[dagwall]

I'm doing short term fostering now but so short term that it's basically vacation coverage for other fosters for now. Our first foster sitting started yesterday and Jubel spent the day at daycare himself so I'd bring home a tired dog who'd head off to bed early.

Traffic was horrible so I got home really late let everyone out to potty and get food prepared. Harlee has Addison's and with a recent medicine change put on some unwanted weight and is now on a green bean/carrot diet. So I had to fix her food with her gated in the kitchen with me while Jubel ate his dinner out of his bob-a-lot in the living room. She finishes her food so I let her out of the kitchen to get a drink of water, she bolts for the living room after the sound of food.

This is the only area I was somewhat worried about Jubel but had no real experience with. He is SUCH a food whore so I wouldn't have been surprised if he got snippy with Harlee going for his food. He's such a good boy though, he saw me coming to grab her away and he just picked up his bob-a-lot and moved to the other side of the room no fuss at all. Not something I was looking to test with him but happy to see he didn't get snippy.

Later in the evening Jubel was up taking a nap with my brother and Harlee was hanging out in the basement with me. I had gotten a dog bed out for her, Jubel has taken more to playing/destroying that bed so it's usually up on a shelf. I guess Jubel was done napping and bugging my brother who was still trying to sleep a bit later and my brother put him in the basement with me. Jubel comes and says hi and sees Harlee in the bed, decides he wants the bed but has good enough manners to not force it.

What does he do?? A few minutes later he flies to his feet barking his head off alerting me to God knows what only to run over and curl up in the dog bed the second Harlee comes running over to bark with him. Sneaky little brat haha.

So far they've done really well together, should get a full report from my brother when I get home about how they did together all day. Jubel even tried very nicely, he can be a bit rude with doggie manners, to get Harlee to play with him this morning. She chose to sleep by herself in the living room last night but came upstairs when she heard me getting ready for work. Jubel did a big play bow in front of her and hoped around her in a circle a few times. When she pretty much just ignored him he went downstairs to look out the window until I came down to let them out to potty.

Happy to see them doing well so far. I was more nervous about him and Harlee, 9 year old basset hound, than I am about the two Chi/terrier puppies I'll be watching for a few days about 2 weeks from now. Jubel has always been good and basically ignores smalls dogs, medium to big dogs he'll usually try and play with and his style of play isn't always well received. Here's hoping everything continues smoothly until she is picked up on Tuesday.

 

[Amaryllis]

What does he do?? A few minutes later he flies to his feet barking his head off alerting me to God knows what only to run over and curl up in the dog bed the second Harlee comes running over to bark with him. Sneaky little brat haha.

ROFL! Jubel is quite the clever one, huh?

 

[dagwall]

Well everything continued fine for the rest of Harlee's stay with us other than the fact that she seems to be extremely needy of attention which I find really annoying. So in general I'd have to say I don't like her and her neediness.

She did get a bit better near the end of her stay, I'm not sure if that was because she was becoming more comfortable or my negative punishment of the whining was starting to work. Once I realized she was just whining because sitting next to me wasn't enough she wanted to be pet very often I just ignored the whining and would only pet her when she was calm and quite. I'm used to and fine with velcro dogs but needy is not fun for me at all.

Honestly I was pretty happy when her pick up day came. Her neediness also made it somewhat difficult to play/train with Jubel. If food/treats where involved I had to take him down in the basement and leave her alone in the living room where she'd cry/bark most of the time. Should would get in the way and expect treats as well which should couldn't have due to her diet and allergies both. When my brother or I would play with Jubel he's vocal and would likely be play growling. I'm not sure if she just wanted in on the attention or felt the need to break up the 'fighting' but she'd shove herself in the middle of us. I let Jubel correct her for this a few times but it never stopped her so we had to just keep her away.

This is all relevant now because I just got an email saying the foster will be going out of town again in about an month and asking if I can watch her again. I'm really conflicted about what to say. I don't really WANT to because I didn't enjoy her being around. But I feel bad about that being a reason to say no. In general the dogs got along fine other than her refusing to really play with Jubel even when he was very polite about it. Her foster was really happy too because we live so close and other fosters who have covered for her before are about 45 minutes away.

So yeah I don't really WANT to watch Harlee again, at least not so soon, but feel really bad about possibly saying no. Advice?

 

[lisahi]

Oh gosh... my parents' dog Cricket does this too. In a lot of ways, her older sister, Missy, is smarter than Cricket. However, when it comes to games of trickery and getting what she wants, Cricket is a master.

She'll go to the window and start barking and as soon as Missy gets up from her cozy, coveted spot on the living room chair, Cricket takes her spot. Cricket also does this to get Missy away from her food bowl during meals because Cricket likes Missy's food better than her own.