A "Little" Change

Remember Walter and Annie? They started it.  A brother and sister mix from Las Vegas, half Irish wolfhound and half giant schnauzer.  As soon as Walter was adopted we started fostering Annie, but knew we were going to have to have an Irish wolfhound of our own.

We started looking, but it took a good deal of research, hunting, waiting and luck to get our hands on our own Irish wolfhound puppy.
Now that we have a full house with our original mini-schnauzer, our adopted giant schnauzer and now our Irish wolfhound, we will no longer be fostering in our home.  Shae is still involved with AZ Schnauzer Rescue with volunteer grooming and other non-fostering activities.

As for blogging, updates to this blog will be less frequent, later I plan to start a new blog once our Irish wolfhound completes his training and certification as a therapy dog.

AZ Schnauzer Rescue's Max

A few pictures of Max, a rescue adopted by a foster home of AZ Schnauzer Rescue. 
We had to chance to have him over for a little bit and give him a shave and a hair cut.

Emma

Emma is a standard schnauzer who stayed with us for a few days before moving to a new foster home (that will likely adopt her).  She is happy, energetic and loving. 

 

The night we first got Emma I commented that she might be "one wheel short of a unicycle", but after some more observation we suspected something could be wrong with her eye.   The Vet agreed and sent her to a specialist.  Emma has a detatched retina and is blind in one eye, but as you can see, it does not slow her down any...

 

While she was here our schnauzers had a great time playing with her and we enjoyed her "I love being here" attitude. 

Hailey

Braveheart Found a Home!

I came home from work the other day with one less enthusiastic greeting.  Our little Braveheart has found a home.  Shae reports that it felt like a perfect fit and she was excited for Braveheart to settle into his new home and bond with his new pack. 

It always feels a little empty at home when we adopt out a foster that we have had for a long time... and poor Bella (Braveheart's adopted momma) was really worried she had misplaced her puppy for that first night.

We are very happy to see such an great puppy transition from scared to death of people to being excited to see and meet people!  Goodbye Braveheart, we love you! Maybe we will get to dog-sit you sometime!  ;-)

Mind Trick

Adopt me you will, hmm'mm?

See?

Snapped some quick shots of "the sit" mentioned below.

Braver Still

We have "unleashed" Braveheart in our home, allowing him access to the whole house rather than just the kitchen and he has really loved being a full member of our pack.  His #1 objective in the morning?  FIND SHAE!  Braveheart loves to play with our other dogs, find the biggest pillow pile available to nap and poke me with his nose for love when I'm trying to write this blog!

Hey! Scratch my chin!

One thing I adore about him is that the first time we taught him the command to sit, he put his paw up in the air and now he thinks that is the right way to do it.  I need to get a picture of this just to remember him by.

Braveheart Update

Braveheart has made much progress in socialization and family integration and is at a very adoptable state.  He is no longer fearful to come up to people... in fact we are trying to discourage jumping up to meet people now!  He is no longer scared to come in through the door, he proudly trots in, head high with some secret agenda. ;-)

We have no doubt that Brave would fit well into any kind family with kids who like to play with and love up dogs.  He is a great mix of play with me, cuddle with me.

 

He has also learned some basic manners with "sit", "stay" commands and to do those two things while waiting for his food to be prepared.

 

 

Good Citizen Bella

Congrats to Bella on passing her Canine Good Citizenship test and also to Shae who did the majority of the work in getting her ready for the test.  Bella has really turned around in the last six months thanks to Shae's efforts.

How about Obi's training?  He is too busy doing this.

New Camera

I purchased a new (point and shoot) camera and have been trying to work out some kinks with it.  I have been fighting with some auto focus and shutter speed settings, but here are some fun results. 
I think I need to stop proudly using my max zoom lens and get out into the middle of the yard for better clarity.

Obi, our alpha dog enjoying the perfect morning

Puppy does what mamma does (grazing)

RAWR!  (I WISH this was in perfect focus)

Bella in profile

Sleepyheart

Braveheart

Braveheart arrives

This little guy came to our home with huge fear issues.  As soon as he saw any of us he would slink away and hide under patio furniture or a table if in the house.  At first I started calling him King Arthur because my first thought was the scene from "The Holy Grail" by Monty Python where they are fighting the bunny and King Arthur yells out "RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!". 

In the tub, rub-a-dub

But after some time I saw that he really did want to be brave and was trying very hard to be brave and for him was doing some very brave things.  So instead, one day I started to call him Braveheart, and it stuck.

Post-grooming, sporting a sweater to stay warm

He is now at the point where he is eager to see us and runs up to greet us, inside and out.  He loves attentions and loves to plays with dogs and acts like a normal rough and tumble puppy. Braveheart has even settled down with his separation anxiety he first had when left in a room by himself.  In general, he is making very good progress to being a happy, brave, puppy!

Backyard playtime

We all like to hang out with Braveheart.  He is both playful and loving and humorous.  He is recovering from his neutering now and should be very adoptable in a couple of weeks...  and!  no house accidents!

Sir Charles

The rescue of Sir Charles is an example of how amazing AZ Schnauzer Rescue and its supporters are!

Charles arrives at our house.

Sir Charles is a puppy who was diagnosed with liver shunt and required a major operation if he was going to live.  His owners contacted AZ Schnauzer Rescue, but in the end this little guy was dropped off at the pound.  Charles did make his way to the schnauzer rescue and to the vet where the decision was made to go ahead with the operation despite the high cost.

Posing for his pre-grooming photo.

Charlie spent a month at AZ Schnauzer Rescue "HQ" healing after the operation before spending a week in our home.  Here, we groomed him up, loved him up, and adopted him out. 

The grooming, graciously endured.

I'm happy to report that Charlie got a fantastic family and that the family got a real gem of a puppy!

Charlie relaxing after his hair cut.

One of the best behaved puppies we have ever had in our home!

(and cutest)