EBBY - 6 YEAR OLD FEMALE

FOSTER UPDATE - MAY 26, 2023

Ebby continues to be her charming little self! Now that the weather is warm, I am finding she is quite the little water pug! She also would like to spend 75% of her day basking in the sun. When I tell her it is time to go in she will take 2 or 3 small steps and then sit and pretend it was the wind she heard and not me!
 
In the beginning of May we made a trip down to Aurora to see a dental specialist veterinarian and Ebby had her long awaited dental surgery. They removed her dentigerous cyst and fixed a couple other things in her mouth that needed attention.
 
We had to stay overnight and Ebby was so well behaved in the hotel! I was really proud of her. She also did so well for the 4 hour drive there and back.
There was not a time during our trip, even with all the new places and smells, that Ebby did not listen. This is amazing since in the beginning she had a hard time listening anytime she was outside on a leash. We were even able to practice loose leash walking on our walk before her surgery!
 
We now have to call her Auntie Ebby as she likes to take care of the baby goats on the farm. She also is completely in love with the piglets. She gets an A+ as a farm dog!
 
Ebby was supposed to go for x-rays for a persistent, mild limp. Unfortunately there were 2 emergencies that came in shortly before our appointment. We decided to rebook, so instead we walked to the pet store and bought Ebby her favourite salmon chews & treats and then we headed to the local dog friendly beach. I only had a 6 foot leash but I think if I had a longer leash she might have tried to swim!

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FOSTER UPDATE - APRIL 12, 2023

Ebby is a true adventurer! Snow, mud, water -  nothing slows her down. She loves being out with her person and exploring everything she can. When out in the bush trails I usually have her on a 20 ft long line so she can explore and she rarely goes right to the end, preferring to stay closer to me. Her recall is excellent. The past couple of weeks we have had warmer weather so we have gone for a few 2+ hour hikes and Ebbs is in her glory when out exploring nature.

We have gone for a few walks in town as well and her leash pulling is way better. I got her an easy walk harness and this really works well for her. She checks in often and we can go on stress free and after the exciting initial first couple of mins - pull free walks. In town she walks really well and stays calm when she sees cars, other dogs and people (although she would LOVE to say hi to ALL the people if given the option)

Ebby LOVES kids, loud kids, quiet kids, groups of kids… it really doesn’t seem to matter to her she just can't get enough love from them, as soon as a kiddo is in her range she is sitting on them and try her best to wash their face or arms or anywhere she can reach really!

She has also become quite the farm helper dog! She enjoying following the chickens around the yard and helps keep the goats in line - the ponies still get the side eye though : )

She eats her dinner around 6pm. Which is a hilarious thing in itself. She gets so excited when I go to the food dish area (even though she has had a hearty breakfast and kibble for training throughout the day) as soon as her dish has kibble she sprints down the hall to our room- does a huge spin on the bed and lays down faster than most agility dogs! (she has to lay down and wait for me to lower the bowl and once it is lowered she has to wait and make eye contact before giving the “okay”) She loves it, I'm pretty sure besides the walks it is her favourite time of day! Once she has finished eating she hangs out with us for a few minutes and then she calls it a day and she can be found in our bed… usually on my pillow waiting for us to come to bed! I will try and get a video because it is seriously cute!

Medically her allergies have been great, she got an allergy cytopoint shot and was taken off the apoquel pills and this seems to really be working for her! Cytopoint has no known side effects so we are happy that so far this seems to be a good option for Ebby.

Ebby is booked in for surgery with a dental specialist to remove impacted teeth and a dentigerous cyst in early May.

 

So all in all Ebby is doing great! As I am typing this she is asleep on a blanket under my desk and her head is on my foot, she is such a love.

 

FOSTER UPDATE - MARCH 10, 2023

Ebby is doing really well. I know I’ve said it before, but she is such a nice mix of personality and in the house, just so easy to live with! (outside she is wonderful as well, she just gets overwhelmed in new situations easily which makes her ability to listen a challenge for her) She is improving by leaps and bounds with each new place we take her, and is consistently able to offer me attention now when I ask for it and occasionally she offers it on her own.  

 

She had a tiny setback with her allergies. We are not sure what she got into, but she ended up with an infection in her wrinkles due to an allergic flare. A round of antibiotics and she is back to normal. Other than that, her allergies have been good.

 

She is doing fantastic in the car (3 different vehicles now for generalization) and is mostly a normal dog either resting or watching out the window calmly. The only time she still occasionally gets excited is when we stop in front of a store. She does a bit of whining, but settles fairly quickly and we drive on!

 

We went to the pet store today and she was like a kid in a candy store. She was SO excited to go and meet all the people, she is such a social butterfly!

 

She is becoming much more comfortable around my big dogs. In the beginning, she mostly tried to ignore them and keep her distance - there were lots of calming signals. Now she can be found sleeping on the couch right next to them, or up on our bed watching them while they wrestle.

 

She LOVES her toys and could play fetch or keep away as long as you can give her! She often walks up to us (my daughter especially, since she’s the most fun) with a toy in her mouth and gives us her best Puss N Boots sad eyes until we grab her toy and play. After playing, she sprawls across the first available lap for a quick nap. She keeps us all entertained for sure.

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FOSTER UPDATE - FEBRUARY 6, 2023

Ebby is doing really well. She is just so easy to have in the house. She is coming along great in the car and no longer cries or maniacally paces. She has the odd moment of her behaviour reappearing but we are at about 95% calm and, even though she’s doing so well, she really is at the beginning of her training so we could see some reemergence in the future. She is able to handle the indicator sound and also slowing and coming to stops while remaining calm, which is huge for her.

 

The first week that we noticed she had anxiety in the car, we spent an average of 3 hours a day 5 days a week in the car. We had a lot of desensitizing to do! In the beginning it was just sitting and then we progressed to turning the car on and off. Once she could handle that, we began driving (and thank goodness we live on quiet country roads), spending hours just slowing down and then speeding up over and over again and then adding complete stops. Once she could handle that, I began turning the indicator on and off randomly or sometimes just leaving it on for 5 minutes at a time until it no longer triggered her and then I started adding them all together.

 

In the beginning I could not reward her with anything (voice or treat) because she was just too ramped up and anything added increased her distress; happily we’ve made enough progress that now I can reward her for calm behaviour. Because of her brilliance, she moved quite quickly and now that she can handle my vehicle, we are moving on to other vehicles to help generalize her calm behaviour.  We still drive about 2 hours a day just to continue reinforcing the calm behaviour. Hopefully by the time she is available for adoption, car stress will be completely in her past!  I included a picture of the first time Ebby just lay down and relaxed in the car. It was a BIG deal for her!!

 

I am finding that Ebby gets very overwhelmed in new situations. At the vet she was completely “brains out the ears”, not even able to listen to me. About the midway point, she was able to turn the brain back on and we were able to do some attention and calming exercises, so it ended up being a positive in the end. Even though she was a bit stressed out, she was so good for everything the vet did with her. The vet and technician kept commenting what a sweetheart she was. Once the weather improves (we have been so cold here recently), I am going to start taking her into town and continue working on attention and maybe help her improve her self-confidence in new situations so she can stay out of fight or flight brain.

 

Last week we went for a couple of walks with some friends' dogs (all small breeds). Ebby is very good with dogs on first meet and very happy to meet everyone but I did find again that she does get overwhelmed easily. It seems as though she is not really sure how to respond to dogs in all situations so she did snap a couple of times at the younger more boisterous dogs (no contact) but a confident, well socialized dog would have been able to deal with them without immediately resorting to snapping. She did look to me for help immediately after. I just started luring the younger dogs away from her when they did get in her face and she was right as rain after and was trying to run around with everyone. I think Ebby’s “best” home may not be with young or energetic dogs. She much prefers the calm, gentle souls like her. She gets along well with my guys but mostly avoids them. Funnily enough there is a neighborhood labrador that goes around from house to house in the morning looking for love and treats and Ebby absolutely loves her. I swear she waits for her lab friend to come visit her every day now.

 

She absolutely LOVES my cats; she is always up for a cat snuggle. She is also really good with my chickens and goats now. The chickens took a couple of days as she wanted to chase them but now she is just fine loose with them. She absolutely hates horse neighing (lol), whether she hears it from my ponies or the T.V - it gets her right worked up!

 

Medically, Ebby’s blood work results were great and her fecal was negative. She has seemed a wee bit sore on her front leg so the vet recommended shorter walks with a day off in-between until we can get to the bottom of why. She also mentioned that she would like to see Ebby lose about 1.5 kg. which will take pressure of her leg. We are waiting to hear back as to whether her dental cyst can be removed at my vet or if she will need to go to a specialist.

 

Everything I mentioned last time is still true. She is such a sweet, darling girl. I call her Ebby Darling.

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FOSTER UPDATE:  JANUARY 19, 2023

Ebby is an absolute doll. Beautiful on the inside and out! Honestly, whoever adopts her will be so lucky. So far she really has the perfect mix of personality. She loves to be with people and snuggle but is not overly clingy. She is mostly calm and sweet but also silly and playful in the evenings before bed. She just wants to please people (and wash their arms at night in bed). She gets along with everyone and everything so far! She listens beautifully and is so easy to work with. 

 

She was quite disconnected on leash walks and pulled most of her first couple of walks but with only a few short sessions, she is offering multiple check-ins and catching on to checking in when she hits the end of the leash, and she's doing this all with boring old kibble as reinforcement!  (I'll stop now, I could fan girl over her for a long time - lol)

 

So far her allergies have been really good. She has only had one very short back foot licking/biting moment which I was able to distract her from easily.

 

The only behavior quirk I’ve noticed is that she gets overstimulated/anxious in the car and cries. Today was the first day I took her for a ride (twice) to pick up my daughter. Once we got back home,

we sat in the car until she calmed down. I took her out just to sit in the car this afternoon while I read; once she calmed down, we went for a little walk. I will keep doing this with her. She really is brilliant so I don’t think it will take long to get her settled and enjoying car rides.

 

Ebby is booked in for her first vet appointment on January 31st for her physical checkup and blood work. She will have a fecal sample checked and also have her anal glands expressed if need be. If her blood work comes back clear, we will be booking her dental surgery to remove two teeth and the dentigerous cyst surrounding one of them, as recommended by the dental specialist. While she’s under anaesthetic, we will have them cut her nails quite far back so she will be more comfortable to take longer walks. We’ll report further next month.

 

INTAKE:  JANUARY 14, 2O23

Please welcome sweet 6 year old spayed female pug Ebby, who came into foster care today. Ebby’s longstanding challenge with allergies doesn’t stop her from being energetic, spunky and loving. We look forward to getting to know her better over the coming weeks.