Ninja

Ninja arrived in sad, sad shape. His kennel and belongings soaked in urine and he cowered in the back, refusing to look at us. He would not come out for cute "doggy talk", water, food or treats. We eventually left him in his crate in the back yard with the door open. He would slink out and sniff around but would sprint back to his crate if he saw us. So we removed his crate while he was out (and threw it away - stinky) but he would still hide the best he could when he saw us.

There are neglected dogs, there are mistreated dogs and there are abused dogs. We soon realized that Ninja was in the abused category. It took significant time and effort to gain some a degree of trust with him. It was always hard to catch a picture of him. For some reason he was terrified of the camera.

Time passed and he began to relax and integrate into our home. But never completely relaxed...
The good news is that Obi really liked him and this was the first foster dog that Obi would play with.
Why Ninja? If that front door opened just 1/2 an inch... *poof* he was GONE! He could slip out that door and RUN. By the time I was out the door he was already rounding the corner down the block. This dog could run and had so much energy to do it. Just to burn off his energy, my wife would put on roller-blades and he would pull her around the neighborhood at full sprint!

Below he is shown "cleaned up" but still scared of the camera. Terrified actually.
Ninja stayed with us for months and we worked hard to help him recover from his abuse, but we were never able to get him to the state of "adoptable". He was eventually moved to a calmer foster home without children, where he made better progress.
We later heard that this little guy took on a coyote who had jumped the fence into the yard to steal dog food. It earned him several stitches... but dang... GO NINJA!

Ninja was adopted to a family, then returned because he got loose and RAN like a ninja, then adopted again... and there he has stayed. My heart goes out to this mini... he had some hard times in his past.
Please treat your dogs with kindness.

Colby's Foot

I found a picture of Colby's foot before the operation. It is bandaged and seeping through. Yuck!!!

Here is Colby patiently waiting for this bandage change.

Colby

Colby came to us from a family that could no longer keep him due to the baby-stage of families and allergies. He was a mature schnauzer who was potty trained, good with kids and strangers, a good guard dog, mini (even for a mini) and an avid TV watcher. We thought he would be a quick in and out foster dog.
We soon noticed that he often limped, holding up a back foot so it would not touch the ground. One pad of his foot was swollen, oozing and red/pink. We worked with the vet for about a month trying to heal the foot with bandages, anti-biotics and anti-fungals. After all this treatment Colby's foot was no better.
The only step left was a biopsy, which turned out positive for cancer. Colby went in for surgery where they cut off that part of his foot. Lab report confirmed all the cancer was removed. By this time a new home had been found for him and they were eager to adopt him. We held Colby for a week to get him back on his feet before adopting him to the couple.
Colby's new home has reported back that they are all very happy together and they enjoy having him sleep on their bed at night (as does Colby).

Trooper

Trooper was our first rescue dog. A pure white mini that was rescued from a puppy mill operation. He was about six years old and was a stud at the puppy mill. It became obvious to us that he had not had human interaction or exposure to anything outside of his cage.
On top of his social neglect, his health had also suffered. His eyes were infected to the point they would crust over completely and his teeth needed serious help.

He was a lot of work for our whole family and it was an eye opening experience to the neglect, torture and pain some dogs live through. It broke our heart to see a dog who had never walked on grass before, been pet, hand fed and hundreds of over things.

Our whole family pitched in with him over a four week period. Trooper learned how to relax when being touched, how to eat a treat from our hand (which was harder than it sounds), potty trained and walkable. It also took some time for him to be comfortable and relax around other dogs. Luckily, during this time we were dog sitting my parents schnauzer Nikki and this helped the process. The picture below is the first time that Trooper finally relaxed and rested with other dogs around. It was a little victory we all celebrated.

Dr. Hudman and AZ Schnauzer Rescue were invaluable in helping us with our first foster dog. Dr. Hudman cleaned his teeth and rid Trooper of his eye infections. Unfortunately, due to the length of the infection, his tear ducts had been ruined and no longer produced fluid and Trooper will require daily eye drops for the rest of his life.

AZ Schnauzer Rescue found a perfect home for Trooper and he was adopted by a couple with another mini. They have kept excellent care of him and recently sent a picture of him with a proper schnauzer hair cut.
It was sad to see him go, but rewarding for us to facilitate the life changing process in Trooper's life. Trooper was gentle, cautious and kind; we will always remember him fondly as our first foster dog.

Our Obi

First, let me introduce you to our own miniature schnauzer. His name is Obi Luke, named after the Star Wars Jedi Obi-wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker and he is currently about 4 years old.


We first decided to get a schnauzer after my parents visit with their mini. She did not shed, she did not give me (or the kids) allergies, she was well behaved and my girls loved petting her and playing with her. After much research and family discussion we began looking for mini schnauzer puppies. After finding a few possible breeders ranging from "show dog" to "I think this is a schnauzer" breeders we settled on a litter. We found a family about an hour and a half away who owned a male and female schnauzer who had just had pups. The male was a touch large, dark gray/black and the mother was straight white.

Me and the 3 girls drove to the house to pick out our puppy. As a side note... never take children with you to pick out a puppy... ever. We had a full pick of the litter and it was a hard choice to make. I finally picked out a dark mini male who would have been the most perfect angel of a dog... but I was a softy and ended up taking the puppy the girls begged for. A light gray male with very soft fur.

He was a terror.

We read books.

We tried our best.

We failed.

We then decided to do the responsible thing and hire a 1 on 1 professional dog trainer. Her methods required a lot of work and discipline but it saved our puppies life! It changed his behavior from a terror to lovably stubborn.

The years passed and our middle child went to school and then our youngest. This left Obi very bored all day long. He would curl up in a ball after they left for school and stay there until the kids came home from school. We considered getting a second schnauzer as a friend for Obi, but decided to try to help dogs in need by fostering with AZ Schnauzer Rescue. Obi has made several good friends and he is always sad to see them leave (as are we), but there is always another dog who needs help.