A new member of the family

[pete02]

Thanks again everyone. :)

As it turns out my mother is highly allergic to him also. She had thought at first that she would be able to put up with him the first time she doggie sat for us but after watching him for a week she says she won't be able to anymore and I won't ask her to take allergy meds just so she can. So my brothers back on the road with his tractor trailer and we both decided that Rustys still a little too scared to go on the road in a big truck so I have to watch him this week which meant bringing him back to the city with me. :(

I'm pretty sure he thinks he might be going back to where he came from at this point because he's gone back to hiding in corners again. Its only for a few days and I'll get him back to the country as soon as I can and hopefully he will start to understand that we are not going to leave him ever. As far as everything else goes hes been really good. Hes been eating a lot and running around and barking at everything and all around just acting like a puppy. He still won't let us put the harness on him because I'm pretty sure he thinks that means hes going away so we're still working on getting him out of the house for a walk but one thing at a time. All of this is going to take time and your definitely right Laura, it will take quite some time before he trusts us completely but he is very intelligent so we'll just keep working on it. ;)

 

[pete02]

I thought about giving an update on Rusty because we have come a long way since the beginning.

We've come to the conclusion that the reason he was mistreated with his first owner was because he's a little nut! Of course that's no excuse for abusing a little puppy but obviously they didn't know how to train a dog and were probably expecting some docile little pup and instead ended up with an adorable monster. He shreds and chews on anything he can. Beds, sofas, chairs, stairs, moldings, wires (his favorite) and rugs. Oh, I almost forgot Dot Connectors, he hid all afternoon after getting one of those! At this point we have mostly barricaded anything we want to save. Thankfully we have old furniture and the house is old as well so it all kind of blends in. He listens very well and doesn't misbehave when we're home but as soon as we leave, the mask comes off and he turns into a little tazmanian devil! It's very hard to be angry at the little guy though because he has such a warm affectionate side to him and he probably just doesn't like to be left alone. He sleeps on my pillow with me and even though he puts his butt in my face most of the time he also has many times that are filled with kisses.

The house has definitely become his territory but he still doesn't like to leave it. He barks at everyone who comes close to the house and yet runs when they say "what a cute little puppy". He's still very untrusting of new faces but has been getting much better. I think as he feels more secure with us (my brother and I) he gets more daring with others which makes sense to me. He gets plenty of exercise since we have two long staircases for him to climb and he loves to jump all over things just like a cat. He only eats Paleofood and won't even look at commercialized foods anymore which is fine by me. Of course sometimes it can get expensive but he's only half a dog and doesn't eat that much anyway so I'm pretty sure we'll survive.

I'd like to say he plays well with others but when my brother came over with his two labs Rusty tried to mount them and the girls didn't take too kindly to that! They're fixed, he's not and what's funny is the one dog could eat him by mistake but he wasn't afraid of her at all. After a while I think he just wanted to play but the girls weren't interested. I have to get them all outside sometime and I think they'll be more willing to play with each other. Rusty is still an ongoing project but he's well worth it. Once we get him used to going out more and not so afraid of others he will be in good shape but I'm sure it's just gonna take more time. He's come a long way already imo. Below I just clipped a couple of pics, one of his walks and the other while we were watching a movie. I guess it didn't interest him!

 

[Gimpy]

We've come to the conclusion that the reason he was mistreated with his first owner was because he's a little nut!

I've had a brat dog too. She was a border collie/german shepherd mix. Quite a nutter. ;D

He shreds and chews on anything he can. Beds, sofas, chairs, stairs, moldings, wires (his favorite) and rugs. Oh, I almost forgot Dot Connectors, he hid all afternoon after getting one of those! At this point we have mostly barricaded anything we want to save. Thankfully we have old furniture and the house is old as well so it all kind of blends in. He listens very well and doesn't misbehave when we're home but as soon as we leave, the mask comes off and he turns into a little tazmanian devil!

Yeah, I'd have a hard time with the wire eating, as Hubby has the whole house wired with whatnot. When Dex was going through the chew phase we bought 'sacrificial slippers' for him, when it was clear slippers with faces on them were his favorite chew toys. :D What we did for Dancer (our brat) was make sure she had an old shirt that we wore for outside or cleaning work (picking up, no cleaning products.) Often we would find her sleeping on the shirt. Just having something with our scent on it helped her a lot. We did this for any rescue animal we have once its clear the bond is there...and it might even help your sheltie with his anxiety. I don't know much about that breed, though Dexter is also very sensitive. His chew phase didn't last very long.

Is there a reason he's not fixed? That can help a lot with temperament and chewing.

And he's adorable! Love the pics!