Welcome Back, Ginger!

Ginger folded right back in to her life here with us after her stay at Dani's. She happened to return while we were having a home visit from Woofer's Canine Companion trainer, Dana Cooper. Dana speaks dog, and she was able to see right away that this home is a little too chaotic & structured for Ginger's taste, so we are looking for a Forever Home that is a bit more laid back and calm. We are also going to look for some kind "temporary fosters" to volunteer to have Ginger stay over night with them. No expectations or pushing-- just let her be relaxed in new environments.

Changing Again

Well, we had a change in the foster home situation, and Ginger is back with her previous foster home for now. I took her geocaching with us today, before the transition, and she was great. She has awesome geodog potential! The parks and places we visited with her were not too crowded and she seemed to enjoy that. She is nice on a leash, and just barely starting to pull a bit, but responded well to reminders to not get too far ahead of me. I wish my own dogs were so easy to take out like her!

Check It Out!

We have been working with Ginger to "check out" new things. We make noise with metal pans, and give her a treat when she approaches them. When we meet new people in the house we give them treats and tell her to "check it out." She gets it. Once I said CIO and didn't have a treat handy, and she immediately noticed.

I tried playing with her in the backyard today and she doesn't seem interested in fetch, or the Frisbee. I did get her to partake in a bit of a tug-of-war game with a fleece tug for a while, but she seemed like she didn't want to bother me too much with trying to keep the tug from me.

We also have gone for a couple of walks and it was nice. She is a nice dog to take for a walk. We had a very, very noisy dirt-bike come by, and I said, "check it out" and had a treat ready and she did really well. She stood there, watched it, but did not try to hide or collapse at my feet. Progress.

Geodog?

Geocaching

Ginger is expanding her life experience by going to a new foster home. This is her new foster mother writing, and I will update her blog now. Ginger went on her first outing with our family today. We went geocaching at a local park, and I think she enjoyed herself. It was a "Ginger" day. We meet three dogs at the park today, and two of them were named Ginger also! Ginger's ruled the day at the park today and she seemed to enjoy that. We actually went to two parks in our area, and Ginger was an able and enjoyable companion. She easily navigated around the cactus and fire ants. She is an athletic dog. We came within a few feet of people without Ginger barking, though she was still a bit shy. She has definitely made progress since coming to this rescue.

Ginger has had a pretty easy adjustment to our home. She gets along well with the resident dogs, and likes to go around to different family members and get attention. Her favorite person seems to be her foster Daddy. Once she mastered the stairs she was up visiting Nana, and the kids in their rooms. We look forward to getting to know Ginger better, and to continue to expose her to new, positive experiences.

Tender Loving Care

Ginger has come so far in a single week!!! She no longer barks at Ben, and while she is still tentative, she appears to be "cautiously optimistic" when people approach her now.

On Wednesday she came to the park with Ben's playgroup and everyone fed her many treats and took turns holding her and taking her on a walk. LOTS of love for the little Ginger-girl that afternoon.

She is slowly catching on to how things run in a home... we can see her knowing what "Go to bed, Ginger!" means, and then having to figure out how to do that without getting too scared. But more and more often now she simply runs right over and sits for her treat. Good girl, Ginger!!

She barks at the cats.. and other new things. But it takes her much less time to get used to something now than it did those first few days. In a few weeks, we predict no one will remember that she used to be so shy!

Welcome Ginger-Pye!

Ginger was soooo shy and tentative about coming with us after the Forgotten Friends- Mixed Breed Rescue Meet & Greet a week ago... she walked willingly enough to the car, but once it was time to get in she started to have second thoughts. She rode home with her new buddy, Buttercup, and the two are still good friends.

We stopped for a bath at Mud Puppies on the way home and Ginger had a bath, nail trim, teeth brushing, ear cleaning, and blow dry. What a soft and beautiful coat!

When we got home from the bath, we introduced Ginger to the other dogs. She was shy, but eventually she was running and playing with the others.

The next morning when our five year old, Ben, came home from a sleepover with a friend he couldn't wait to see Ginger. She wasn't so sure!!! She barked at him every time she saw him that first day, but she would take treats from him and let him gently pat her. We knew that in addition to crate training and housebreaking she was going to need lots of extra TLC, socialization, and reassurance.