Tinsel's Journey

Tagg said:
Then he decided to lift his leg and mark me! Hubby's immediate reaction was to yell NOOOO. Tinsel ran back to his bed, I took him out and he finished his pee. Maybe I should have been flattered.
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That is flattering, esp after only 3 days, bad manners maybe but at least you know he wants you to be part of his territory.

You must be such a patient person - he has definately gone to a great hom.
 
This is a wonderful series for all of us. Thank you so much for your day-to-day updates. We can all learn so much from the little steps you are making with Tinsel. You are not only teaching Tinsel, you are teaching us.
 
Heartbreaking and heartwarming all at the same time. Thank you for saving this little boy from such a horrid beginning and being so patient and tender in showing him the way to a new life. God Bless.

Do you have any idea how old he may be?
 
We really don't have a clue to his actual age but think he is between 2 and 4 based on his looking like his muzzle is about to mature. It's really only a guesstamite though.
When we went to the vet's office he had to be carried in. We really had only introduced him to a collar and a short drag line so he wasn't able to be walked in. He was fairly relaxed in my arms as we waited. When we got to the examining room he had his saccral lumbar region checked which caused him some pain and he whirled around to say stop collapsing on his right side. He didn't attempt to be nasty just tried to let us know to stop. Then the vet checked him for exoparasites which was negative. Finally his anal glands were expressed and he again tried to get away from the vet - who could blame him, it hurt.
When we got home he was limping on his right front pretty badly. We gave him Metacam for the next few days as per the vet's advice but the limp was still quite bad. Then he had a "telling" by our Belgian which made him jump back quickly in the early evening. By bedtime the limp was almost gone. It really had me worried let me tell you. Since he was totally limp free on the Friday which would have been Day 12 we went ahead and had his bath done by one of the ladies of sheltie rescue who is a professional groomer. He was really good for her and only struggled when she was blow drying his bum. There were two other shelties from previous rescues there to be groomed so we let him visit with them for about an hour after his spa treatment so that he would have a good last memory of his day. Now he went from smelling like a sewer to smelling like vanilla beans. Thank you Meaghan!
 
Saturday hubby decided to give me a day off from cleaning the stalls and took Tinsel and Rhiannon down to the barn with him to wander around while he did them. Tinsel immediately went into Thomas's stall and had a poop and a couple of pees like that was what he always did. Not a big deal - stalls are easily cleaned but his past life was in a pig barn and so I guess one barn is like any other. He wasn't upset about being in there at all. Hubby noticed a limp starting in the left front leg this time. He decided he should carry him back up to the house so I could see it. By the time he walked the 300 feet from the barn to the house and put Tinsel down in the kitchen the little guy was 2 legged lame. His left front and his right rear and now he wasn't able to put either leg down. I didn't want to take him to the emergency clinic as I have had some pretty bad experiences at those places so I gave him some medicam and a massage. He was stoic through the massage and then just laid on his bed while we pondered what to do. I let the coordinater know what was happening and of course my head was processing all the neurological and physiological reasons he could be like this. Within 2 hours he was back on three legs and started moving around with his now wagging tail in evidence. We resolved that if he was still on three legs by morning he was going in to the EC for xrays. We knew that xrays had been ordered by the vets that looked after him after the seizure and also Rimadyl but not why. The coordinater said she would look into it and get back to us asap. The next morning he was right as rain. I called my daughter and told her not to bring her shelties for the play date as I didn't want Tinsel running around in case this was an issue with a disc. In the meantime I started him on the product I use on my elderly mare for her creaky joints and ligaments. The report came back that Tinsel had bladder stones and resultant surgery but by now he was rolling on his back for tummy rubs and I wasn't seeing any sign of a surgery. Hmmmm. I thought that maybe they were able to flush the stone instead of excising it but what kind of stone? I decided to take Tinsel to my own team of vets for their opinion and do a urinalysis for crystals, bloodwork to see how all his organs were functioning and possibly our own xrays. I just realized that I have forgotten to mention that the whole time Tinsel has been with us I have put a concoction of Rescue Remedy, Mimulus and Aspen blended first into distilled water and then added to his drinking water to help him to calm and be able to learn. He was starting to squat instead of lift his leg outside - a good sign that the testosterone was diminishing and we were getting ready to reintroduce him to Phoebe.
 
It was now a week before Christmas and all through this house, not a decoration was hanging not even.....well you get the picture. I still had all of my shopping to do and I always host the Christmas Eve dinner for our family. I was worried how Tinsel was going to handle 15 people in the house and extra dogs to boot. We had introduced him to some of the people but not many of the ones coming over. Our neighbours had been in, a few friends - it's important to introduce at least one person per day but now there was going to be a crowd. Usually everyone congregates in my kitchen which is a large country kitchen but that would be too overwhelming so I told them they had to amuse themselves in another room while final preparations were going on. We started to teach a "settle" command. Like most dogs, and it seems shelties in particular, when anxious they either start to pace or they go into a corner and worry. Tinsel is a pacer and I needed to find a way to help him cope with anxiety so I decided to use a settling command on his "comfort" bed. By now he was good with Phoebe - she really likes having someone closer to her size again. She's also very social so I decided that she would have to be his companion for the day. I started out by sitting on his bed and when he looked ready to lay down beside me I would put my hand flat on the bed and as soon as his bottom started to go down I would say "settle". Of course he got the resultant click, good boy said in a soft but pleased tone and a tickle. I repeated this many times over the next few days. He is getting it and usually will lie down now if I ask him for a settle. It allows him to come back to earth from wherever he goes when he is anxious and seems to help him cope. Christmas Eve was great. He was given his space by my family but ended up enjoying the attention. He cuddled with Phoebe on the bed when things got to be too much, went outside with Con, Gem (the two sheltie grandchildren) and Phoebe for pees, had no accidents and ate his dinner like nothing was different. Gem, the female, took exception to his trying to get up close and personal. When she got too pushy old Phoebe let her know in no uncertain terms that she was to BACK OFF. On the rare occasions that our little westie decides it time to remind all comers who is in charge she does it firmly but kindly. She's an awesome little girl. We had not done any lead training since the big limping episode as we were seeing my vets the following week to get their opinion of what was happening. Tinsel enjoyed his first Christmas and the adoption papers were being processed. Now if only he knew what to do with the toys that he got from his sheltie relatives. Phoebe did - kill all the squeaks for sure!
 
During the first 3 weeks there was many thing that we had to do so that Tinsel could learn to live in a home enviroment. We introduced sweeping the floor with scary broom by not starting near him and never getting closer than 2 feet from his "comfort" bed. I usually vaccuum - dog hair and brooms are not compatible but we had to live with it so that he could learn. We were lucky that he decided that his bed was a comfort zone but it is placed between the island in the kitchen and the pots and pan drawer so he had to have it moved many times. That in itself is another lesson. We taught him that click meant Yes and a treat would be forthcoming but since we knew that we wouldn't always have a clicker in our hands we also used praise in varying voices. We tried to have one person a day come in for a visit. They were instructed not to make eye contact when they approached him but instead to use soft body language but at a normal pace. He's a chow hound so everyone gets to give him a treat. Most of the treating now is done with a portion of his breakfast or dinner. People have to mean good news so we used the methods we used to get our show dogs to look at the judge, have people play judge and let the dog learn that there is always a treat. It works if the dog is food motivated. You could use a toy in most dogs but Tinsel didn't know what toys were and had no interest in them. While he isn't especially noise sensitive we have startled him into running purely by accident. I can be really klutzie at times and have a habit of dropping stuff. He has a natural inquisitiveness which helps a lot but would only come close to the dropped article, not fully over to investigate and would be ready to run at a moments notice. Target training has helped him a lot with overcoming his natural flight tendancy. We can now handle everything except to hold his ears to look inside and his feet. Unfortuanately he needs his nails trimmed again so I will look to the rescue groomer to see how she handles it. In the meantime I am working on different things like shake a paw to get him to let me hold his front feet and running my hands down his rear legs to his feet just like I was going to clean a horse's foot. He's still really reluctant but hopefully, in time, we will get him used to it. We spent an hour playing walk through the doorways and now he goes off by himself to investigate. I always have to watch him so that he doesn't decide to pee somewhere as he had two accidents because he doesn't yet know how to ask to go out. We move his bed from room to room and ask him to settle so that he can join us in the family room for tv - my gosh, that was a scary thing. We discovered he loves the wind and will put his face into it and smile then dance around and do it again. He has learned to do the two steps into the carriage house that leads to the puppy play yard. First we did upstairs and then started him on downstairs. We groom him on his comfort bed daily and have started teaching him to be layer brushed. He doesn't want his tail touched but I can do most of his belly and all of his body and the last half of his tail. He's not fond of the grooming spray but he will allow it. Reminds me of my gelding - every year we start the process for fly spray on him and he's 9. At least Tinsel isn't a thousand pounds of resistance! The rest will come but I am trying to never let him get a snag in his coat at this point. He shows his teeth now - important lesson for the vet and if future pilling is required. Everything will need to be done again once we have him lead trained as he needs to learn that it isn't any different when we are out and about. I need to find some younger kids to introduce him to and some old people - well older than me if they still exist :-) His life is structured right now so he knows what comes next. I never put him into the crate right after he goes out - don't want the association. He does get a little peanut butter in his kong for bed. All in all he is making really good progress and I expect it will continue.
 
This is an amazing journey that you are on. The level of patience you have is awesome. Lucky Tinsel. I can't imagine the horror that little dog went through. I worry about all the limping - any enlightenment on the cause?

Thank you for sharing your story with us - it is so inspirational and informative.
 
Thanks for all of the updates, its wonderful hearing about his progress.

Not sure if you noticed but I sent you a private message (PM) a few days ago.

Toby's situation is totally different than Tinsel's, but I've been dealing with what used to be severe anxiety for over a year now. Perhaps I can make some helpful suggestions.

I live fairly close to you so perhaps we can be in touch some time. :smile2:
 
Tinsels journey

Just got time to read the forums -
What great work you are doing for that beautiful sheltie
that did'nt deserve his previous life.
I am convinced that he will be your best pal forever after all the patience and kindness you are giving him.
Looking forward to reading more about his progress.
Sylvia and our 3 shelties at home
and our two at the bridge.
 
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