me at all times, and could not be taken into the back for blood work or anything.

She was fine in the waiting room, just looked around at the dogs and people. Then we went in the actual room. The vet came in and she tried to hide between Maureen and I. The vet sat on the floor and took his time to get her to come to her, and offered her treats that I brought for her. He spent a good 15 minutes just talking to us, and petting her. Then got up slowly, to not scare her, and brought back the rabies shot, and the blood testing stuff. I held her head, and talked to her, he gave her the rabies shot, and she barely noticed, and barely noticed the pulling of blood for her heart worm test.

She is Lyme positive, which I expected most Hillside dogs are. But besides that, very healthy, and 60 lbs.


Since then, every single day we've been down with her, walking her different places, we've been on the Appalachian trail, and tons of other trails. We even brought the rest of the doggie family down to see her and she was so happy to see them, and they were thrilled to see her, kissing their faces, her tail did not stop moving, but Cooper was the happiest of all, he is in love with Angeline, the two of them play non stop, they were thrilled to see each other.




Angie on one of the many walks she's been on, looking around for bunnies to chase!



This was taken on the Schuylkill River Trail, that's the Port Clinton Train station behind her, she's sitting on a large rock. She's been so many places already!! She looks so happy!

The good thing about these trails is that they are used by tons of people, dogs, bikers, hikers, and just tons of people, kids, and wildlife, so she gets to see new things every single day she's on the trail!



A very very sleepy Angeline, she's been going miles a day! Since she's moved, she's lost 6 pounds from the walking, walking, and walking!! Plus the lack of the insane amount of hot dogs my manager gives to the dogs everyday. Her muscles are looking so defined you can tell she's getting good food and lots of exercise!

The beginning.

So Angeline is an approx. 2 year old female Boxer/Pit Bull, or Boxer/Bulldog Mix, I'm not quite sure. She's medium sized, she's in great shape, and is a real sweetie once she knows you. She's got a cute little docked tail, which I hate the docked tail look, but she is kind of cute with it.

Angeline was thrown out of a car last August, at the shelter I work at, a car drove down the road, threw two dogs out of it, and kept going. A shelter volunteer, and some workers caught the two dogs on the big road at the bottom of our road. This is just the start of the trauma for Angeline, she was already frightened from the abuse she must have encountered in her home before she was tossed to the road, literally.

Angie started off just fine at the shelter, a little timid, but had the other dog with her, so she was alright. She was in heat as well, so she spent some time in our side yard, on her own, until we got her spayed. I remember looking at her and saying, "You are such a sweet little girl" I had a funny feeling then, that she would be an important dog to me, but ignored it.


Angeline that day, when I first met her, and had that feeling... I was right.

She was running around like a lunatic!


She came in the building, reminder, at our shelter the dog friendly dogs all run together in our building, there's at least 40 dogs in there. So she was doing fine, but started getting scared, and would bark at two of the staff members. But that was all it was.

Angeline developed an intense fear of a few of the workers, one of them for good reason, but I will not elaborate. She was getting worse and worse over time. Angeline was suddenly in danger after biting a worker, after she fell on her. There were multiple incidents, all happened in complete fear of the people.

So Maureen and I were already attached to Angeline, so lucky for Angie, and us, a good friend of mine offered to keep her for us until we can take her home. So she moved in to her place, and is doing really well there, she is still timid of Missy, but loves Dave and doesn't mind the two boys or other dogs.


So this is where the new story begins, the new chapter in Angeline's life. Once she was out of the shelter it was time for the real work to begin, to erase her terrible past, of all of the abuse, and fear she'd endured, through a calm and routine home atmosphere, and tons of socialization, and training.