Friday, October 8, 2010

Finn has been adopted! Hooray!

Finn has been adopted by a wonderful family in Portugese Bend. Hooray! Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen, especially Arleen Rooney of Saint Anthony's Canine Rescue!!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Finnegan is showing this weekend! (Still available)

This weekend Finn is going to a "Corgi Fun Day" at the dog park, on Saturday, and on Sunday he is available to meet at Petco, in Rolling Hills. Please contact Arleen Rooney for more info. Click on the link to the left that says "Apply to adopt Finnegan" to reach her.

Cheerful little Finnegan is now starting to play, which is a real delight to see. We adore him and know you will, too. He's smart, sweet, and incredibly affectionate.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Update: Sept. 4

DON'T FORGET TO SEE HIS PHOTOS AND VIDEOS-- SCROLL DOWN!

Finn is over his kennel cough and is doing great. He's so happy to be allowed to play with the other dogs and be out of his crate. He was shown at the dog adoption fair today at Petco and was quite the little gentleman. We went for a long walk this evening and he's just so sweet and cheerful.

His training is coming along really well-- he was doing sits and downs at Petco despite high levels of distractions. What a little champ.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Sept 2: Update

(DON'T FORGET TO SCROLL WAY DOWN TO SEE HIS PHOTOS)

Little Finnegan has the equivalent of a doggie cold. He apparently was exposed to Kennel Cough at the animal shelter and has come down with it. The poor baby has to be isolated from my other dogs so he spends all his time in his crate in the living room surrounded by an ex-pen, to keep my own dogs at a safe distance (though I did just catch up on their vaccines for this, so their risk of catching it is dropping).

He's such a good sport about it, but he looks at me like, "Why don't you love me anymore?". We've got him on antibiotics and they're definitely starting to work. He seems to feel fine, but he's sneezing and coughing a bit, mostly in the morning when he's first let out of his crate.

Meanwhile, his training is going well, and he knows sit and down pretty well. He's just such a cheerful, sweet little guy. More video soon, I'll shoot some this weekend.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Update: Finn is good with kids and housetraining

Today Finn met my neighbor's 7 year old son and 11 year old daughter (Griffin and Zoey).  These are great kids, who are well mannered and calm around dogs.  Finn was initially very concerned that he was going to be taken away from me, and got that worried look on his face, but after some reassurance his tail came up and he was willing to follow the kids around on the lawn (on leash).  They were very sweet with him and he soon looked like he was going to doze off as Zoey was gently petting him.  It was dusk or I would have videotaped it-- maybe we can do it again this weekend so you can see it yourself.

Finn is an incredibly sweet and loving dog.  We're recommending that he not go to a home with kids under 7, simply because he's small enough that they might try to pick him up and dogs that are elongated in the spine (like Corgis and Dachshunds) need to be lifted kind of carefully to prevent back problems.  (For example, we don't just grab them across the middle and lift, which would place a lot of pressure on the center of that elongated spine, we lift from the front and back together, keeping the spine straight and supported).  But from what I'm seeing, well mannered kids 7 and above would be no problem. Obviously, kids over 7 who are not well mannered around dogs would not be a good fit, and a child under 7 who is exceptional about taking direction and being gentle could be an exception to our rule.  So he's sweet and gentle, and needs kids who are, too.  For example, at this point in his "getting to know us" I think it would upset him and shut him down if we were to try to play roughly with him.  (We're gentle with him, and he seems incredibly grateful for that-- though there is no evidence that he's been physically abused). A few weeks from now, once he knows us and trusts us, he may not consider that kind of play to be impolite but right now it would be very confusing and scary to him.

His housetraining is still in its early stages, and he is never out of his crate without being closely supervised, and we take him out very frequently.  So it's not surprising that he has not had any accidents at all in the house.  If he's in his crate and he needs to go, he'll yip and let us know.  So things are working well so far on that front.

I introduced him tonight to target training with a target stick, and videotaped the whole thing for you, and then accidentally deleted it from my camera while trying to free up more space on the memory stick!  Darn it!  I'll try to get his session tomorrow, though, since it's still very new to him.