Tinsel's Journey

Good thing cause he snores like a bulldog sometimes ;-) I have to get Leigh, my daughter, back to do more pictures. She's much better at it than we are.
 
A woman who will tell her age, will tell anything (Rosalind Russell).

But since Harper is a girl faced dog, she said that I may share that she is between 7 and 8 years.

Tagg, your story started my day off with leaps of my own. He is a beauty and such a sweet face. Can't stop smiling.

Looking good!!!


Kate
 
We just had a training session and then went for a walk. He's still not sure about the bait bag after it fell yesterday but the roast beef was too good to miss! On our walk we went closer up near the road so that we were about 150 feet in and still he didn't care even when the school bus went by. Yeah. I threw little bits of yummies every 10 or 12 feet in front of him and he started looking for them and we actually got a tail wag or two. I think he might just like to learn to do some tracking. Then we went back to the garden area and I sat on the bench and did a few touch sessions. So far it has been a pretty good day. When I came in I walked him to the laundry room while still on lead instead of releasing him just inside the patio door. We walked back and forth a few times from the kitchen to the laundry room as if this was a usual thing and he didn't balk at all. Considering how weak his rear and right side was 2 months ago I am amazed at what beautiful movement he has. He has lots of reach and drive and his coming toward you and going away is only marred by the deformity of his feet on the right. His left side comes down true. His topline stays perfectly level now as well. No wonder he feels like there isn't anything on the end of the lead as he trots.
It sure makes me wonder what his pedigree would have looked like - I suspect there was some nice dogs behind him. We'll never know and it doesn't really matter but it I can't help but wonder anyway.
 
Sounds like he had his first case of Sheltie Zoomies! :biggrin2: He certainly is a handsome fellow. I love catching up on his progress. Thanks for taking us all on his journey.
 
gorgeous!
Just gorgeous!!!
As I said to sheep of blue in the jumping height thread, about Toffee teaching ME how to kick the ball for him...

ya know? Operant conditioning works in reverse too, Toffee says
THAT'S why I now it's working and should be used to train dogs, since they can train us!!
lollll
 
Look at Tinsel's progress since you started this thread - in one month, a HUGE difference!! I am so happy for this adorable little guy. Bless you a million times for your compassion for this neglected boy.
 
I started reading Tinsel's journey last night during the Super Bowl. I was so glued to my computer screen I didn't even notice when the Super Bowl was over. What an inspirational story! Thank you so much for sharing it with us. You really should turn this into a book. I'm new to the forums so forgive me if you've already covered this. Do you have past experience in working w/ rescues? You seem to have a really good understanding of how to help him. I have 2 Shelties and one is a rescue. It's been such a great experience to have this little rescue that I would like to work w/ rescues more, possibly as a foster.
Thanks again for sharing your story. Keep the updates coming. I love hearing about his progress and occasional set backs.
 
HRCarol: This is my second rescue dog but a totally different scenario. The first was an Australian Shepherd in 1979. She had been removed by the humane society from an abuse situation and came to me weighing 30 lbs, full of parasites including both whipworm and hookworm, belt buckle marks on both sides and her back, wouldn't eat from a bowl and was scared of movement on the part of humans. She turned into such an awesome dog that did pet therapy work, demonstrations for cubs in handling and training and was loved by a lot of people. We named our kennel after her. One thing she never got over was men in hats. She had been removed from a police officer's home.
Back to Tinsel, we had our second day with Mirkka on Saturday. This time there was 2 other dogs - a pug/JR cross and a pug/bulldog cross. He wanted to go and see them until they started to bark at him. You would think that after living with 527 dogs he would be desensitized to barking but the opposite is true. At that point he tucked his tail, made himself small and was very stressed. Mirkka had made him a "suite" by placing an ex pen to divide us off and covering the pen with sheets. Behind the screen he relaxed again and was ready to work. He hasn't forgiven the target stick, remember the bait bag falling on him during target, so we targeted my fist - he was already familiar with this as this was how we started the target game when he first came to me. He did well enough that we started moving him from point A to point B and started a verbal cue of HEEL. Since I was already using "LETS GO" for other things we needed to have a different verbal cue for walking on lead at my side. I couldn't come up with anything different that would come to me easily so HEEL it is. After a few minutes of this and then a rest, we started working on a SIT. This week he readily allowed Mirkka to touch him while she sat in a chair. We will continue to work on SIT, HEEL, BODY TOUCH and I will start putting him on the grooming table for 5 seconds which will equal 5 treats 2 or 3 times a day. When we finished our lesson I carried him back out to the car and decided to try putting him down in the parking lot again. This time he actually walked. Last week he froze in a crouched position. We walked across the street to a grassy boulevard and he peed but as he was merrily relieving himself he turned his head and there was a scary cable post. He threw himself backwards and crouched. Thank goodness he didn't back out of his collar! After a second or two he recovered enough that I could pick him up and introduce him to the scary thing. We got into the car with me sitting in the back seat with him and he slept his way over to my daughter's. This is his first time going into a new house. Leigh has 2 shelties and 2 cats. We ex'd him in the yard and then brought him in. He didn't offer to mark even once! YEAH. He had a visit with Connor and Gem, both dogs that he knows, was batted several times by Tom, the 5 month old kitten, met Flitt the 14 year old cat that has no idea it isn't a dog and took it all in stride. Tired from his training session he laid down and had a nap with the kitten behind him using his tail for a pillow. Good day for our little boy child.
 
"Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man, that he didn't, didn't already have." America

Thanks Tagg good reading. I feel a part of Tinsel's journey, with you.


Kate
 
Tagg are you familiar with martingale collars? Many of us here use them on our Shelties. If fitted properly they should not be able to back out of them. My Chandler born in a mill with over 500 dogs was also skiddish, he could back out of anything but not his martingale. It was a godsend for us.
 
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