Hello, Dudley here.

I wanted to give you a quick update on how I am doing.   The transition to my new foster home has gone quite well. After meeting the resident pack, Windy and Comet (11-293),  I have quickly settled into the new household and schedule. 

The first couple of days were very busy with learning the new floor plan, maneuvering the space and learning the household schedule.  During which I felt most comfortable hanging out in or near my kennel.

By the third day, I was a master:)

Yet seriously, this household has an early rise and shine (many days @ 3:30 AM), but I am up and waiting, wagging my tail,  when FM comes down from the upstairs. 

Soon, I had found my big boy pants and began the ritual of going out to the back yard with the other pups.  While FM runs around and herds and feeds the kittys' (resident Chloe and Miah), we pups snoop around outside and do what needs to be done, with a bit of chasing bunnies and barking at the sounds of the new day.

After the fifth day, I was free roaming and sleeping in the same quarters as the other pups, without issue.  I believe that I may have barked once or twice when I was separated (baby gate) from the sleeping quarters of Comet & Windy, so FM said lets  give it a try, and allowed all members at the slumber party to be in the same room.  

My FM tells me I am a very SWEET boy who  loves to please and be with members of the household, human and furr.  

I am a very good eater, no guarding of food (FM says something to the effect that I am very food motivated  . . . whatever that means).  I take treats nicely.   Have I mention that I LOVE ice cubes?

FM here:    I believe that Dudley's last surgical procedure seems to have removed much (most) of his hip pain.  He has no issues with doing the four steps to enter the home, we are walking for 1 1/2 miles every day possible.  His little hip hop jump when excited for meal time or a treat, leads me to believe his pain is much-much less (at this time he is only taking 1/2 tablet of Rimadyl).

He is so full of energy and adventure and have seen him grow much in the short time I've had him as a foster, growing into his full potential, such a joy to see.  

Yes, he does have vision issues, but there are days when I question whether he does.  He is very quick learner and some of this may have to do with mimicking what my pups do.  Yet, he can be outside alone, and see(sense) the next door neighbors small pup, which he will communicate through barking and walking quickly up and down the fence line, letting the 'pup' know that  Dudley is in the house (or shall I say, in the yard).   Amazing!!!

Dudley  loves to go for walks, and if I mention that magical word, he is the first to bark.  Yes, taking three for a walk at once is a challenge at times but I believe they are learning from each other through this very social time.  Dudley is so adorable as he always manages to maneuver his way into the middle of the pack.

If you are looking for a low maintenance, loving and loyal male companion, look no further.

Dudley here, filling in for Foster Mom cuz she’s been down and out with a nasty virus.  She thought I should tell everyone how I’m helping her to get better.  Truth is -- and don’t tell her I said this because it might seem ungrateful or hurt her feelings -- but I like it a lot better when she is just sitting around the house instead of all the moving around and cleaning and coming and going that she normally does.  See, when she is sitting in one place, I know exactly where she is, and I know where I should be (right next to her, of course!), and it’s all good.  Well, I should mention that I didn’t like this virus stuff AT ALL in the beginning, cuz she didn’t want me near her, and she didn’t pet me or nuthin for about 2 days.  Sheesh, was that ever confusing.  When she finally came out of her kennel (she calls it a bedroom, but you can’t fool me), I tried to play hard to get – I mean, maybe my feelings were hurt, and who can blame a guy for not being able to figure it out – but I came around pretty soon.  I couldn’t help it, she knows that my weaknesses are treats and attention, and well, suffice it to say that I let her make it up to me.  

Anywhoooo, I really did make her feel better.  Check out the selfie, below (and don’t blame me for the fuzzy quality, ya can’t blame a guy with no opposable thumbs for not being able to focus a phone camera!)  Despite the poor quality, you can sorta see that she was sitting all comfie-like on her recliner with her legs out, and a cozy blankie covering her up.  I was, ya know, just hanging out, on the floor next to her.  Now, I’m not complaining, but she was sitting there for a loooongg time, till I finally had to stand up and stretch my legs.  Well, the blanket was hanging over, so I decided she probably wanted to share it with me, if only a little bit.

Well, ya shoulda seen her smile!  Like I toldja, I really did make her feel better!  She told me that the caption to my picture should be: “Dudley, My Middle Name Is Adorable.”  I don’t know about that, but I do like making my human family feel better.  

Gotta go, but let me know if you are a human that wants a guy like me to come and make YOU feel better.  I might be shy at first, but, well, I told you my weaknesses, so I’m sure we can figure something out!

Last week I told you about how Dudley is learning how to smile.  Well, I think he’s secretly been attending school somewhere on the sly, because he is also trying to learn how to talk! 

It’s something that has happened every so often, but now it’s becoming more consistent.  When he’s feeling confident and is pleased about something, Dudley makes happy little moans and squeals.  If I “talk” back and mimic him, he starts to wag his tail like crazy, and he howls and barks excitedly.  Here’s a picture of Dudley mid-howl – I think he’s trying to say something like:  “Heh-rOOooooo!  Where is my forever family?? Is it ah-rOOooooo YOOooooo???”   :)

Poor Dudley hasn’t had any updates lately because Foster Mom has been working tons and double tons, and when not working, dealing with some family issues and illnesses.  The dear boy hasn’t been suffering though – he did, of course, get some new toys for Christmas, which have been thoroughly shaken, chewed, and de-stuffed.  And the kids were home during the days over the holiday break, so Dudley got lots of attention.

There was also lots of activity at our house over the holidays, and we learned a few new things about Dudley.  The most important thing we learned is that Dudley should not go to a home where young children live or visit frequently.  In fact, I think any children need to be at least 15 years old, and even then, they should understand dogs that get scared.  We had a darling 18-month-old girl named Alexandra at our house on Christmas day.  This was a new experience for us with Dudley, so I knew to stay close by, and to watch Dudley carefully.  At first, Dudleywas just watchful, and did not seem nervous around Alexandra while she was on our laps.  After she got up from a nap, we let Alexandra play on the floor with some toys.  This was also fine with Dudley (even though some of those toys seemed like they were stuffed with fluff, and maybe Alexandra would want to share them with Dudley?).  Then Alexandra got up, and started to do what toddlers do, i.e. toddle around.  It was starting to get dark, and because of his PRA, I knew Dudley could not see what was going on, and that he might be nervous.  So when the Alexandra toddled several feet in Dudley’s direction, he let us all know that this was very worrisome and scary by barking loudly.  It happened very quickly, so Dudley did not have a chance to let us know that he was starting to feel uncomfortable, and he wanted Alexandra to STOP, right away, so he had to make a BIG noise to get our attention. I was still right there, of course, so I was able to step between Dudley and Alexandra before she even got close, and I whisked the little girl away to her grandmother’s lap.  Then I came back to reassure Dudley.  I distracted him and coaxed him out to his kennel with a treat, and then gave him a Kong toy (with treats hidden inside) to play with while we continued socializing.  We do use Dudley’s crate when there is too much excitement for him.  It is a perfect way to make him feel safer.  In retrospect, perhaps we should have used the crate earlier that day, but we did not know how Dudley would react to a toddler.  However, we did keep a careful watch, kept everyone safe, and now we know what to do next time.

With this experience, along with the kinds of fear responses that I’ve described in earlier updates, I was starting to worry that we might not be able to find a family for Dudley.  After all, it’s going to take some extra special kind of people – people who can handle the abundant love and devotion, along WITH the fear response.  Additionally, it seems clear that Dudley will need a quiet home, with fewer visitors rather than more.  However, my friends at RAGOM assure me that we DO have wonderful families out there who are like this.  I’m so glad, and I hope that if this describes you, you will consider adopting a sweet boy like Dudley.

Another thing we’ve learned about Dudley is that with patience, kindness, a few treats, and a tether, Dudley can learn to trust.  Specifically, Dudley sometimes seemed wary or even afraid of my kids, especially my son.  This was despite the fact that my kids were very careful, and would say his name and talk whenever they came near so that Dudley would be able to tell where they were standing or walking.  However, and as I mentioned in an earlier posting, I believe Dudley bonded with me because I kept him tethered to me for about a week, whenever I was at home.  So while they were on break, we tried the tethering, first with my son, and then with both daughters.  They simply hooked a short leash to Dudley’s collar, and went about their day – reading, eating, watching TV, texting on their phones, etc.  I’m very happy to say that the experience was a success.  I’m not certain we have it all figured out yet, but the fear behaviors are GREATLY decreased.  They still seem to crop up sometimes, and we haven’t figured out why.  However, previously, when Dudley became afraid, he would shake and be fearful for several minutes. Now he quickly moves to wagging his tail and wanting the kids to pet him within one minute.  And more than half the time, he doesn’t even get scared in the first place.  It’s so much fun to see the good progress!

Today I’m going to leave you with two pictures.  Both of them show Dudley asking politely to be petted (he’s SUCH a sweet boy!).  Besides an appreciation of how adorably lovable Dudley can be, I’m also hoping you can see, in the first picture, how Dudley’s eyes look slightly unusual – especially the eye on the left as you look at the picture. There is a reflection which comes from the PRA, and which is caused by light bouncing off his enlarged pupils.  This is the “other-worldly” look that I described in one of my early posts.  I included the second picture, again, not only to show you how appealing charming Dudley is, but also so that you could contrast this photo, which has much less retina reflection, with the first one.  And I hope that you will be able to conclude, as I did, that it truly is no big deal. 

As you can tell, Dudley does not need perfect vision to be able to see into your heart.  He’s hoping that you will look, and even if your vision isn’t perfect either, be able to see the great dog in Dudley!

I’m so sorry for taking soooo long to send updates on Dudley. The delays started when we found out that Dudley still needed a few month’s of treatment for heartworm, which meant that we had to delay scheduling him to be neutered, which also meant that Dudley was not available for adoption until it was all done. (By the way, the heartworm is gone, and we hope to get the neuter scheduled this week– I’ll write more on the medical stuff another time.) And then other life events interfered, but through it all, Dudley continues to be the sweetest boy.

The good news is that we’ve had time to get to know Dudley better. And we’ve learned some things that may help his forever family. The main thing that I’ve learned is that I believe Dudley needs humans who understand his fervent desire for good leadership. Because Dudley is so chill, he appears to be calm, sure of himself, and always in control. However, after watching him carefully for these past few months, I see how he constantly checks in with his human leaders to make sure everything is all right. Dudley finds the world to be scary place quite often. Now that I know what to look for, I can usually tell, but it’s hard to notice because he usually appears cool and composed. Then, when I look carefully, I can see how his back leg is shaking and quivering. If I gently start to pet him when he is scared, I can feel the vibrations. This breaks my heart! It makes us all very sad to know that he is scared, so we have been working to notice the fear, and to reassure him when it happens.

If you think about it from his perspective, it’s perfectly understandable. Dudley is very intelligent, and so tries to read cues from humans and other creatures (i.e. dogs and cats). But now he cannot see very well, and if he does not understand the cues, he becomes scared. Dudley has reason to be fearful, because his back legs can hurt him if he is bumped or moved the wrong way, and so he does everything he can to avoid being hurt. One solution that has worked for us is to give him non-visual cues. That means that if he is scared, or when we are going to be moving around him, we talk to him, constantly, so that he can read the situation from the tone of our voices. We also touch him gently, and then pet him. If he is still shaking, we might show him a treat, and ask him to do something simple (like ‘sit’), so that we can give him the treat. Sound, touch, smell, taste, plus distraction – those are senses and skills that Dudley can use very well, and that we can use them to make him feel secure and loved.

I should note that 99% of the time, Dudley is happy, loving, sweet, affectionate, and devoted. I’m writing about the fear behavior because Dudley needs understanding and compassion, and because he growls when he is scared, which can be worrisome and scary for the humans. I believe that humans should always pay attention to growling, because it means the dog is trying to communicate something. It is something to be careful of, because growling can escalate to snarling and biting – I’ve not been worried about that with Dudley, but I also have been very careful when the behavior occurs. It has meant that we needed to figure out exactly what Dudley was trying to tell us. However, if you understand where the growling is coming from and how you can help Dudley to stop being afraid, it all becomes completely manageable.

I think that’s about it for today. I’ve attached a photo, showing sweet Dudley just waking up from a snooze, hanging out right where he seems to be happiest – right next to his humans.

Dudley here. I had FM take a photo of me chillin on the kitchen floor munching an ice cube. I love ice cubes.

I am starting to feel much better with the medication the vet gave me for my ouchie hips. She says I was probably born with bad hips, surgery will not help me now, but she says she will keep giving me good medicine to help with the pain. I also had to have 1 shot for my Stage 1 Heartworm, probably another in a few weeks. I am on the mend for sure.

I have decided I do not like the hot weather at all, and I am happy as can be staying in the cool house and just hanging out. This is so much better than being out on my own.... Foster Mom says I will be a terrific addition to a home that has no other dogs or perhaps older canines that like to hang out as much as I do. I am a happy guy, even with my bad hips. I just need a forever place to hang my leash. Keep me in mind! Stay cool!