Shiva's Journey: From Struggles to Success

It'd been a while since we'd had a shepherd and Drew was itching for another one. It was just before Christmas and Jake's Wish Dog Rescue was in need of a new foster home for one of their dogs: a gorgeous female White Shepherd who needed crate rest for a month. Shiva came into rescue from the San Martin shelter, where she'd been dumped as an owner surrender because she grew bigger than expected. Shiva weighed 78 pounds at 10 months old. That is a BIG girl. She blew breed standards out of the water; a typical White Shepherd female weighs 55-65 pounds full grown. Still, what sort of jackwagon dumps their dog because she grew 15 pounds more than they expected? It's not like she was supposed to be small. Unfortunately, this happens a lot. Anyway, Shiva was adopted from the shelter and then returned the very next day because she didn't get along with the new people's dog right away. 24 hours. I guess they didn't feel like giving it a chance. So, after all of that disappointment early in life, Shiva ended up with Jake's Wish.

Pretty Lady

Back to why Shiva needed crate rest. The vet suspected a slight ACL injury and wanted to see if crate rest would make a difference before considering surgical repair. Her foster mom was about to go out of town, so we agreed to take Shiva (formerly Bella) and do our best to get her leg healed. Crate rest is tough on everyone involved: the dog and the foster parents. You feel guilty for keeping the dog in the crate all the time, even though that's exactly what needs to be done. The dog feels slighted, agitated, and stir crazy after a certain amount of time spent day after day in the cage. Add in the fact that Shiva was a large breed puppy and you can imagine we had our work cut out for us. We'd done our fair share of strict crate rest before for heartworm recovery patients, FHO recovery, and of course for Raven the GSD with her awful carpal wound. None of those dogs were puppies though, so we were a bit nervous about this one.

Raw bone palooza!

The lying tug strategy

The first week wasn't too bad. Jake's Wish stocked us up on raw bones, giant Kongs, dental chews, and all kinds of long lasting goodies to keep Shiva busy while in her crate. Once the novelty of those things began to wear off, we took her for tiny little walks to the end of the street and back in an attempt to burn some energy without straining her leg. I worked on commands with Shiva to exercise her mind - mental stimulation is just as important as physical activity. She learned sit, down, stay, wait, leave it, go to your bed, and other basic rules of the house with ease. When she got crazy, I'd pull up a chair in front of her crate and work with her on these commands for 15 minutes at a time. It helped, but she still had so much restless puppy energy. Going for car rides helped a lot - she loved sticking her head out the window and

Car rides for fresh air

watching the world pass by with the wind in her face. It helped to just get her out of the house for a brief minute without fear of her over-doing it. She also learned how to play tug lying down. When you weigh that much, it's actually a pretty solid strategy. She'd hold onto the rope and just plop down on the ground, letting the other dog try to drag her dead weight across the room. That was entertaining for everyone. In the evenings, we like to gather up the dogs and watch TV as a family for a bit. Normally we wouldn't let a Shepherd up on the couch, as it's a pretty bad habit for such a big dog to develop, but TV time with the family was a good opportunity for Shiva to feel included and get some love without being wound up. So in all of these little ways, we made it work. Slowly but surely, Shiva's leg got stronger.

It wasn't always friendly tug of war and snuggles on the couch. Shiva was really not ok with our dogs when she first arrived. We had flashbacks to Raven, the only dog out of 30 fosters that we weren't able to integrate, and feared Shiva might be the second. It took a lot of work, vigilance, caution, and patience to integrate Shiva with our dogs. We honestly weren't sure it could be done at first, but with time and baby steps we saw her develop into a wonderful dog. She learned how to behave around each of our dogs, learned when enough was enough in terms of play, learned who preferred to be left alone, learned to look out for the little ones underfoot, and learned not to use her giant paws to bat during playtime. We worked on integration for just a little bit every evening so as to not get anybody's nerves frazzled. It's very difficult to overcome negative interactions once they happen, so we wanted to set everyone up for success as much as possible. Before long, Shiva became just another dog in our pack. We are proud of ourselves for that. Drew deserves most of the credit - integration is his magic power. It's amazing to look back to day one at the dog who couldn't control herself at the sight of any of our dogs, then compare that to the snuggly baby girl who lived to play and cuddle with her canine buddies two months later. She became best friends with Kato, the neighbor Shepherd, too. Shepherds can be really tough to integrate, especially with other non-Shepherd dogs, but I'm convinced it helps a ton when you start with a dog who has little life experience as opposed to a dog who already has habits and behaviors ingrained. Raven was 3-4 years old and had been through a lot. Not to say you can't teach an older dog new tricks or work to overcome a difficult past, but it wasn't worth risking safety in that case. Shiva, although she'd had a couple stints in animal control, didn't really seem like she'd been through anything that formed negative associations in her mind. She just needed to learn manners and how to properly behave around others. Overstimulation is much different than aggression or possessiveness - it's much more workable for us. Points for the puppy! We'd make this work yet. Check out the video of Shiva playing gently with another [tiny] Jake's Wish foster dog, Mischa:

Tired Shivers

After a month of crate rest, Shiva's leg didn't bother her anymore. She started going to an awesome doggy daycare each day to burn steam and get more socialization. We Dog Care was a great experience for Shiva. They let Jake's Wish foster dogs attend unlimited daycare for free. This was a lifesaver for us, because we are nowhere near active enough for Shiva's energy needs. She'd come home after a day's worth of play and just flop down exhausted. This improved her relationships with our dogs immensely. She didn't feel the need to harass them for play all the time, so they grew more relaxed around her. We were able to work on obedience with her more effectively when she didn't have so much pent up energy. All in all, the household dynamic finally hit its sweet spot. Then Shiva got sick.

Shiva went from being perfectly fine one day to sick as the proverbial dog the next. She had the worst explosive diarrhea I've ever seen and it just wouldn't stop. She had no energy whatsoever. On top of that, she developed a nasty cold. Her immune system was just demolished by some mystery bug. No parasites, no worms, no idea. She couldn't go to daycare being so sick, which was ok with her for the first few days. Once we got her GI issues under control (still no clue what it was), her cold became an upper respiratory infection. So, antibiotics for that, which upset her stomach again. It was a less than lovely week in our house. Her energy began to return, but she was still snotting green goop and having a hard time breathing clearly. She needed to stay out of daycare for another week, at least. This was a super frustrating period. We'd come so far with Shiva, only to be blindsided by this bout of illness and watch her behavior backslide due to the absence of her energy outlet. Next thing we know, Shiva's limping again. She'd been so sick that she'd hardly moved, so we knew she hadn't injured it. It wasn't the same sort of limp, either. This seemed to be her hip, not her knee. A couple days later, she began limping on her front right leg as well. At first I figured she was sore from compensating for the back leg, but the front just became worse and worse until she just laid in her crate all day. We were flabbergasted. Usually we take them in, see them through whatever illnesses / injuries / issues they have, then send them on their way to happily ever after. We'd done our job just as well as we always do in this case, but we'd hit an unexpected road block that sent us back to square one.

You mean I'll be ok, doc?

It was time for a serious trip to the vet. When her x-rays came back clean, I really began to worry.  I was scared it had to be some sort of autoimmune issue causing this recurring lameness. Multiple limbs, different joints, on and off again. We ran a bunch of blood tests - nothing. It was just so bizarre. In light of all the negative test results, the vet concluded that Shiva was simply suffering from panosteitis: basically retroactive growing pains. The great majority of panosteitis cases present in male German Shepherds between 1-3 years old. Shiva is obviously female, but she is much larger than the typical female Shepherd. Panosteitis involves intense bone inflammation with pain and stiffness that comes and goes as flare-ups. There's nothing to do about it except use an anti-inflammatory during flare-ups. It will go away on its own with time. We breathed a great sigh of relief that Shiva wasn't plagued by some sort of left field autoimmune disease or horrible joint injuries that would destroy her life. She was going to be just fine.

Once we knew Shiva was ok, we could finally carry on with her adoption process. We'd gotten loads of applications for her, but very few of them were good. When you've got a dog who is show-stoppingly gorgeous, not to mention a fairly unusual breed, you can expect to be flooded with applications of the "she's so pretty, I want her!" variety. 9 times out of 10, those applications are as good as garbage. Shepherds are not for everyone. They are a lot of work, cost a lot of money, and require a lot of doggy know-how. We wanted Shiva to go to someone who knew Shepherds - someone we could feel confident knew exactly the sort of commitment Shiva needed. 

Just as Shiva fell ill, we got a winning application. We told the woman we wanted to wait until she was healthy to do a meet and greet. She was perfectly understanding. When we had to tell her Shiva had fallen lame again, we thought for sure she'd take a hike. She didn't! This lady waited patiently while we tested Shiva for everything under the sun. She still wanted her. We were stressed, but we knew if she bailed that it would be ok. We'd wait for the best home for Shiva, whatever it took. Turns out, this lady was the best home for Shiva. She had a male White Shepherd who passed away at 9 years old and knew exactly what she was signing up for by committing to Shiva. Bingo. She's a hiker and she even works from home. Awesome. We couldn't ask for more and we know Shivrar is just so happy with her new mom. 

Shiva was a very interesting challenge for us. Shepherds are always tough for us. We've got small dogs and we're relatively sedentary. We knew all of that already, but Shiva presented a whole extra set of challenges. I'm super proud of us for working through this one and finally ending up with a happy tail. Shiva became such a good, sweet, gentle girl. It was a pleasure to watch her go from an unruly pup to a well-mannered lady. She celebrated her 1st birthday with us on January 30 and I know she'll have several more wonderful years to enjoy life. We're grateful for Jake's Wish, for Shiva's first foster mom, and for We Dog Care. This one took a village, but it was such a rewarding effort. We love you, ShivRAAAAAR! Wag on, Great White Woman!

Shiva & her favorite toy: Mr. Purp

What's left of Mr. Purp

A word on Mr. Purp, the 3 foot long purple caterpillar. This toy was enormous and Shiva loved plush toys, so duh. It was a match made in heaven. Mr. Purp giggled maniacally every time Shiva kill-shook him. It was a bit disturbing. We are still finding pieces of Mr. Purp. He made the ultimate sacrifice and we'll never forget him.

Gotta Get That Boom Boom Boom!

I went to the shelter to do some routine assessments one night in November. Lo and behold, 

there sat a gorgeous male Boston Terrier in one of the kennels. He was wearing a urine soaked red and white striped sweater, sitting there staring up at me with that same dorky expression all Bostons wear. His face looked like, "I don't know how I got here, but boy I'm sure glad I've still got my stinky sweater!". I had to get this doofus out, stat. I grew up with Bostons and this one looked just like my family's Buster, who passed away the previous Christmas. We named him Boomer, because all Bostons must have names that start with the letter "B". He was someone's dog, but no one ever came looking for him. Just goes to show it can happen to anybody.

It's always exciting when you find a highly desirable purebred dog in animal control, in a very annoying and sad kind of way. You can expect to be absolutely flooded with applications for a Boston Terrier, a Poodle, a French Bulldog, a Havipoo, a Labradoodle, [insert any designer dog you can think of here]. That's all fine and dandy, except that the perfectly behaved mutt who has been waiting for a home for months hasn't gotten a single decent application while the naughty Boston has gotten 30 in 48 hours. Just sort of peeves me. BUT, it is awesome to show people that you DO find purebred dogs in shelters and you don't have to purchase from a breeder or puppy store. It's also insanely helpful for the rescue group to draw the kind of attention that comes along with a purebred dog. Now people know to look at Group X in the future, because they had that desirable dog you were looking for in the past. My biggest thing is raising awareness that it's not all Chihuahuas, Pit Bulls, and mutts in animal control. A lot of people still don't realize that and Boomer was a perfect chance to remind everyone.

Boomer hanging out at Drake's Brewery

True to Boston form, Boomer was a naughty, rambunctious, food-shoveling, farting, humping, snoring, disaster of a dog. Needless to say, he and Douille got along great. They were Cheech & Chong, two peas in a pod, Dumb & Dumber. They spent 20 hours a day humping and chasing each other, leaving a whirlwind of annoyance in their wake. Boomer was a nice little dog, but boy he needed to get adopted ASAP. In addition to making our household a nut farm for the week we had him, Drew turned out to be allergic to him. He couldn't touch him without breaking out in hives. Fortunately, Boomer got adopted after a short week by the perfect family who had just lost their elderly Boston a few months prior. He now lives with his mom, dad, and two young human siblings who keep him busy around the clock. All it took was word of mouth and a few pictures of that silly Boston face to find Boomer the perfect match. I wish it was that easy for every homeless dog.

Douille: Sausage King of San Jose

Douille at 10.4 pounds - yikes!

Douille at the shelter

Douille's story very nearly had an entirely different ending. I was sent to the shelter with a list of dogs to look at for rescue. As I walked from kennel to kennel with one of the shelter staff members, I asked her if she had any super tiny Chihuahuas that needed out. It's easier to find rescue for Chis that weigh less than 4 pounds, so I always ask. She thought for a minute, said not really, then showed me this perky brown blob of a Chihuahua that was WAY over the "ultra teeny" mark: 10.4 pounds. Rescue only due to obesity. Picked up as a stray on Branham & Pearl. I must have looked at her like she was nuts because she shrugged, said he's really nice, then took me to the next kennel on the list. I did my assessments for each dog on my list and made my way to the front to say goodbye. She asked me, "What about that chubby brown chi I showed you?" and I told her he didn’t fit my criteria, but I'd ask around. After I got home and wrote up my notes, I thought of chunky chi again. I added a super short blurb to my assessments just mentioning his A#, stuck in a photo of his kennel card, and called it a day.

Love that scrunchy little nose!

The next morning I had an email from my shelter friend asking if I'd come up with anything for chubby brown chi. I realized I'd screwed up - this little dog really mattered to her and I'd missed all the signals. When you work at the shelter, it's really hard to let yourself get attached to any of the animals because it so often doesn't end well. You have to maintain a certain edge, a level of callousness, a protective shell. This particular lady is probably the toughest person they've got working there. She does her job really well and does rescue work on her own time, but she's not exactly warm and fuzzy. I asked her to show me any tiny chis and she casually pointed to the exact opposite of what I'd asked - like it was no big deal. Hello! I didn't even bother to take him out and snap a picture. Fail. All of a sudden, I couldn't get this dog out of my mind. Cue mad rampage of desperate networking for chubby brown chi! Wait, I probably need a better photo than his intake mugshot and I should probably come up with a name other than 920830 or "fat brown chi", huh? Back to the shelter I went to meet the chunk.

Looking trim, Douille!

The shelter lady was super excited that I’d come back to check out her chubby friend. She was talking about him the whole way to his kennel, telling me how he may be overweight and just another Chihuahua, but that he’d wow people with his personality. She was right. We brought him out of his kennel and he was just nothing but happiness and wiggles. He went up to every dog we walked past with a tail wag and kisses, trying to make friends with everyone. His personality certainly won me over and I knew I had to get him out. I snapped some photos, got a video, & got to work.

The handsomest sausage that ever lived

Days went by with no foster or rescue offers for the fat brown chi. I’d extended his date twice and really needed to get him out ASAP. With the help of a rescue friend and Drew’s go-ahead, I pulled him under a cat rescue and brought him home with me. He needed a name, stat. Fat brown chi wasn’t going to net him any adopters. Drew wanted to name him Sausage Cakes, but yeah…so we settled on Douille, short for Andouille sausage because he was so porky. Of course he ended up with a slew of nicknames: Dooers, Doodle, Sausage Cakes, DooDoo Brain, The Chocolate Flab, Sausage Pants, and of course THE Sausage King of San Jose. I created a Facebook page for him, took a photo of him wearing a bow-tie, and started sharing his story like crazy.

Douille out on a walk

First things first: we needed a weight loss plan. Douille weighed 10.4 pounds when he should have weighed more like 6-7. That is a monstrous percentage of his body weight. We started with daily walks. Douille couldn't make it very far at first, like to the end of the block and barely back. We slowly worked our way up to down the block and around the corner. I changed his diet to Blue's Senior Turkey Basics. Turkey is super lean and eliminating grains helps with weight control. I chose a senior formula (for a 3 year old dog) because I wanted Douille to have plenty of joint and heart support while losing weight. Such a dramatic weight loss can be tough on the body. Between the walks, a change in nutrition, and playing with our dogs, Douille began to shed weight. We noticed he had more of a neck, more energy, and breathed easier. His luxating patellae and hip mobility also improved greatly as he continued to lose weight. His "fast mode" as my shelter friend called it was actually kind of fast now! We were making big progress.

The Sausage King of San Jose

We enjoyed having Douille around the house immensely. He was just such a jolly little character and so, so, so sweet. I'd never met such a happy go lucky Chihuahua before! He'd make friends with everyone - people, dogs, cats, anyone. He absolutely loved other dogs, particularly big dogs. He'd run right up to any dog - stranger or not - and just smother them with kisses right off the bat. Stupidly adorable. He became BFF with our Hound/Lab mix, Oliver, and they spent their days romping around like goons. He also enjoyed the heck out of Boomer, another foster we had for a bit. You can see for yourself just how endearing and playful he was in the video below.

My friend at the shelter was absolutely correct: Douille had one of the most winning personalities I've come across in a dog, especially in a Chihuahua! He was dumber than a bag of rocks, but just so adorably loving. Then there's that incredibly kissable overbite, OMG. Love it! He's just a fantastic little critter. Really, truly, genuinely extra special.

Douille with his new family!

After fostering Douille for a month, we got a great adoption application from some folks in San Francisco through Jake's Wish Dog Rescue. They were kind enough to courtesy list Douille on their website and Petfinder so we could spread the word about this cheerful little chunker. The applicants drove down to San Jose on a rainy evening and met me and Douille at my store. They totally fell in love - Douille definitely wowed them with his personality, just as my shelter friend said he would! He snuggled into his new mom's neck right away when she picked him up. He fell asleep there while I helped them pick out some good food and supplies. He seemed right at home with all of them, which put my heart at ease. We placed Douille on the scale in my store before saying goodbye. He weighed 7.4 pounds - three pounds lighter than when we pulled him! That's 30% of his body weight lost in only a month's time, which is a bit faster than I would've liked it to happen, but really great. The vet said his ultimate weight goal should be 6.8 pounds, so I felt good about letting him go to his forever home at this point. He lives in San Francisco with his mom, her two roommates, and the roommates' Mastiff puppy, Chester. Remember how much Douille loves big dogs? I was so excited to send him home with Chester! They can be lazy buddies forever.

Love that overbite!

Before leaving the store, Douille picked out his very own bed. His mom put a bunch of cat beds on the floor and Douille climbed into the most expensive one, naturally. He refused to get out. In fact, they had to carry him to the car in the bed. His mom put her scarf around him and he cozied right up, settling in for the rainy car ride home. His new name is Dewey, same pronunciation as Douille, but easier to spell and no longer an ode to fatty sausage. I think it's perfect. We got an email from Dewey's mom just after Christmas. She said he's doing great so far and fitting in beautifully with the family. When I shared her email and photos with my shelter friend, Douille's #1 advocate, she said the news made her entire year.

Hugging Douille goodbye

Douille was super special and I had a hard time saying goodbye, but the hardest part of all was thinking about how close I came to not saving this little nugget. I so almost missed the boat completely and cost Douille his precious little life. Thank goodness for my shelter friend's heart and for her persistence. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have noticed Douille. I passed over him and he almost paid the ultimate price. That's the thought that made me shed a couple tears, not the goodbye. Douille's story will always be a great reminder to me of how delicate this rescue business really is, how we are the only voices for these guys, how we carry the power to save or end their lives, and how we must never get too busy or jaded that we make such costly oversights. I almost failed Douille, yet all he knows is happiness and love. That's one of so many reasons why I love dogs. Thank you for your love, Douille!

Pet obesity is no laughing matter. Being overweight can severely affect your pet's health. This goes for both dogs and cats. Chunky pets may be cute, but honestly it's not ok. Douille, for example, was suffering from breathing difficulty and mobility challenges. His joints were strained, his heart was working overtime, and he was unadoptable because of it. These are serious issues that shouldn't be taken lightly. Make sure you're feeding your pets a proper diet, following the feeding guidelines on the bag/can (they differ from food to food!), providing adequate exercise opportunity, and attending regular vet check-ups. The Association for Pet Obesity Prevention has two great illustrations that are useful for knowing how your pet's weight stacks up against medical ideals, as well as several other informative resources. Check it out here: http://www.petobesityprevention.org/pet-weight-check/

Coco's Story

The next few posts I publish are going to be looking backward all the way to August in an attempt to catch up. I don't want to leave any fosters out! After Buck left for New Mexico, we took in Miss Coco, a cute little diva with a whole lotta attitude. Coco had a ton of nicknames that reflected two sides of her personality: crazy and fussy. Coocoo, Poof, Poofy, Coco Poof, Puff, Coocoo Brain, Coco Loco, Coco Latte, etc. Coco was picked up as a stray by a shelter volunteer near Berryessa & 680. That's a very high-traffic spot. Coco, as beautiful as she is, did not pass the shelter's behavior assessment. This landed her on the needs rescue list, so St. Francis APS stepped in.

Coco came to us after cycling through a couple different foster homes. She proved to be a very tricky girl who needed a lot of socialization work. She looks so cute and innocent, doesn't she? That was the tough thing about Coco. Everyone would approach with their hands stuck out to pet her, assuming that because she was small and fluffy she'd accept their physicality with grace. Not so much. Even after working with Coco for weeks, she'd still bare her teeth and snap at everyone if they got too close.  We were no exception. She could be the sweetest thing, then just snap at the drop of a hat if something rubbed her the wrong way. It became clear that Coco really wanted to be an only dog. She'd pick fight over flight every single time. She was uncomfortable at our house with all of our guys. It was a weird experience watching her just sort of plateau after a while instead of improving. Of course we saw certain improvements while we had her like potty training, leash walking, sleeping quietly through the night, etc, but she never really blossomed. You could just tell she needed something she wasn't getting from us: space.

Coco at the shelter

The cute little fluffy-eared angel became one of our group's toughest dogs to get adopted. It was an exercise in patience and paying very close attention to canine communication. Coco's body language was always very clear: she was uncomfortable, on edge, nervous, and stressed. Almost all the time. She couldn't go to a home with very young children. She needed to be an only dog, yet she wasn't going to make a good "first time" dog due to her issues. She did so poorly at adoption events that we stopped taking her for liability reasons. How the heck were we going to get this dog adopted? Sure, she's cute and can be sweet at home, but she requires everything done on her own terms. Her foster parents, all of us, were the only people she ever let see her lovable side. It was there, trust me. Coco loves to play with toys, runs like the wind, bounces off the furniture, and gets super excited when we come home from work. The challenge was getting her to let others in enough to see that side of her. 

Goofy Coco

Fortunately, one of our rescue friends and fellow foster parents stepped in to help. She wanted to try fostering Coco and see if she did any better at her house. She only has one other dog and her house is much quieter than ours. I was a bit hesitant at first, as I really like to see things through and it felt weird, but we agreed. Coco went to Cathy's house and did quite well. They walked our downtown area with the adopt-me vest on and showed off Coco's good looks at every chance. After about a month with Cathy, Coco found her forever home. She lives with a family that has two older children and no other dogs. She's doing great!

People often asked us what happened to Coco to make her so snippity. For all we know, nothing happened. She wasn't well-socialized, didn't have any people skills, and didn't know how to be a house dog. That may very well be all. A dog who shows fear or poor social skills hasn't necessarily been abused or "gone through something". It may just be a dog who needs time, patience, love, and work in order to learn how to trust. I think this was the case with Coco. 


This is a perfect example of why we should never judge a book by its cover and ALWAYS ask before approaching someone's dog. Just because Coco looked adorable and happy doesn't mean she wanted to be petted by a stranger. You just never know. If you ever see a yellow ribbon attached to a dog's leash, it means they need space and prefer not to be approached. Please be mindful of this and teach your children these lessons, too. Some dogs are friendly from the get-go, but others might take some time to warm up. I'm definitely the latter type of person. Maybe I'll tie a yellow ribbon around my neck...

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