Pets - Penny
What does Penny look like?
Penny is an approximately one-year old black and tan puppy dog.
Her coloring is in the classic Rottweiler pattern, although her
resemblance to Rottweilers ends there. She looks much more like a
German Shepherd, especially in her face. Her fur is a sort of
medium-long length and quite soft right now (especially when compared to
Pablo's), but it's hard to say if it will stay this way, or if she
will become more fluffy as she grows. Her long tail (quite long,
particularly for a dog) has certainly gotten bushier since
she's been with us. The fur behind her very erect, but still
somehow soft and floppy ears is still like her puppy-fuzz. It will
probably change eventually, but right now it is very soft and downy.
The main downside here is that it is a terrible burr magnet. At her
last vet visit, Penny weighed in at 53.5 pounds, and she stands a few
inches shorter than Pablo at the shoulder.
Where did Penny come from?
Penny came to us from Smiley Dog Rescue, a dog rescue group based in Oakland. We met her and her foster mom at Cal State Hayward (oops, I mean East Bay), conveniently located 10 minutes from our house in the Hayward hills. There was a Flyball tournament going on, and, conveniently, she was there to watch, and was willing to bring along Penny (then called "Ophelia"). So, after walking her and Pablo around together for a bit, we made our decision. Penny came home with us right then, Sunday, August 14, 2005. She was about 5 months old at the time, so we guesstimate that her birthday is March 14, 2005.
But, this wasn't the first time that we had met Penny. We first
met her at the East Bay
SPCA Adoptathon on July 30, 2005. We had to rush from the Town & Country Dog
Training Club's Fun Match that was being held at Cal State East
Bay, where I had Pablo entered in Rally Advanced for a leg, and
Utility for practice, all the way to Oakland before she left for the
day. We made it, with about 15 minutes to spare (and finding
parking was a challenge in and of itself). Poor Penny was sick as
a dog - no, really, she was very, very ill. She just wanted to
sleep. She would walk a couple steps to the water dish, get a
drink, and then collapse right there, poor thing. She had come down
with a bad case of kennel cough, and it had given her a bad
respiratory infection. She was on the road to recovery, but she was
such a pitiful sight. We learned from the rescue people that this
little puppy had been picked up as a stray at about four months old
and was in the Contra Costa County
Animal Services shelter in Martinez, when they pulled her out.
The shelter people said she "had food issues", but how can you think
a little four-month old puppy has incurable food issues? The people
who fostered her said they never had a problem taking rawhides, pig
ears, and the like away from her.
We informed the rescue group that we would be out of town on vacation for the next week, and they said they usually didn't hold dogs (they worked on a first-come-first-served basis), but since she still had to finish recovering from her illness, and also get spayed, they thought it would work out ok, especially since it was just one week. At this point, they weren't sure who had filled out an adoption application for her (that first-come-first-served thing again), and said they would call my cell phone early the next week (while we were on vacation) when they figured it out.
I got the call on Monday, and after a bit of phone tag, I got in touch with the rescue person, who said we were first in line for Ophelia (that's what they were calling her), but we needed to have a home visit before she could come home with us. The home visit was subsequently scheduled for the following week, once we had gotten back from vacation. After a re-scheduling or two, we had the home visit, and passed without a problem, which just meant we had to arrange a time and place to meet Penny's foster mom and see if she and Pablo would be ok together, now that she was no longer sick, and if so, bring her home. After a few emails back and forth, we settled on the very convenient Flyball tournament at Cal State, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I had initially found Penny on Petfinder. I had been browsing
the listings for some time (at least since April, if not before),
looking for just the right pup or young dog to bring into our lives.
I was mainly looking for dogs one to two years old, but would take
a puppy, if the right one came along. When I saw the description
for an "Ophelia", it looked perfect! Plus, she was cute as a button
in her pictures. Here's what the description said:
"Ophelia is a 4 month old Shepherd mix puppy. She is very friendly and outgoing. Ophelia is good with other dogs and great with people. This girl is bright and eager to please. In fact she is so bright she needs to have someone who will work and train her. Ophelia is fluffy and one of the sweetest things on four legs! If you would like to meet Ophelia, please fill out an adoption application."
Just what I was looking for! A dog who wanted to be trained! So I filled out the adoption application right away, so that I could find out more about her. It was shortly after this that I found out about the Adoptathon and decided to make every effort to meet her. And it was a good thing, too, since she turned out to be such a great puppy.
What's Penny like at home?
Since we've never raised a puppy before, and most of what I've heard
about puppy antics has not been good (chewing everything in sight -
including people, having crazy amounts of insatiable energy, not
being able to "hold it" for very long, jumping up on people, etc,
etc), I was rather nervous about being able to adequately care for
a puppy. But, as it turned out Penny is a terrific puppy. She only
chews on her own toys (except for that minor infraction wherein she
chewed on her tether leash a couple times). It probably helps that
Pablo has already chewed on all the dog toys, so they already smell
doggie. Right from the start, Penny rarely even jumped up on
people, and now will only do so if really, really excited
("visitors! did someone say visitors!"). She had a few tinkle
accidents in the house, but quickly learned to ring the bell to go
out, and generally to hold it (much faster than I remember Pablo
learning). And the best part - she isn't a bottomless energy pit.
She sleeps most of the day, just like Pablo. And when she isn't
sleeping, she's happy to chew on a toy. Pablo has been a great help
by playing with her. It's a good way for them both to burn off some
of the morning zoomies.
After our, well, rather bad initial experience of introducing Pablo to the kitties, I was understandably quite nervous about bringing in another dog. Would they hide under the bed for another week? Would she also want to eat the kitties, as Pablo had initially? As it turned out, she basically ignored the kitties. This, and also probably some experience with our other doggie visitors, gave the kitties great confidence. So, even though Penny has matured a bit and now thinks that kitties might be great fun to play with (as she repeatedly play-bows at Cammy to try to engage her), Cammy will stand her ground and repeatedly swat Penny in the face (Penny thinks this is a grand game, for some strange reason). Kirby the cowardly will even not head for the hills at first sight of her. But he doesn't exactly stand his ground either. At least he feels comfortable enough to hang out in the same room as Penny, even sometimes chilling on my lap while she is right below him on the floor.
The one major negative about Penny, so far, is that she is quite
barky. She barks at anything she thinks is strange, including dogs
walking by the house, people in the park out back, any dogs we
encounter on a walk, some people we encounter on a walk, people on
the sidewalk outside the car window - you get the idea. At least
her volume control works pretty well, and even if she doesn't stop
barking, she just makes these quiet, under her breath kind of
"woof-woof"s. She just needs to learn that she doesn't have to take
it upon herself to watch out for every little thing that might be
different - that we'll take care of everything. That and learning
what is and is not strange would probably help greatly.
Penny was not so fond of the crate when we first brought her home. She was a little reluctant to go in for the night, and whined a bit the first few nights (even though she is right near the bed where we were sleeping, and Pablo was also sleeping nearby). Poor Pablo got nervous and left his bed whenever she would cough (she was still getting over her kennel cough, which was exacerbated by the anesthesia from the spay). We ignored her whining, and she came to accept that the crate is where she slept. Then she started chewing on her blanket in the morning, while we were getting ready, so she lost her blanket privileges for a good month or so. Going in the crate in the daytime was another story all together. She whined and barked when she went in, even though she was left with some treats. We continued to ignore her, and also upped the tastiness quotient of the treats (mmm, peanut butter hot dog surprise!). Now, after a little more experience, she runs into her crate when she sees the Buster Cube, yummy ball, or dinner ball. And it's very, very difficult to get her back out again (for instance, when she needs to go out and potty still). This is definitely a good thing!
Penny has been good about riding in the car right from the get-go.
She was initially a bit reluctant to jump in without bribery, but
she quickly learned to hop right in. Now that she has her (properly
fitting) seat belt, she is again reluctant to jump in without being
bribed. I think she just needs to get used to the feel of the
seat belt harness while she is jumping up, and she'll be hopping right
up in no time. (Coincidentally, having to always have food on hand
to bribe doggies with has made Pablo much more eager to jump up into
the car, which is a nice side effect.) Once in the car, she is fine,
unlike poor, fearful Pablo. I actually have to keep an eye on her to
make sure she isn't sticking her head out the window (traditional for
doggies to do this, but it can be quite dangerous - flying debris
could take out an eye!). So whenever I see her with any part of her
head out the window (even if it's just her little nose), I roll it up.
Once she lays back down, the window rolls down. She is definitely
learning that she can sniff all she wants, but when the head goes out,
the window goes up, and there goes all the fun. I have even left her
in the car alone for a while (with some tasty treats of course), and
she has not chewed up all the uphostery (or any of it, that I can tell).
Yay! Go-go non-destructo pup!
What does Penny know?
I started clicker
training Penny right from day one. Having learned from working
with Pablo, I started her off right away working for her breakfast
and dinner. She first had to learn that the click sound meant
food's-a-coming. Then we got to work learning some behaviors. I
started out with free-shaping Sit and Down. Once
those were mostly on cue, I moved to Back, which really got
Penny to understand how this whole thing worked. Then we worked on
Stand and Touch the target stick. Next we moved
on to Spin, which means "go in a clockwise circle". She
naturally goes in circles all the time, so she picked that one up
in about two training sessions. Now we are working on
Sit-Stay, and Penny is up to about 45 seconds now. Now
that she can hold a stay for a bit of time, we will start to work
on Come, which is a necessary part of the CGC test - our
first goal. Of course, Pablo knows a lot more stuff, but Penny is
certainly a quick study.
Penny has also been learning lots of general manners, like don't jump on people, wait before going in or out the door (this one has some safety ramifications - think dog bolting out front door), don't bark at every little thing (we're still working on that one), stay out of the kitchen, ask to go out (by ringing the bell) - don't potty on the carpet, don't go charging up the stairs (and knock everyone over on your way), relax if you're restrained and everyone leaves you alone for a few minutes (don't carry on whining and barking - your people will come back), and last, but certainly not least, no pulling on the leash! She's doing quite well with all of these, although she does forget herself at times. I chalk it up to her puppiness, at this point, and hope that some maturity will do her some good. So far, Penny has been here two months, and she is already doing quite well learning new things.
Finally, here is Penny's list of tricks. I'll add more as she learns them. Pictures will be coming soon!
Does Penny have any aliases?
Penny, as a fairly new member of our crew, doesn't have too many
nicknames, as of yet. For the first few days she was home, we just
called her "Puppy" while we tried to decide on a good name for her
(we knew that "Ophelia" was right out). We still call her Puppy,
and also Puppy-Duppy, Little Puppy, Crazy Puppy, Cutie, Little
Cutie, Cutie McWhiskers, Pupperoni, and Goofus Maximus. I'm sure,
like all the other fuzzies, she will acquire more nicknames as time
goes on.