Louie - adopted
-
April 5, 2011
Hi Donna and Tera,
Thank you for the followup e-mail and offer of help for getting Louie settled in. We have been working on getting Louie adjusted to our schedule these past three weeks. Our week of vacation enabled us to bond with Louie as well as get to know him better. He is a great little traveler. He walks well and is well socialized with any other dogs we meet as well as people young and old. We are working on basic commands, he knows sit very well and is progressing with stay-can remain in a stay laying position for up to ten minutes. He has learned to respect our meal times and does not beg at the table. We knew Louie had difficulty in other homes he was placed in and are working on those issues as well. We have both been snapped at when trying to get Louie to release items and have found trade for a treat to be a good method to start with. Louie displays anxiety symptoms as evenings wear on starting about 8pm. We have found he doesn't do well when we have any down time, tugging on pant legs and blankets. We have found these are his ways of communicating he still has energy to spend and we are working on meeting those needs giving him a variety of activities such as fetch, running around outside and working on commands. We may have gone overboard trying to get him to bond and trust us as now he is displaying signs of separation anxiety whenever we leave him alone. We are working on de-sensitizing Louie to our leaving and trying to make his time alone as comfortable as possible. Louie's progress is understandably slow, so we are taking this problem one day as a time. Louie's presence in our home and life has helped improve our lives as he has helped us to learn to go to bed earlier, eat at the kitchen table not the coffee table, keep up our daily hour long walk and to de-clutter the house. It has been a challenging, tiring, but rewarding 3 weeks, Louis is overall a great little dog and we appreciate you entrusting him to our care.
Sincerely,
Phil and Marti