Miss Mya

  It is hard to believe that Miss Mya has been part of my family for six months; sometimes I look at her and think are you really here or am I just dreaming?

  She has gained weight and her coat is so shining and smooth that I love to run my fingers through it. I have spoiled her, or at least that was the comment by the kennel owner who boarded Mya when I went to Arizona for work. But when you look at that pretty face it so hard not to spoil her and I promise each time to be a tad more firmer with her. I did have her spayed shortly after she came to live with me and she has her license (so she is all legal!)

  WE did attend obedience training though it was truly for me and not Mya (as I think she knows all the stuff and knows that I am such a softy that I cave most of the time when she does something wrong). After the training I have continued to bring Mya to camp for two days a week at K-( TEF Centre). She loves to play with all the other dogs and it would be so selfish of me to keep her in the house every day I am at work. On the weekends we have gone to various beaches though I have not taken her to the off leash parks because she tends to run off and will not come immediately when I call (cant blame her as she is having so much fun though I know I have to practice).

  Hope you are well and sometime in the summer maybe you could drop by for a visit,

  Rachel

  Mini

  Hi Leah!

  Well we have had our little one now for one month and what a month!

  She is one of the sweetest dogs and is settling so well. She and the cats have seem to come to a comfortable stage, although we still keep a close eye and let her have a private space when we are not at home.

  She has made us discover many hidden paths and hiking trails because the happiest Mini is a walked Mini! She is eating well and has started to wander away from us a little, taking a nap on a sofa or exploring through the house.

  I can see all the work you have put in to making Mini the wonderful little dog she is—Thank You!!

  Cathy and Doug

  Sarge

  Hello Leah,

  just wanted to send you an update on Sarge. He's such a joy to have. He recently got his "alteration" and is recovering well. He has quite a vocabulary of commands and listens extreamly well. He has the run of the yard and never takes off. He loves running for his frisbee, and in the winter he loved jumping in the air to catch the snow we were shoveling...he'd almost flip over backwards to catch it: it was quite something to watch. He also loves chasing our cats around and they love poking at him while he's pretending to sleep. He also loves digging in the sand at Martinique Beach, that and wave jumping. I will send you a photo of him through our regular email...he's quite to good looking guy. Thanks again for enabling us to have this great member of our family.

  Hope

  Dear Leah,

  I have been with my new family for a few months now and I am very happy with my new chance at a “Happy Puppies Life”. I still think of you and all of the help you gave me when I came to you, and especially of George as my big brother. I have been working on “my issues” and I have conquered the “car thing” and I love to go for drives in Dad’s truck and I absolutely love to go for rides and to the beach in “My Truck”.

  Here I am getting ready to go for my run on the beach and if Mom doesn’t hurry up I am going without her as my friends are already at the beach.

  After we get back from the beach I have several chores I have to do everyday, first I have to go get my neighbour “Rocky” and we have to chase all the crows “Bad Birds” out of the fields.

  My next job is to check on the Ducks and I usually go for a swim with them, boy they are fast.

  Next we go check on the Goldfish Pond to see if the fish are still there, I am not suppose to bother the fish.

  The temptation was too great so here I am on a “Time Out” for swimming in the Goldfish Pond.

  Finally its time to help Mom in the garden, you get to dig and dig and dig some more, mom gets mad but she hugs and kisses me anyway.

  Finally it’s quitting time and time for Big people treats and Doggie treats on the Dock and I have to be good with strangers to get my treats.

  That is my typical day in the country, eventually we all go indoors and I curl up on my bed by the fire in the Living room and Dream of my old friends and my next adventures.

  Love Always Hope

  Bear

  Hi Leah,

  It has been almost a year since we adopted Bear and I have just got with technology to download some photos of him. I thought you might be interested to know how he is doing. One photo is outdoors camping and the other is of him eating, with his ball close at hand. He also likes to lay down while eating his meals.

  You can see from the photos that Bear has flourished here with us . He now weighs about 70 pounds; he was around 50 or so pounds when we first brought him home. He loves to go outdoors, but when we first brought him home we had to go out with him in the yard and play with him and his ball. And his balls are his best friend. He takes it everywhere. He gets along great with our children and their friends, although he did nip at the friends for a little while.

  We did almost lose him twice. The first time was when he jumped the fence in our backyard (which is about 4 feet high) into woods. I think he went after a rabbit or squirrel. Fortunately a little while later I found him. The second time was last summer while we were camping. He was on his leash and we came back from a morning walk. There happened to be a rabbit at our campsite and Bear decided to take off after it, leash still attached. We thought for sure he was gone but because of the leash he got caught up in the bushes and then was whining to be found. So we do make sure to keep close eye and hold on him now when we are camping, particularly if there are other animals around.

  Bear appears to have adpated well with us. Thanks for your help.

  Susan and Kirk Zinck

  Chasta

  Hi Leah,

  Chasta is doing very well here in her new home. Bailey and her have their moments but no different than human siblings. There are protective over each other and miss each other deeply when apart from each other. Her fur is nice and soft and she is even getting the swag on her tail, now that she is on a good quality food. She gets very excited on Fridays as she knows that is the day mommy makes salmon for her and Bailey. Funniest thing I ever saw, she picks out her veggies and spits on the floor and then Bailey comes over and cleans them up. For a while it was very hard to sit in the living room together. Stinky girl not very lady like, but now she is great she loves her yogurt for breakfast. Our little princess is now socialized with all dogs little or big however cats mmmmm she still thinks they are lunch. We cant imagine our lives without her.

  Thanks Leah

  Ryder

  Hi Leah,

  I finally have some pictures of Ryder for you. He is so handsome. Dwaine went to Dallas last week, and while he was there he brought something home for Ryder. Dwaine said when he went to put it on him he just sat there and stuck each arm out one at a time. It's just too funny :)

  Karen :)

  Lucy

  Hi Leah!

  Darlene and I just finished 8 weeks of obedient classes with Lucy and the person (Wade) was great. This is the 1st time he has trained a blind dog but he has done dogs that were deaf or had only one eye.

  Wade thought it would be best to have Lucy in the intermediate class with other dogs that way it would not be as noisy. We can get her to sit and lie down for minutes at a time now. She even sits for her food and we do not even ask her too (lol). Wade’s wife does dog agility and we are thinking about taking Lucy there for the social skills and for her to have fun. I am inc. some pic. of Lucy in action on the A-frame and Jumping through (more like walking though) the hoops.

  If you are planning any fundraising events please let us know. Also have you faxed the info on Lucy shots to the vet yet?

  Craig Dar and Lucy

  Mr. Bones

  Hello Paula and Leah,

  Before I get started just want to thank you for the wonderful dog!! I’ve been working quite a bit on training and wanted to give an update on that. He’s very smart and has been learning rather quickly.

  When I got back to PEI, I let bones run free for most of the day. I started by doing a few rounds around the property just so he would know his borders, correcting him when he would. This is where he started to learn his name and responds immediately when I call him. I just call him Bones now.

  I worked on his jumping and nibbling as well, correcting him whenever he would do so. He has made outstanding progress. He now greets me on all four paws (the real test will be when he sees new people). His nibbling is almost where I want it to be. The first few days he really left some good marks however by Monday he realized this is no longer acceptable. He’ll still chew on my gloves from time to time as I am walking by but it is more of a attention nibble and less of a destructive one.

  I'm working on his leash training for when he is not out here. He pulled very hard at first so I’m working on getting him to walk loose lease. Just like the bad habits he is learning very quickly. I started by holding him back with one arm and keeping a treat on my side, allowing him to nibble on it as he walked by my side. This seemed to work quite well. Also, I spent pretty much the whole day yesterday moving around dirt in the garden. He would follow me from one shovel to the next and this is where I found he made his best progress. He was getting tired but would still keep following me and started to realize I am suppose to lead. Ever since then on the leash he pulls a lot less, at this point he’ll pull and then basically come back to me, then repeat. Hopefully by Saturday he will be there!

  He’s given me quite a few laughs:

• He has this little dance now whenever I see him for the first time in the morning. He pounds his big paws on the ground.
• He's started to play in the water a little bit and enjoys running the shoreline. He'll never go past his belly and its too cold for me to go in the water. This normally.
• For a big dog, he can sure get in a little ball when he's sleeping. Sometimes he falls asleep nibbling on his back foot, its the oddest thing!

  Chloe

  Hi Leah,

  Cholie is doing great!!! I had her spayed 3 weeks ago...she got along really well. She has lots of energy....she loves to run and jump and play fetch.....and LOVES the water...I try to take her for a swim every nice day we have. I was wandering how big her brothers and sisters are....Cholie is still really little....she only weighs 17lbs but the vet says that she is very healthy. I will attach some pics. Cholie and I are moving in with my parents for a while cause I am building a new home....still in country with lots of space for her to run around.

  Anyway I will keep you posted....take care,

  Michelle & Cholie

  Pal

  Hi Leah,

  I just wanted to drop a note to you and tell you how great Pal is doing. He is gaining his weight back and getting stronger all the time. He even plays a little every day now and we have him on anit-arthritic meds to help him along. All his blood work from the vet came back surprisingly good too. He's such a huggy old man and we are so happy to have him with us.

  Oushkha, our other Sheppherd has taken to job of watching him and if he is out of sight I just ask her to find him and she gets all excited and jumps to the job. Pal never strays too far but with the property being so big, he can disappear behind a bush here.

  Anyway, I think he is really happy here and we are thankful we found him in time to save him.

  Thanks again,

  Barb and Michael

  Governor

  Hello Leah,

  Governor is doing well. I think when we got him you mentioned is was around 55 lbs and had put on weight from when you received him. I weighed him last week and he’s approximately 73 lbs. He enjoys playing in the yard and going for walks. My friend had is lab over on the weekend and they wrestled for about 45 min.

  Anyway, just wanted to give a quick update and provide some pictures. Thanks

  Regards,

  Mark

  Piper

  Hi Leah,

  Piper is doing very well she weighs well over 40 lbs now. She is currently on medication from a reaction to the stitches from her spay disolving on the inner layer of her belly, but it is healing very well. She is very full of energy and loves to run outside and go for walks. She is learning to walk on a leash better than before, however I was unable to get her into this round of obedience classes here as they were full, hopefully next round. I am at least able to work with her from past experinence with obedience classes so she is learning very well. She still counter surfs and we are finding it difficult to break her of it, but we keep trying, she will eventually catch on! She also likes to chew so we are very careful not to leave anything lay around that she may get ahold of!

  All three dogs get along extremely well, I tried to get a picture of all of them together, but it's difficult! Piper doesn't stand still long enough to have her picture taken. It was difficult to get the ones I'm sending!!! She's always on the go!

  We've had one foster dog since she has been here and they all did well with that too!

  Our love and blessings to all of the other doggies who are patiently waiting to be adopted. Talk to you later,

Tanya