Adopted 1/08, Woodinville, WA

12/19/09 update; adopter also has 4 cats from FMNAS (Hans, Luke, Yoda & Harley):

Merry Christmas to all you wonderful people there who do so much for all the animals, I bless you regularly. All my animals are fabulous Hans, Luke and Yoda are all fat and sassy, I keep telling Luke he and I are going to weight watchers together at the beginning of the New Year. Holly is just lovely, without a doubt she is the most gentle and loving animal I have ever encountered and she loves me so unconditionally I am humbled by her devotion. I wonder what it is that I have done in this life that makes me deserving of such love I am truly blessed to own her. Now we are down to Harley, oh my goodness I tell him all the time I am going to make him a clown collar he makes me laugh all the time, my little feral guy is just so sweet. I still have not introduced him to the great outdoors yet and know I need to do that soon but he does not seem to mind and this way he and I have quiet time together every morning before anyone else is up. He is great company and has helped to trim my tree or actually untrim the tree and is having a ball shredding the paper and ribbon he believes it is all just for him. Happy Holidays and Peace

2/6/08 update: "I did finally get to talk to the vet and the ear infection was a yeast infection that Holly had (hopefully its gone we did the drops for the required 10 days) and surprise, surprise she and Jack are getting along famously they play together and it is just wonderful. She is so dirty right now and it is going to be a constant uphill battle to keep her clean, our backyard it pretty much forest and well you can imagine, the rain the dirt the pine tar ect. ect. not to mention they chase each other and tackle each other, she n ips at his heals and he mouth's her neck and her ruff all around her neck is matted from his slobber oh my what have I gotten myself into, LOL. But watching them together is rich stuff and so heart warming, we were so worried and it has all turned out just lovely."

1/27/08: "Holly is WONDERFUL, FABULOUS, DELIGHTFUL, and it is so funny she is definitely my dog she follows me everywhere. Initially she did not want much to do with the rest of the family but she is warming up to them. I am curious about the whole story on these dogs, she was somewhat afraid of my husband, was she owned by a man, could that be it??? She is at my feet constantly and is just the sweetest little girl, we went to the pet store to get toys and misc stuff for her and you know she walked on her leash and no pulling and when I stopped to look at something she sat down and waited patiently. I had lots of people ask about her and wrote down your website for several and she was just a delight to everyone who stopped to admire her.

I spent some time cutting away the hairballs behind her ears and can now get a brush thru her fuzz just fine, she loves to be brushed, she was bathed today to with doggy shampoo that smells like baby powder, yum she is nice and clean and silky soft. I took her to the vet and she was vacinated for kennel cough and got wormed, she had an ear infection so we are treating that, the vet was very impressed by her as well, so all in all she has settled in just fine.

The only issue here is that our lab wants to eat her, so we are being very careful to keep them separated and hoping that time will help him to understand, he is the alpha dog but we are the alpha people and she is not going anywhere, he is just going to have to deal with it. We bought a muzzle for him so he can't bite her and we allow them together very briefly in the evening after the boys are in bed to be sure to cut down on the tension. I have also talked to a professional trainer and if we are not able to integrate them we can employ the trainer who will come to the house and work with both dogs. I don't want to think what that costs but we will do what we have to, I have no intention in letting her go, no way, no how. The other option is to build a separate run, a smaller one and swap them out and that is a possibility as well.

We love her, she has quickly adapted and become a part of the family. I have a new digital camera and need to figure out how to download pics and then watch out I will drive you crazy."

Here are some excerpts from our handout on dog-to-dog aggression; we sent the full handout to Holly's new family, to help their lab adjust.

In "the wild," it is normal for dogs to fight to challenge each other for dominance; however, in a home, it is supposed to be the humans that show clear dominance and keep the rest of "their pack" in line - this *is* something you can achieve.

We generally advise "positive reinforcement" training ahead of severe "negative consequence" training - for example, if dog A (instigator) behaves well around Dog B (target), she gets praised to the stars for doing so, but if she behaves poorly, she is removed from the rest of the pack and placed in a room by herself (or, the rest of the pack leaves her in the room she is in). There are of course hundreds of bits of differing advice about how to solve the problem, and it's a matter of finding an approach with which you are comfortable, while keeping the target dog’s safety the primary focus. Until the problem is solved, I would recommend keeping the instigator on leash by your side any time she has to be around the target dog, so you can immediately reward good interactions and correct aggressive behavior. When you can't be with the dogs, make sure they are separated by a kennel or closed door. It will take some patience to get Dog A back on track, but it should be correctable.

Here are a few random websites with information on dog aggression that may give you some good ideas - take what feels like good advice in your "gut" and ignore the rest! These are but a few of thousands of sources of info, and don't hesitate to check your library's dog training section for books that may help:

http://www.dogwhispererdvd.com/dog_training_advice.html#aggression

http://blogs5.nationalgeographic.com/channel/blog/dogwhisperer/?p=17

http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/daggression.html

http://blogs5.nationalgeographic.com/channel/blog/dogwhisperer/?p=26