What does a Dippy do?

Our search for a small female demo dog ended with an adoptable little mutt we named Dipsy.

 If I had to guess her breed I would say some sort of Australian Shepard, maybe beagle but who really knows. Maybe some sheeba, or something too? Here, take a look and you decide. She is close to full grown, weighs less than 20lbs and has a docked tail.

 

Here she is with foster dog Minnie, before we brought Minnie to her forever home.

Regardless of breed, she is a sweet, unassuming little thing. Although we weren't looking to replace our Little Dog, Dip does has some similar characteristics which really makes LD's passing that much easier to live with.

Fostering good dogs

A few months before LD passed away, we began looking for a smaller female dog to adopt. We wanted someone large enough to play with Rocco, but small enough to sit in the back seat of our sedan with him and a car seat.

We began our hunt for the next female demo dog feeling rather optimistic. I has my eyes out for a beagle mix, though not always the easiest to train they often have a solid social foundation which is my biggest criteria. Also Rocco's BFF is a beagle mix named Sally who I love. I did a lot of talking with my rescue and training friends. We looked at few dogs, though none of the dogs were really what we were looking for. One of the rescues I worked with emailed me about a 9 month old beagle mix named Minnie that needed a foster home as she was being returned to the rescue. We agreed to take her that Saturday.

When I picked her up the first words out of my house was "You are NOT a beagle mix.." and sure enough, there isn't a thing about her that says beagle. What we took on instead appears to me a Corgi/Dutch Shepard of some kind. It is hard to say of course what she is, but her temperament screams high drive working dog!

She turned out to be a charming dog, very motivated and eager to please. Unfortunately she was not meant to be our dog, this we knew pretty quickly. Minnie she was adopted by a wonderful lady in the UP. She is living a charmed rural life, running in the woods on the beaches of Lake Superior. We really couldn't of asked for a better adoptive home for her.
Not long after Minnie arrived with us we got word of another dog that needed placement. We went to meet this dog before agreeing to foster her, and it was instant love. There will be a follow up post on Dipsy soon.

Our perfect Little Dog

I can not comprehend how quickly time flies. I don't have the same time for myself, blogs or dogs as I used to.  A lot has happened since this past fall. I'm terribly sorry to post that our sweet Little Dog passed away this spring. She was proximity 15 years old.

This is the only photo i currently have on my phone.  It's from last stunner when the groomer shaved off all her fur.  She looked very silly

. Our

A dear friend got us this great sketch of LD to hang on the wall.  We hung it in the living room and G says Hi to it everyday. I think G handled LDs passing pretty well. For being around 18 months at the time, he really seemed to understand. 

Earning his keep

It has been a long time coming but Rocco is finally calm and social enough to work for his keep.

His joins me at work almost everyday to help socialize, exercise and analyze client dogs. From his body language I am able to discern a lot about the other dogs. Having a calm and social dog around really is a great tool for helping other dogs find the same peace.

Rocco has even come as far as to play with many new client dogs, including some that were too reactive or nervous 6 months ago. Pictures to follow soon.

New house, new friends.

We moved again, this time for the better. We are out of the country and back into the small city life. The dogs have a fenced in yard for the first time which is wonderful but comes with its own set of challenges. Rocco is sharpening his skills by working hard to ignore the dogs and people as they pass by our yard.

Today a good friend helped us work on some training in the yard. Rocco was rewarded by a nice romp around with a small schnauzer mix named Lucy. They played like old friends, and even shared a stick together.

Rocco is a completely different dog than a year ago. It's amazing what a little structure and exercise will do for even the most neurotic dogs.

working dog

We are now past pregnancy and baby G is nearly 8 months old. I have returned to work and Rocco's life has taken a wonderfully modern turn.

After a year and a half of hard work and socilization he is finally ready to get to work. He spends his week days walking, playing and sniffing with client dogs and his weekends sunbathing and baby licking.

He is still nervous around some new dogs, but everyday is an improvement

Sharing

Rocco is very good at sharing with his cat friend Rudy

And Little Dog