Hannah Settling in at Home

            On Wednesday, when I wrote here about our new dog’s homecoming, I didn’t want to mention that at that point I was ready to send her back.

 Oh, she’s adorable all right and happy around us, even does well on the leash. But as happens with most rescues, she has got a history which I was just starting to figure out.

 The most annoying is that I think she was trained to do her business on a piddle pad, as her previous owners were, perhaps, too lazy to take her out. It’s been an uphill battle, as we don’t want to scold her for going on the piddle pads, if that’s what she’s been taught. So, it’s just been lots and lots of trips outside. Also, I bet from the stress of her trip here, she has been peeing a lot more than most dogs do. At least, she didn’t get diarrhea, which the rescue warned us happens in 90% of the dogs going to a new home.

 She has slowly been figuring it out, though. Yesterday, she actually started going to the door and waiting for us to get her outside, instead of just piddling willy nilly.

 The other thing is that she’s not eating. They told us what dry dog food she’d been getting (a cheap and horrible brand full of grains and little protein). I bought it anyway, to use while gradually switching to something better. But she won’t eat either one. I got a free sample of another brand from our feed store and my son brought a baggie full of what his dog’s been eating. She won’t touch those either.

 And she won’t eat any of the treats we’ve bought her either. Another set back to the potty training – how do you reward a food-motivated breed, if she won’t eat anything you give her.  

 I’ve started feeding her a decent brand of canned food, but even that is hit or miss. She has been drinking a lot of water, though, so I’ve been mixing some water in the canned to make it nice and soupy, and that seems to work.

 I keep telling myself, “She’ll eat when she’s hungry enough”. And she could stand to lose a few pounds. Also, she is still urinating a fair amount and pooping twice a day.

 I have a few thoughts on this food situation. To be sure, she is a beggar at the supper table. She also has bad breath and some gunky back teeth. I’m sure her previous owners gave her people food; maybe that’s all they gave her.

 And with the bad teeth, hard, dry food is probably painful for her. Thing is, she doesn’t even try the treats we give her, just sniffs them and refuses to take them.

 We’ll figure it out. She sees our vet next week, so I’m sure she will have ideas.

 On a positive note, she gets along great with Emma. They aren’t buddies, yet, but every time they pass each other, they look at each other with almost a longing in their eyes. As if they are thinking, “I want to be your BFF.”

 Our son was over Tuesday night with his dog, Goose, and they did fine together too. Now she just has to meet our daughter’s pack of three dogs. I’m already trying to figure out the Christmas picture with five of them under the tree!

 And one last thing. I told you last time that we put Dino down on January 4, 2023?

 Saturday night, after I got home with our new little nugget, and she was resting, I read through her paperwork. Her birthdate is January 9, 2023, five days after Dino crossed the rainbow bridge. 

Even though we’ve had our struggles with Hannah this week, she was born to come home to us.