Day One

Caspian is a beautiful brindle Pit Bull waiting for his forever home. He is eager to learn, has a cheerful and optimistic outlook on life, enjoys the company of dogs and people. Below journals his adventures at Great Dog.

Day One- 5/28/08 by Judi Anderson-Wright, MA, CPDT

After picking up a very excited Caspian, our first challenge was helping to believe that my small VW bug was an appropriate mode of transportation for him. He was not too sure about the closing down of the hatchback closing. Once I convinced him that the blanket in the back was budding with magically appearing treats he decided to give it a rest and was content to view the scenery from Seattle Animal Shelter to Great Dog in a happy sense of anticipation.

Upon arrival at Great Dog he was met by several grooming and retail shoppe staff members at the front door bearing treats of welcome. Not a second of hesitation from him, he walked in and met the staff with tail wagging and a huge smile on his face. He was confident, but not ever rude, and very curious about the new surroundings. He met our daycare manager who immediately took him for a run around the neighborhood sporting his new blue wonder walker harness and he didn’t pull a single step! It was a good match, Caspian has mega energy and Chris is a mega long-legged runner-perfect!

Next, introduction to the daycare dogs and staff. We provided him a side run to meet single dogs from the pack one at a time, beginning with dogs from the pack who are accepting, calm, and lower status dogs in the group. Caspian was appropriate, used excellent canine communication, never a rude moment with any of the “easy dogs”.

Next we introduced male dogs with more status and stronger attitudes. Once again Caspian handled himself perfectly-showing great meet and greet behaviors, calming signals and very little signs of stress. He was actually having fun being with other well socialized and respectful dogs. It was delightful to see him enjoying the company of other dogs.

Finally we introduced him to the high status dogs; the “big boys” who have been around for 3-5+ years and who have grown up here and who think that they run the show, and actually they do! We have one Dobie, who we use as the real indicator of how well a new dog will be accepted into the group. It went great! The Dobie and Caspian met and then were pretty much indifferent to each other (exactly what we wanted!)

Without more fanfare I walked Caspian onto the daycare floor where he was initially greeted by 20+ dogs. This is generally the most difficult for any new dog as they are surrounded by the gang, all sniffing and whirling around tail to back end. It can put the most confident dog into a moment of either over stimulation or over whelmed stress. Caspian handled it with calm resolve, and trotted off to explore his surrounds, with a gaggle of dogs right behind, all wanting to meet the new guy.

He settled in quickly, and took notice of dogs who wanted to play with him. He responded with happy play bows, a few barks that sounded like “Wooooo Hooo!!!” He played, ran and explored with his new buddies.

Later in the evening he met the overnight crew, had dinner and settled in on a comfy couch to sleep for the night. He only had 5 overnight dogs to snuggle with, so it was a mellow night. He slept all night, woke up ready for breakfast, and another day in training.

Please visit his Petfinder page to find out how to meet Caspian. http://www.petfinder.com/petnote/displaypet.cgi?petid=10857696