PRINCE - 18 MONTH MALE

FOSTER UPDATE - DECEMBER 7, 2023

Prince is doing really well in his new foster home. He is still a busy guy, but his restless energy has toned down to a more normal level. He is not a dog that likes to laze around all day though. He likes to chew bully sticks and stuffed toys, chase the kitties and play with the other dogs in the house. If you do not give him energy outlets, he will make his own and not always ones you want! He does usually settle for an afternoon nap but it's a short one and then he is up and ready to enjoy life again. If he's had a good walk and lots to do during the day, he will settle on the couch for snuggle time in the evening until he goes into his crate for the night. He is wonderful in his crate and never makes a peep throughout the night. Hopefully once he masters the house training, he will be able to sleep in the big bed at night. He is such a snuggle bug and that is where he would probably prefer to be!

His house training is going okay and he is making improvements, but it is still not where it needs to be. Even though he is on a puppy training schedule, and is being taken out every 20 minutes in the morning and evening and every hour during the day, he still has accidents in the house, sometimes even shortly after successfully going outside.
He is down to really only 1 sometimes 2 accidents a day and we are hopeful that he will be fully house trained in the near future.

He really loves other dogs, it doesn't matter what size or temperament. He just wants to be every dog's best friend and play! He reminds us of the typical movie college guy, the one that is always up for a good time and always wants to be surrounded by friends!

Prince loves to pick up anything that is on the floor, so his foster mom has taught him a "trade" cue. He will now drop the item he has and run to her for his treat trade. This helps him with his resource guarding as well (which is mild with both people and other dogs) and is improving with trade exercises and practice around his food bowl.

Prince has started working on some clicker training, just to help drain his mental energy so he can relax a bit more. He really loves it. He does several short sessions a day with his foster mom and he is slowly figuring out the idea of offering behaviour without being prompted! He gets very wiggly when the clicker comes out!

He is doing pretty well with the big cats as they tell him no and he respects that. He will lick them and snuggle up, but doesn't bother them. The 2 foster kittens are a different story. He harasses them pretty constantly. He doesn't hurt them and just wants to play, but because they are too small to tell him no, he has to be redirected several times throughout the day and occasionally separated from them until Prince can be focused on something else to do.

Prince would likely enjoy Rally O or Agility and would excel! He for sure has the smarts, energy and body for it! His breathing is fantastic. He can run full speed around the large yard after the big dogs and not even be panting.

Did we mention he has the most smooshable face ever?

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FOSTER UPDATE - NOVEMBER 5, 2023

Through no fault of his own, Prince had to be moved to a new foster home on October 30th. Unfortunately his training had not progressed as we had anticipated but foster mom has now assessed what needs to be done and has started him on a good path to success.

She reports that Prince has the kind of personality that endears him to you. You just want to look after him and make him happy. He is such a soft, cuddly guy you want to snuggle and smoosh his face! You can tell his issues are coming from lack of confidence and just not knowing any better.  

During the first couple days, he was a bit of a nightmare with the cats but they have sorted themselves out for the most part. He calls off of them easily now and we keep their interactions calm and positive as much as possible. There is no aggression with the cats, just overstimulation. He gets along very well with the dogs he has met. He does try and hump, but backs off when they tell him no. He also calls off easily if the dog won’t say no.

He is doing a bit better with the house training but there is lots of work still to do. He is taken out to potty every hour and has at least an hour’s walk daily. He will now “go pee” on cue, after which he looks for a reward right away and seems pretty proud of himself!  Despite these opportunities to relieve himself, we have still had a few accidents this week. He doesn’t seem at all fazed about going anywhere at any time. He will come in from a long walk with several pees and still do his little puddle. He has not lifted his leg on anything in the house, just leaves a little puddle and poop. This is happening less every day. We’ve just bought some steak to cook up and use as a reward and will see if that gives just going outside the winning edge!

We have started working on basic obedience although not as much as I’d like because we are working on the more important things. Hopefully we can get his basic obedience cues in there for him as well. I have seen some resource guarding, mild with toys and moderate with higher value chews so we have added working with that to the list. He is doing well.

Prince is a majorly busy little dude! He has almost no impulse control and communicates his feelings loud and proud! He whines in frustration when chewing a bully stick or sweet potato chew. He just can’t eat them fast enough and that makes him sad! When we eat our meals, he barks at us. The first few days, he barked through every meal but it’s getting better. Now, although he still barks, our family can actually have a conversation while eating again. Same with his feeding time. It takes about ten minutes after putting his food in his bowl to get him to calm down enough to eat. This entails many trips back to the couch to ignore him, but again, he is getting better and having moments of quiet that are being rewarded. At dinner tonight he got super excited but then calmed down and offered me a sit – so that was huge for him!  He is also now able to wait for his food dish on the floor and offer me eye contact until he is told “okay”. So progress is happening!!!  

Prince is an absolute LOVE. He has such a zest for life, it’s contagious! He is incredibly easy to fall in love with. He has charm in spades!

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FOSTER UPDATE - JULY 14, 2023

Things are going well with Prince. The husbandry stuff is great, although he still needs some work on staying a bit more stationary as he gets sooooooo excited. He has not tried marking, but he is still on a line at this point. We are planning to have him visit a different house to test his self-control amid new scents and different furniture. He’s making progress, although it’s taking a little longer than anticipated because of circumstances not related to Prince. In the meantime, he’s a happy little scamp who enjoys life and learning.

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FOSTER UPDATE - JUNE 22, 2023

Prince is doing great and having fun, as you can see from the recent photos. He has recovered completely from his neuter. 

 

His housetraining is coming along very well. We are not using belly bands, a normal part of housetraining management, because of his previous association with inappropriate urination while wearing them and the resulting pee burns. Rather, he is learning new habits and routines with the goal of urinating only outdoors. He is crated overnight and pees outside after being taken out immediately. When loose in the house (loose meaning not crated), he is on a long line in the same room as whoever is with him and never out of sight. As he gains confidence, he is being given more freedom, gradually increasing the time he is loose in the house. After some play or hanging out time, he goes back in the crate for an hour, not so much because he needs to be crated for most of the usual reasons but to establish holding it in. Then outside and repeat. The number of times getting rotated from the crate to outside and inside loose on a line has been reduced from over ten times daily to about six times, with longer times outside the crate. To break him of the habit of lifting his leg on common marking areas such as couches, chairs and table legs etc., trails of kibble are set up along the couch front and chair fronts several times a day so that when he goes to those spots, he finds a kibble trail and follows that instead of sniffing the couch and possibly wanting to mark out of habit. The idea is to create new habits to replace his old habit of randomly sniffing and marking. So far it’s working but we’re going slowly to make sure there are no slip ups. 

 

Prince is a very happy boy but does have a nervous energy about him sometimes. Keeping him close and petting him calmly or putting him in his crate with a stuffed Toppl or something relaxing gets him back to a happy busy energy instead of the unsure nervous silly energy.

He is so charismatic. Everyone who sees him just loves him. 

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FOSTER UPDATE - MAY 27, 2023

Prince was moved from his temporary foster home in the middle of May and has now settled into his new surroundings where he is adored and learning new behaviours. Understandably, he was a bit subdued the first couple of days as he adjusted to his new environment. He didn't eat any kibbles the first day and a half, just walked away from them, signalling that he was feeling a bit anxious. But then he started to pick at them and now is eating just fine. At first he would wag his tail but show very submissive posture. Some "Treat Retreat” training has helped a lot in his gaining confidence. He loved to go into his crate but didn't always want to come back out. Day by day he has become more animated and eventually came bounding out of the crate to go outside first thing in the morning. So he has definitely become comfortable. We’re looking forward to continued progress in respecting boundaries with other dogs. His neuter surgery may help curtail the humping activity but further training will also help.

Intubating Prince for neuter surgery was difficult, raising the question of whether palate surgery should be considered. However, based on the fact that he doesn’t snore, can run forever without trouble or gasping and has pretty decent looking nares, the vet said she probably wouldn’t recommend it. Prince has now had his DHPP booster. His blood results came back great and the urinalysis done on April 26th showed good pH and no infection. While he continues to not be a fan of clinic visits and wiggles about during examinations, he has chilled out a lot.

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FOSTER UPDATE - APRIL 28, 2023

Prince has been here about 2 and 1/2 weeks. He’s a sweet, very active boy who loves all people and seems overjoyed to have other dogs to play with. However, he arrived un-neutered and the resident lady dogs have found he loves them way too much. They have found him super annoying with the humping and obsession with their lady bits.

The good news is that Prince was neutered yesterday and is recovering well. So we’ll see how that changes the dynamics in the house. He had other wellness tests done at the vets including ones to make sure he doesn’t have any urinary tract or related infections. No results yet.

We are working on changing a few of his less desirable behaviours. Prince’s potty training has been progressing slowly but we’re seeing much longer streams outside (when he arrived, he would only do dozens of tiny little squirts of urine inside and out). He’s also making fewer attempts at marking in the house. Both OF these things are really positive.

Prince hates getting his nails cut and found our vet visits terrifying. What a heartbreaker, that was. He’ll need desensitizing to both with lots of positive experiences. Unfortunately, we’re not close to the vet clinic so we can’t do lots of practice visits with plenty of treats and no exams.

The first couple of days Prince was here, there were two occurrences of food guarding with another dog. No guarding has occurred since but I’m not sure if it’s due to good management or if he just needed time to get used to having the other dogs around. It’s something I’ll be monitoring. He’s fabulous with sharing toys, beds, and his personal space. And he shows zero signs of guarding with humans. We’ve started to work on a “leave it,” as well.

Prince took to crate training instantly and happily runs into his crate for bedtime. He gets a peanut butter lick mat to help him settle in for sleep. However, he would be very happy to share the human’s bed (the resident old lady dogs said no way, no how)! Truly, it was the easiest crate training experience I’ve ever had.

Prince is a wonderful snuggler. In true pug fashion, he likes to be touching at all times. And he seems very happy to be cuddled like a baby. Prince also loves going for walks on-leash and is a mere blur of joy when playing off-leash. He has so many fabulous qualities.

 

FOSTER INTRODUCTION - APRIL 10, 2023

Meet Prince, an 18 month old brindle pug who came into foster care today through no fault of his own. He is an energetic young man who loves everyone he meets. He needs to learn about appropriate pottying and he will need to be neutered and brought up to date on his vaccinations. We look forward to learning and sharing more about this young fellow as he settles in to his foster home.

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