My New Foster, the Coyote
I very rarely have any NK-related things to contribute, but I wanted to show you guys my new foster dog. He came to me because he's a HUGE handful and I never thought I'd enjoy this kind of dog, but he's super cool and such a character.
Unfortunately, he thinks all animals outside of people are probably for eating. We're working on that.
Who wants to try the guessing game?
And his crazy crate picture.
Unfortunately, he thinks all animals outside of people are probably for eating. We're working on that.
Who wants to try the guessing game?
And his crazy crate picture.
Comments
He's a super high-energy dog and has been stuck in boarding for a while. That plus his "inability" to be with other dogs kind of set him up to be a whole bag of crazy. It's only been a couple days since I've had him and he's already stopped going after my dogs - he'll try to "hunt" and bully London (my Mal) and gets a little over excitable with Russell when they're playing, but I have high hopes for him. It'll take a while, but he'll be just fine. He only snaps after he goes past his threshold for excitement (which is, admittedly, very low and we're adjusting that). I let him and my boys interact for short periods of play and intervene when I see things getting too tense.
I know it shouldn't be funny, but watching this ~30 pound dog think he can take on my Malamute is a little ridiculous.
The rescue said he was a Corgi x Collie, but I don't think either of those dogs have an agouti coat and he doesn't have the drive to herd as much to stalk and catch (which could be intense herding, but I've never seen a herding dog shake the crap out of something it's nipping at). I suspect he may be some kind of spitz or northern breed mixed with a terrier or herder (so... maybe - probably - corgi) who just happens to be sort of short and long. He came all the way from So. Cal. - I don't really know what breeds are common out there. Any insight?
What he is doesn't matter much, but I always think it's fun to speculate.
Swedish Vallhund?
Maybe Corgi and Shiba.
And no, Vallhunds don't seem to be too common, but I've met two in the Bay Area now. So I pretty much leave room for the possibility of ANYTHING with these games, especially since we might never really know.
My guess would be some kind of Corgi mix. The colours are right for a Corgi (he looks like a sable), but the legs are way too long.
I don't know much about them though.
Every night he stays at my house, he gets WORLDS better, it's incredible. I know he's just getting used to the routine here and my dogs (specifically, not "all dogs" or "all cats"), but... during the first night, he'd react to EVERYTHING and try to pick fights with London. Now, he knows we wake up, we go out, we have breakfast--etc--and he doesn't really try to mess with my dogs until we're in one of the "downtime" periods, so he spends a bit of time isolated when I can't watch him.
I've known some herding dogs that were unable to exercise their herding instinct so they took it out on everyone around them... One (worst case scenario) is so controlling over "movement" that she does it to all dogs who she *thinks* are getting out of control.... she's a hard one to be around. Mirra H-ates having her around with a passion!
How great that he's settling in and finding reassurance from you in your consistency!! Good job @Crispy!
I'm also seriously wondering if I should ask if we can get his thyroid or something tested. His hair - however crisp and coarse - is very thin and seems slow to grow. He's also quite itchy (raw/bald in some places). I thought it might be from having too much energy and self-grooming to the point of irritation or maybe an allergic reaction to the food his last foster/boarding situation had him eating... but it hasn't been getting any better. His last situation also noted to me, when I picked him up, that he was losing weight recently (which I also attributed to stress), but he seems a lot more mellowed out now and he's still got these problems (though I have noticed a decrease in how frequent his grooming sessions are and how raw his skin is).
I guess the bottom line is--is it too early to worry about bigger health issues going on that could make him act this way/feel poopy? I'm, specifically, a little worried about hyperthyroid - I know dogs are commonly hypothyroid if they have thyroid problems... but this dog hasn't really had any of these health checks done.
Should I keep him on his schedule and LID (he's on salmon and sweet potato Natural Balance - I give it to London for his allergies too) and do a wait-and-see? I'm not really certain how long it takes for a system to adjust.
I didn't realize that corgis get their tails cut? I guess I've not been around many. I think I've met like three ever.
Pembroke Welsh Corgis have the bobtail gene, but not all examples of the breed have a natural bobtail. I guess the trend after the anti-docking laws happened in the UK was toward the dogs with the natural bobtail gene, but recently, my friends say they've seen more dogs -with- tails and they usually have sickle or curled tails when they've got them.
a lot like this guy, who looks a whole lot like Tracer, only with a saddle: (huh)
Now that people don't work them quite as much the tails are more left alone except for in parts of the country where they still do work - like around here most of them work, so all the tails are docked that I've seen in our area.