Happy Valentine's Day, Journey Grace! Journey, you are such a beautiful girl, wish you a happy and healthy life!! Bing

Journey has been doing really good! Physically she is at a perfect weight now, and she is sporting a sleek, athletic build. She can officially outrun resident Charlie when they are chasing each other. Her coat is soft and silky—somebody said it feels like a puppy’s fur. When she first got here her coat was thin and she was shedding like crazy. I think the high quality diet has done wonders for her. Her Golden feathering is coming in more and more each day too.  

I did a glucose curve test where blood samples were taken every 2 hours for a 12 hour period. This tests the blood glucose levels over a period of time to tell how she is responding to the insulin. The specialist said her glucose values were excellent, and she wants to keep Journey on Vetsulin because she is responding so well to it. We just reduced the dose slightly. So Journey is healthy and her diabetes is nicely regulated. Her new family will need to keep a close eye on her glucose levels though because her insulin requirements will change as she is still growing.

She has been here a little over a month now, and the pace has quieted down quite a bit. At first everything was new, and she is still young so the level of excitement was high. She is totally into our routine now, and she is great about chilling out when we make dinner, hang out and watch TV in the evenings, or taking a nap while I work. Her naughty puppy behaviors are just about nipped in the bud. She will still jump up on people when she is excited, and she’ll go into the bedroom and grab a lone Kleenez off of the bedstand that we haven’t thrown out yet. She drops it immediately or “gives” when we approach her to take it away. She hasn’t grabbed any clothing to chew on for a while now. She has been such a good girl in the house.

She LOVES playing with the other dogs. Every once in a while they get pretty cranked up and I need to step in to get them to settle down. Here she is with alumni foster Duncan (he’s blind) who is visiting while his mom and dad are in Norway. She is excellent with him:

She is getting her commands down better each day. Since the last update she has mastered leaving her food until I release her to eat (such a good girl!!). Here she is practicing “sit and stay” with the other dogs:

It’s not too hard to get Journey up and running to play or to go somewhere. She loves people and loves other dogs. When it is just us at home, that is where we really see her warmth and affection shine through. She is a little sweetheart.

Journey has had a fantastic week. We put up a fence so she is able to play and run without the restrictions of a leash, and she is really loving that! She plays “catch me,” and when she gets really cranked up she zoomies around the yard with a smile on her face. It’s interesting to watch her play style evolve. She frequently checks in with whichever dog she is playing with, so there is a nice rhythm and pace to her playing. There is lots of wrestling and “bitey,” and she is learning how to play with toys with the other dogs (tuggy, squeaky balls, etc). In my first posting I said Journey prefers more mellow dogs. Not entirely true!! One of the resident dogs is a Border Collie mix and really active, and she LOVES playing with him.

Here is a video of her playing with Charlie: https://youtu.be/-UTJ-yYyFak

Journey came into RAGOM a little underweight, and now she is just about at her normal weight. It is almost as if she is growing before my eyes and now is 2” taller than when she first came to our house. She is filling out and getting stronger with all that running and exercise. We also have been gradually shifting her from a prescription kibble diet to Fromm’s (A+ rated on our Food Grading sheet) with some veggies mixed in. Sometimes I have to look to see which English Cream it is, her or Charlie—they are just two weeks apart in age. Personality wise, she is getting more affectionate with each passing day. She often seeks me out and will come and lay beside me if I am on the couch. The other day I was sitting in a wing back chair and she squeezed in behind me to take a nap. It was a bit much but kind of funny at the same time.

Before Journey came into RAGOM she had a medical crisis, and that is how they discovered she has diabetes. She was stabilized before she came to us. We are taking her to a specialist this week for a thorough assessment and to make sure we have the best treatment approach for her condition. A couple of families have asked about the expense of caring for Journey. I’ll know more after we see the specialist and get a long-term diabetes management plan.

Things we’re working on:

• Journey will sometimes chew inappropriate things. For example the other day I left a newspaper by the front door to take out to the recycling bin. She grabbed part of it and shredded it. She’s also grabbed a tee shirt of mine and chewed on that and tore it. I usually catch her right away “in the act,” and either take it away or trade her. She isn’t one to resource guard at all so it’s easy to redirect her.
• If you don’t keep an eye on her sometimes she eats poop. She is pretty non-discriminating as to whose it is: hers, the other dog’s, deer poop. It’s all good stuff!
• Generally she walks really well with the Easy Walk harness, but she still pulls if she is excited about something.
• That’s about it for challenges we are working on. Her mouthing and jumping have gone down a ton. She’s a really good girl!

A perfect home for Journey:

• A family who is committed to keeping her in optimal health physically with excellent diet, consistent exercise, and diabetes management.
• She’ll be the best dog she can be if you take her to obedience training. She still has some puppy behaviors and training will help you work through those issues, and it will secure the bond you have with her. Any other kind of training too—agility, therapy dog. She loves it when I work with her.
• She’ll thrive with regular social interaction with other dogs. She’d love to live with another dog, but she could also be an only dog if she has lots of opportunity to play with other dogs on a regular basis (ie doggy day care a couple of days a week, playing with neighbor or other family member dogs).
• She loves meeting people too—so she’ll be an excellent companion for running short errands and going places with you. She rides really well in a car.

Journey is a sweetie!  She makes me smile even thinking about her.