Hello from Kitsap, WA

[Alohaparenting]

Hi! I am happy to find this resource. I am Kelly, I have three young children 5,3, and baby, as well as three dogs. Crickett is my 16 year old pom, she is a rescue that is living her golden years with us as a perminant foster, Crickett has been with us for two years now, and personally I think she has lots of great years ahead of her. When Crickett came to us she had a lot of small dog nerotic behaviors, spinning, barking etc- but we helped her find her center, and she is just too wonderful, she is a gift to me and the kids everyday. She has taught my children so much about how real relationships work, she came to use riddled with tumors and absessed teeth, and was in a great deal of pain for years, so she learned squal in anticipation of pain(getting picked up) . Crickett has learned that we are trustworthy folk, and she has taught my girls what it means to earn the trust of a healing senior gal.
Vanity is our gal. We had lost our Jake to blastomicosis in the quaranteen in Hawaii, we were heartbroken obviously, and a volunteer obligation brought us to the shelter to work, Vanity was in kennel #1( last chance spot for dogs) and while we knew she was everything Jake was not, she was and is everyday a gift to our family. While Jake was our high drive, intense agility/flyball/superdog Vanity does not seem to have a drive at all, I ran every test I could think of thinking there was something wrong with her matabolism that she just had not click, I finally saw in her eyes one day while I was asking her to do some tricks that while she would becuase she loved me, she was shutting down and not enjoying it like the high intensity dogs I was used to seeing in rescue and used to working in the training clubs. She was my first soft dog. I finally found a job that she enjoyed- carting, she loved to cart the kids around, and she was great at it. Now Vanity is apx 8 years old, and really enjoys her soft bed. Vanity is the model of the mama dog with my children, we got her when I was expecting my first, and now she has helped me raise all three. We could not ask for a more wonderful dog, Vanity is a boxer, ridgeback, pitbull kind of mix, a very common mix found in the pounds in Hawaii, one of the common pig hound mixes for boar hunting, I am happy she flunked out of pig hunting and found her way to our family.
Sajak is our newest pound puppy. He is from a pound in Michigan, a typical back yard breeder story in that area of the country, their springer spaniel has puppies with some stray and the owner keeps all 16 puppies in the barn or garage or basement or whatever till they are too big and then dumps them at the pound. So, Sajak has a lot of big litter issues, since he was with them for six months without any outside environment - but he is just a clever little guy who wants to love and be loved. I started the google search for working soft dogs, as he seems to have that same shut down that Vanity had when we first got her, the flooding with the pressure of what I thought was fun and exciting training, but just overwhelms him and he just checks out. I have been training dogs with positive reinforment and respectful communication for years, but really think this guy will shine if I can get some self confidence in him, and enforce our bond. With Vanity I learned the importance of loving her for who she was, not what I wanted her to be, and encouraging her to blossom how she was comfortable blossoming, slow and easy, no pressure and we found our way, she is model family member and sincerely adores us for who we are, not who she thinks we should be, she is a good teacher for me. Anyway-- Vanity and I figured this out the long way, I am excited to discover this resource with Sajak (and the other girls)
Sajak has his grocery list, and I have my grocery list of things we need to work through as we are establishing our bond.
We also are all ruled by Father Flanagan our rescue cat from the airfields in Hawaii.

[neilsattin]

Just hoping that you're finding what you need here. Aloha!