Puppies and Haku

Haku’s incision looks great, he’s feeling good, he’s back on his normal food and he’s bored as hell. So now we have a problem, I have a three legged dog that sucks at being ‘just a pet’. He gets nutty and OCD and he NEEDS to have something to keep him normal. Assuming they just hit a nerve, hopefully he will eventually recover – but apparently it’s a very slow process (and he may never be totally ‘healed’). Right now he’s not really using it all. The good news, he gets around pretty darn well with three legs. I think he’ll still be able to go the park, the field and hiking and pogostick it along. Resting him will not help the healing process, and certainly wouldn’t be good for the rest of him.

So what to do with three legged Haku, assuming this is going to be a long term issue? I mean, technically he COULD still work on obedience, at least without jumps. Obviously he couldn’t compete, and may never be able to again (no lame dogs allowed). There’s always nosework, which, I’ll admit, I have never been able to find much enthusiasm for. But I never had a dog that couldn’t do more physical activities. Maybe I would really like it once I got into it – it’s certainly CRAZY popular. He’d probably be a good therapy dog, but after looking into that I realized I’d make a terrible therapy dog handler. We could try playing with the ‘Do as I Do’ stuff, which seems really novel. We could still herd, I think, but he needs something to work on more often than that.

Haku is only 8, I had expected us to be able to play with obedience for quite some time. Maybe I can just be more creative, hide his meals around the house and other puzzle games throughout the day. I need a plan though, a concrete schedule and habits we can get into so he gets all the mental stimulation he needs.

Though the right motivation for doing lots novel things is coming along, going to do a little puppy raising for Karen for a few months.

This adorable girl is Bright’s niece out of her sister Glee. They both were nieces to London, so nice to think there a little connection there. This puppy looks more like her dad, Speck, I haven’t met him, he’s a herding dog. And speckly. This puppy will have lots of freckles!

Mama Glee:

This is a young Glee when she was with Gabrielle:

She does have The Drama, like Bright, so I’ll be curious to see if this puppy is also full of Drama. Time will tell.

Speck:

This is a young Speck in herding:

In videos girl puppy does not seem like a troublemaker, but still seems fun. The plan would be to raise her for a few months until she seems ready to send back down to Karen. All the fun of a puppy, none of the lifelong commitment. Of course, some puppies are more difficult than others, but I’m hoping she’ll be an easy one to integrate into the household.

I think the dogs will be okay with this, it’s a border collie and a puppy, and she doesn’t seem like a hellion. Haku will ignore her, Navarre will play with her and Bright will have someone to boss around. Dragon will not be thrilled, but he rarely is. My goals are for her not to destroy my pretty house and pretty yard – the BCs have really spoiled me. But then, she IS related to Bright, so hopefully she’ll be easy.

Puppies do force you to get out and about, so hopefully this will make sure Haku gets out and goes to new places too. Winter puppies have their good and bad, but the nice part is that she’ll be able to go everywhere since it won’t be too hot to leave her in the car.

More cute pictures Karen took of her today, they’re six weeks old now, so she’ll be coming up to join us in a couple weeks. It’s good timing as I’ll be winding down classes before winter break, and then I’ll have a lot of time to spend with her.

Oh, need to think of a good girl names. Girl names are so much harder than boy names. Anne had a good one, ‘Pippi’, for Pippi Longstocking. I also liked ‘Summer’, but she doesn’t strike me as a Summer. Then there was ‘Aja’, who is both a goddess of the forest and also of the sun, depending on what religion you ask. We shall see. Bright was named because Karen was originally sending me a red merle and that seemed like a good name for a colorful dog. Still, it stuck to dark little Bright and it suits her very well!