ONE WEEK UPDATE FOR CUBBY

I asked Cubby to pose for his one week photos....


ready....set....



smile!

 

or how about this look?



'is this my good side?'

 I have had Cubby with me for one week now, and when I looked at writing a blog I realized I've been a little slack on sharing.   Cubby has come a long way and is doing really well!   He rides well in the vehicle.  He lays down and barely budges.  He jumps in and out of the truck (floor level) with no prompting and he has learned to wait at the door and not dart out.  I think he has only barked once since he's been here...so a very quiet boy so far.  I left him in the back of the truck last Thursday night while I curled and not a peep when I left him and he was layed down and sleeping when I returned.   I wanted to stay a while longer so he came into the club with me and layed at my feet.  My curling friends are quite used to respecting what each dog needs so they all admired him but did not reach out to pet him right away.  Cubby settled in and eventually I let the person sitting next to me reach down and pet him and he was really good about it.  In the morning he walks up to the daycare building with a spring in his step and he allows himself to be walked away from me much better than the beginning of last week.   He is good at playing with the pups on the small dog side and I had asked daycare to allow him to drag his leash and the pups have been playing with Cubby by pulling the leash.  The staff at daycare say he is good with the other dogs.   He has warmed up to the staff too and has started to solicit attention.   He is still shy with strangers but is more willing to go up and sniff a pantleg if someone doesn't crouch down too fast and reach for him.   He allows himself to be petted if given a bit of time to figure out there isn't any danger and I also feel that he is starting to trust me to keep him safe.  

He went for two nights with Larna from Playful Paws Daycare because she boards dogs at home and Cubby already knows her.  I was in a bonspiel this weekend and didn't want him spending too much time on his own yet in my truck so he went from Friday to Sunday.  Larna reported that on the first day he panicked a bit in her backyard when all the other dogs had gone inside and it was his turn.  In new and uncertain situations Cubby panicks a bit until he works out how to approach.  He is getting past that and dragging his leash definitely helps avoid those moments but with a new surrounding with a new person it took a few minutes for him to come around and go back in the house.  Larna is super dog savvy which is why I chose her for boarding.  She said hand feeding him his meals helped him relax more and bond with her..and this may be something an adopter would want to start out doing with him too.   She said he warmed up pretty well and by Sunday she had a family dinner and he was walking around sniffing legs and did so well considering it was a houseful of strangers.   When I picked him up he was so excited to see me, it was so cute.  It almost seems like the absences during daycare and then boarding him for a couple of days shows him I'm returning to him and pushes him to bond a little more with me.

He is walking quite well on the leash, although occassionally he runs a bit ahead and likes to cut in front. He does not appear to be afraid of too many things although he can be uncertain about some new noises, like lawnmowers, etc.   When I walk him on the long leash he runs alongside me and waits for me to reach down and acknowledge him and then he looks happy and darts ahead again.  When he falls behind because he's found a good smell in the grass, I rarely get to the end of the leash before he runs to catch up.  He does run like Corgis that I have seen and he's quite agile for his height. 

He loves getting face scratches and will lay there and fall asleep while you brush him, wish sheer enjoyment.  I use the soft brush on him and brush his face and chin and he closes his eyes.  He is now so much more comfortable with me that I get exposed belly for brushing too.   He had his first bath last week and stood like a statute in the tub, breathing heavy through his nose.  He was quite scared, but there really aren't any half measures for easing them into the bath routine.  So he eventually worked through his fear and by the end of the bath he was almost enjoying having the soap worked through his coat.   He did however enjoy the towel dry afterwards, and I managed to get a good amount of water out of him before he shook all over my walls.

He is a good walking buddy, he likes other dogs, I'm confident he will learn to like strangers too once he has enough good experiences, he has a beautiful shiny coat, he is very relaxed at home, is quiet and clean and an all around really great dog!   He will need a home where his owner(s) will continue to socialize him with people.   Whoever adopts him will be so lucky to have this loyal companion.



Cubby on his Kuranda bed.  On his first day if I had approached him on there
he would have gotten up...now he relaxes and waits to be petted.