Nursing Home Visit - A First

In our area we have a couple of nursing homes that allow us to bring our fur-babies in so the residences can get some snuggle time with them if they wish.  We had taken Amiee several times last year and she did awesome, even as shy as she is.  She just loves the attention and if you are willing to pet her she will sit for you for hours on end.  If you stop she takes her nose and nudges your hand up on to her again for more petting.

We are working on trying to socialize Bella and expose her to different surroundings and things.  So last night I dressed her in her best dress and we headed out to see how she did with her first nursing home visit.  Well we have to say that she was pretty overwhelmed by it all.  We would say she got a 5 out of 10.

When we arrived we walked in by ourselves and she was just walking getting some petting and we then met two Golden Retrievers who she did fine with.  But as we began walking the halls a little later a young German Shepard approached her and was just a little to happy to be her friend.  She didn't welcome his snoot in her face and snapped at him.  She then began to shake and do some low growl noises for everyone.  It is odd because Amiee is in her face all the time and they are always playing bitey face together, but I guess that is different when they are your fur-siblings.  She did snip at my parents young toy poodle the other night as well but I just thought she was to high strung for her and Bella associated her with a "rat" of some sort.  BOL  After her encounter with the Shepard she was pretty much "stand-offish" with all the other dogs after that.  We basically let all the other dogs move forward and we kept her at the back of the pack and let her sniff and just walk and hopefully get use to all the different things.  Her experience with inside things is very limited since she spent the first 2 years of her live outside with no socialization with other animals or people.

We believe she is just very nervous inside buildings with new surroundings and other doggies.  She did fine when we took her to local community sale last month, but that was all outside and she approached all dogs with no problems.  So definitely an inside thing that we will be working on.

Of course we were really hoping to see our friend Bunny the stunning Greyhound during our visit and introduce them to Bella.  Well they arrived a little late and by that time Bella was feeling the stress of it all and really didn't want to be introduce to Bunny, even though Bunny was very interested in meeting her I believe she could sense Bella was having a rough night and kept her distance.  We also got the honor of seeing Blueberry as well from Tales and Tails blog.  Of course Bunny and Blueberry had the most stunning collars on and Blueberry felt like silk.  Their Mom Peep was able to get Bella to warm up to her with her famous treats.  She actually snapped a few pictures of Bella so we look forward to seeing and hearing what she thought about Bella.

We have to say that all the people there with their fur-babies were so sweet and understanding of Bella.  They kept telling her how well she was doing and kept telling me not to worry about her snip that she did.  I think they could tell that her being snippy was sort of upsetting to me.  They provide great support for us and we will be taking her back next week to the other nursing home to see how she does.  We may take Amiee with us for some moral support for her and see if she does better with her fur-sibling with her.

Here are just a few pictures I snapped of her.

Bella preparing herself for her big night

Bunny face and Blueberry's butt 

 

Our good friend Bunny 

A few Goldens that are regulars 

Blueberry she had the most beautiful collar

Bella had enough 

We are hoping next week will be a little bit easier on her.

Sniffs,

Bella and HoundDogMom

Always Playing Catch Up

As usual, it seems like we are always trying to play catch up on the blog.  HDM tries really really hard to keep everyone updated on what we may be up to.  It just seems like lately she keeps going on about how busy, busy she is.  It seems like maybe she opened her mouth one to many times in last month.  She has been so very busy with transports and then this thingy called a Fundraiser.  We don't have a clue as to what this is but it sure seems to be taking up all her time.  Seems she volunteered her typing fingers to do some data entry work.  Our local Humane Society is having a huge fundraiser in 2 weeks and the data entry must be done by this weekend or the programs cannot go to the printer.  But we insisted that she take some time update what has been going on since the Basset Ball, which we didn't get to attend.

Last Thursday, (4/21) Amiee went for her second Nursing Home visit.  Once we are able to drag her out of the BUV she really does well with everyone.  She is very shy, quite and is very content with just sitting with her head being petted.  Amiee has no formal training to be doing this so we just wing it and try to make sure that we mind our manners and things.

As you probably know we have got hooked up with this great group through Tales and Tails.  They are way more experienced at this and have an idea of all the different things we can encounter.  They blogged this past week about Ice Cream being everywhere, well it is true.  Bunny and her crew are a lot taller than Amiee so they can access these things a lot easier.  It takes a little effort for Amiee to reach the Ice Cream unless someone is just outright trying to feed it to her.  There was an elder gentleman (EGM) in a wheelchair and he was very insisting that Amiee needed his Ice Cream.  Our conversation went something like this.

EGM:  Well hello there sweetie, (not me Amiee), would you like a bite of my ice cream?

Amiee:  Gives me the look, is it okay, Mom?

HDM:  Amiee, you know that we can’t eat Ice Cream when we are out working.

Amiee:  Sad eye look, but he said it was okay

EGM:  Well I don’t mind sharing my ice cream with her, really.

HDM:  I appreciate your welling to share your ice cream, but it is part of her training she must not accept food from strangers.

EGM:  Well I am not a stranger because we have been introduced already, and I really think she needs some of my ice cream.  Ice Cream makes everyone happy, he proceeds to tell me,  she doesn’t look happy.  Look at her eyes, what is wrong with her eyes?

HDM:  Well she is a basset hound and they have very droopy eyes that are blood shot a lot.   She also got a walk shortly before we came tonight so she is really tired, I told him.   (This night, Amiee’s eyes were exceptionally blood shot and red).

EGM:  Oh, as he continues to eat his ice cream.

We proceed to walk to another wing to visit some other people.  Here are a few pictures of some of our new fur-ends we have met while visiting.  Sorry we can't remember all our new fur-ends names.

This is Gracie and she has been doing this for sometime.  She was the official greeter at the door.  Would give a soft woof woof when someone would come in the door.   

Sniffs, The HoundDogs

Amiee Went Volunteering

For some time, I have wanted to get at least Amiee involved with Pet Therapy visiting nursing homes, etc.  The thing is, Amiee has not had any formal training of any sorts.  So accomplishing this, I just wasn’t exactly sure how to go about this.  I have been following the Tales and Tails blog for some time as they have the most awesome adventures and live pretty darn close to us.  I have been reading all about Bunny, Blueberry and Morgan’s trips to all the various places they go.  So I decided to chat with their Mom about it all. 

Well it turns out the group they work with here in our home town in Illinois does not require any type of training.  Well that is just down our alley for sure.  So a few weeks ago I met up with the Tales and Tails gang and got the honor of having Blueberry show me the ropes on how it all worked (minus Amiee) this time around.  Well I can tell you Blueberry, Bunny and Morgan are very well known and everyone just seems to love them so much.  They are definitely experienced in this and we Amiee can learn some wonderful manners from them.

Well last Thursday (4/14) was the big date that we had chosen to introduce Amiee to her new job.  First Mom had to take off early that day to go home and make sure that she was all prettied up for this adventure.  She got a quick bath, brushed, ears cleaned and her teeth brushed.  We left the house and headed to our destination with great anticipation.  Once there I was finally able to get her out of the back of the BUV and get her ready to start working.  Typical Amiee fashion she walked very close to my leg (Velcro style) and kept looking up at me like, WTH have you gotten me into, Mom.  After our official meet and greet with the Tales and Tails clan (Bunny and Morgan) we made our way inside following Bunny and Morgan’s lead.

Do I look excited about my new job

Once we got inside we walked around and followed Bunny and Morgan.  Bunny knows her job very well and I learned a lot from her.  Still staying very close to my mom.  Here are a few pictures that Mom snapped of Bunny and Morgan working.

Bunny

Morgan looking for treats that Mom was feeding him

Oh, yea there ya go Morgan.  Very nice pose!

Bunny stylish as ever

Amiee, did you say we were going home!

Overall, it was a very good experience and I think I did pretty good.  I made lots of new fur-friends and finally meeting our blogging friends from Tales and Tails.  This Thursday I will be visiting another nursing home, so wish me luck.

Sniffs, Amiee, HoundDogMom