New Pupster and New Foods.

I'm ironing out the kinks of getting the new puppy. I think I will call him "Pignot Grigio" and Penne for short. I love random call names.

Anyway. This is the FIRST time I actually gave Puppy an egg. She loved it and she ate it quite slowly which is remarkable for her because she's usually a wolfer. Now she's poking around for more foods.

The problem is eggs are really high in protein. Meaning I need to go find some more fruits and vegetables because otherwise she's going to be deficient in those other things. I don't know. I need to buy more vegetables period because we haven't had them in awhile and she basically eats the same stuff as me... except mostly raw.

I'm putting the half payment on the new baby in about a week. As things go now, I should have it even though money is going to be exceptionally tight until then.

Behavior Wellness Program

The title is fairly random.

Anyway, so the new job at the veterinary hospital requires me to do a slew of online tests and in house quizzes. I've been working my rear off on the online stuff so I can just focus on reading the information for the upcoming quizzes.

I have two that I need to go ahead and take and one of the ones I have to take is like greek to me, the other isn't too bad.

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I got a chance to meet the actual in-house vet the other day and I decided to make casual conversation with her as she was/is fostering the dog that bit me on the first day. I asked her in a roundabout way about my dog's forming aggression. I didn't have too much time to go into detail about my dog's problems but I just mentioned that she recently started developing it and mostly around larger dogs. I mentioned that she is perpetually annoyed at home by the terrier mix that my roommate owns (She likes to say chihuahua mix but the damn thing is a hideous terrier) and random other dogs that my roommate likes to babysit. And they always claim that they're "playing" even though my dog very often has her tail tucked under her legs.

Basically, the doctor was just like "Well that is sensible aggression, I wouldn't get mad at her about that," and then we joked for a minute about people that cannot control their dogs.

Also, at work, there are three... well four... medium breed foster dogs and all of them are pit bull mixes. It's kind of funny because one is a puppy which one of my coworkers LOVES, another is stricken to her cage 24/7 because she is quite animal aggressive and a great jumper. And the other two require like a certification to handle. The two that require certification to handle... they're not really even that bad. They're trying to teach them to sit but I think they're going about it the wrong way. I think they should be way more patient with them and reward for it as well. They're always nervous when they approach her for what she needs and she's always excited to have attention. I know my tense changed, I was talking about the first dog, Carmilla. She's a sweety. The other is Pinky even though he's not very pink. He's a stafordshire terrier. I'm "not allowed to walk him" because of his aggressiveness but he seems perfectly fine but very strong.

I'm a person that gives little to no slack on the lead for dogs that I can touch by standing; this is mainly because I only way 120 and most of the dogs have more muscle than me. So it is almost manditory that I keep the lead high on the neck with not much more than an inch slack. My coworker thought it was too little slack but I don't like for dogs to walk in front of me or very close to level.

Anyway... I'll finish later.

It's been awhile.

But I have good news to report!

For one: I got another job. This one is at a veterinary office; I'm a caretaker as they call it but what I basically do is scoop poop and clean cages and bathe dogs. It's fairly enjoyable and I get to learn a lot about dog behavior.

The bad part is that my dog has actually been acting oddly aggressive. Really, I don't think it's so much aggression as just being nervous. She barks when really hyper dogs or big dogs are around her, usually if they're sniffing her. She gives them like a couple seconds and then she may bark. It's strange because I can't predict what dog it'll happen with and even then. Like if it happens at the dog park, per se, once the dog is lying down, she'll approach it. I think she's just learned how to protect herself just because she is very often trampled or generally bullied by the other dog that lives here. The other dog is a terrier/chihuahua mix and it basically pesters the hell out of her but she puts up with it. And with larger dogs, she usually is trampled over constantly. With puppies, she's began to bark and if they persist snap at the air which is fine with me but I worry with larger dogs just because she is seen as a sort of prey creature if she yelps towards them. The last time she was with a larger set of dogs, she snapped at the puppy (chocolate lab) when it was hyper around her but would wag her tail relaxed and run towards it once it was lying down. And then when the other two even bigger dogs came, she chased after them as they played. She also played with a husky mix and didn't growl at all when she approached. I think she has a thing against labs specifically, honestly. Though I don't blame her because if I was constantly trampled, I'd probably bark too when a lab got too close. She mostly barks at overly excited dogs.


Lately I've been giving her a bit of oatmeal because she hasn't been getting a grain. I know most people dispute over this one but I feel like, since dogs and wolves tend to eat herbivores they are getting balanced nutrition because whether we like it or not, they're at some point absorbing some things that they wouldn't from meat eating animals.

So today she got:

One chicken wing

1/4 cup cooked oatmeal (it's more once it's cooked but when I measured it uncooked it was a fourth a cup)



She's very fragile... so I am thinking about trying to get some more calcium into her system, hopefully that works on dogs like it does on humans.