Happy Gotcha Day, Luna!

Happy Gotta Day to both you and Luna.  What a beautiful picture of Luna.  Enjoy each other

Awwwwwwwwwww…HAPPY HAPPY Gotcha Day Looney!!!  It is an honor to “know” you and share in your adventures.  I loved reading the old posts and seeing you keep those bros in line on the beach!  I hope you have a fun and cozy day filled with all of your favorite things.  BIG birthday kiss to you special girl, you are loved by us all!

Happy Gotcha Day, Luna!  A very special occasion for you and your lucky family!  I wish you lots of treats, hugs, and fun!

Have a very wonderful Gotcha day Luna   Hope your mama can come up with something as wild and yummy as the year you and your brothers got to go to town on the bone shaped cake topped with yogurt frosting!!!  Abby sure had a blast at her party last weekend, and the word is, so did her guests, who all slept good and hard the day after from all the partying that went on!  Hope to hear that you have a similar day baby girl! 

p.s.  Please copy and paste the following link and go to vote for my friend Kiley’s pug Amos in a competition to be featured on a New Mexico Lottery ticket with a dog theme.  Amos is adorable, Abby is quite smitten by him, and he needs all the votes he can get, one per day per person/per computer, so the contest runs through Feb 4th, so please help Amos get up there in the votes <3 Thanks from pug mama, Abby, Kiley, and of course, AMOS!!!  here is the link:  http://contest.kob.com/engine/Details.aspx?p=V&c=24573&s=6445900&i=1#SD

Happy gotcha day Heather said it all I really loved looking and reading the old posts I hope you get something special for your gotcha day have a great weekend everyone and stay warm

pugmama ~ I just went and voted for your friend’s pug. We’re keeping fingers and paws crossed for her!!!

they all are so worth the wait as i would go the distance for them you all are lucky to have each other as we are lucky to share your lives here obp’s,thank you for making thisa bit of home we love luna.

This is not meant t rain on our precious little Looney, however I have stumbled upon a problem with Gracie that needs some attention now. 

What I have surmised from Gracie’s terror flight is that something unconscionable happened to her during her first three years.  I don’t know what the best thing is to help her.

Today I bought a cane with four prongs at the end (so it will just stand up all the time) and brought it in.  Gracie, who had just gotten into my lap, flew off when I picked up the cane to remove the stickers and then high tailed it to behind an overstuffed chair.  I was so amazed at her actions that I didn’t know what to do but it quickly hit me that she is terrified at the cane.  This, to me, speaks of abuse and angers me unspeakably.  It breaks my heart to think of it and now I’m not quite sure how to help her get sensitized to it and work through her fear.  Georgie didn’t seem bothered by the cane so either his male hormones negate any fear or he wasn’t threatened (please not hit) by it.  What kind of people are loose in this world?  I already knew that Georgie and Gracie were used only for breeding purposes and assumed they didn’t get much positive attention if any at all, but I hadn’t thought of whatever caused Gracie’s terror.

Any one have any good thoughts on what can be done to help Gracie?

Pug hugs,
Huckle &
the Swamp Pugs

Huckle, my first action, if you really like and trust your vet, is to ask him/her.  While they are expensive maybe a session or two with a therapist can put you on the right track, or maybe a trainer can help or give you some suggestions.  I know you are devastated at this reaction, and if you need a cane, as I sometimes do, it is essential she not become frightened everytime she sees it in motion.  Poor little Gracie.  Please give her an extra tender cuddle from me.  Sue VDB

When Sue VDB spoke of hiring a trainer, or therapist, I instantly thought of one of my college zoology professors, Dr. Patricia McConnell.  She wrote a short paperback book called “The Cautious Canine”, which she sells off her website for $6.95.  The blurb about the book says this: 

So many behavioral problems in dogs result from fear, but fear-based problems can become worse if treated incorrectly. This booklet provides a step-by-step dog training program of desensitizing and counter classical conditioning. It can help you solve minor dog problems and prevent serious ones, whether your dog’s fears include the vacuum cleaner, people with hats, or the stranger at the door. Covered are the oh-so-important details related to identifying exactly what triggers your dog, creating a step-by-step treatment plan, monitoring your progress, and why you need to treat the fear and not just your dog’s reaction to the fear. This book is on the “Top- Ten” of Dogwise’s Dog Training Book Catalog, and has helped thousands of dogs and their owners around the country.

It is also available at just the general amazon.com site.  I took my Abby through the puppy class, and beginning family dog training based around Patricia’s methods, and no doubt, have given me a well-rounded balanced dog.  My parents also took their Puli sheepdog to therapy with Dr. McConnell because of intense fear issues, so they have this book, and they did have a lot of success with a dog that was also a rescue that had been severely maltreated. 

Best wishes to Gracie, if you didn’t get it, I would highly highly recommend this book of Patricia’s, though she has many, many others she’s published, as well as maintains a very educational blog about the human animal bond.

Luna, Happy Official Gotcha Day.

Huckle, if you only use the cane to help you get out of the chair, have you thought of a chair riser?  If you don’t have a local independent living store in your area, go to goldviolin.com, and look at the chair riser there.  It is a little pricey, but it might also be a good solution for you and Gracie.  I wish these had been around when my husband needed one without having to purchase a whole chair was that was outlandishly priced, and not the best of fabric quality.

pug mama, Amos is in my browser bar, so I can see to vote for him everyday.  Good luck Amos.

i love these pictures! she is one lucky pug!!