Submissive Urination and a Puppy's Tail

From Stormie's Foster Mom, Bree :

Stormie is a wonderful Saint Bernard puppy who makes us laugh, really laugh, every day. She is a fast little thing who flings herself room to room as she sees fit. She adores us and is really have a good time with us as she waits to find her forever family!

Her only little pitfall is that she wasn't well socialized as a very young pup, so it takes her a while to warm up to new people. She will submissively urinate if nervous, which of course, immediately makes her tail wet.

Well, last night my husband and I decided to snuggle in with the dogs to watch some tv. Poor Stormie was on the floor, just looking up at me with those big brown eyes asking to be picked up and put on the bed too. Of course I obliged, but somewhere in the process of moving dogs and getting off our bed, I scared her and she begin to tinkle a litte bit. I wasn't really paying attention and didn't realize it until it was too late....and by too late, I mean I didn't realize until I had lifted her up and her wet urine tail went whipping across my husband's face :)

I certainly had a great laugh over the whole thing! My dear husband, Mr Dew? Well him not so much!

Do you know any Groomers?

Here are BDHPI we loves all kinds...even those Pyrs, Newfs and Saints that come to us smelly, dirty and with long, painful matted fur. It is our top priority to get them groomed, which does not come with a cheap price tag. For some perspective, it took 5 hours and $150 to groom Boyd, a Newfie we had a while back, at a local pet store.

We are looking to form relationships with local Groomers who may want to donate their time, or even give us a discount. Even if we got a handful of people who would offer up their services once a quarter, that would be a tremendous help.

So, readers of this blog, do you have any ideas?Do you have any connections in the grooming world? Even if you don't, it never hurts to ask around.

If you have any suggestions, please email lindsay@bigdogshugepaws.com

Rocky is Home!

Here is update from Rocky's wonderful new family:

I wanted to give you a quick update on Rocky! He is settling in very well and seems very content. He is a really good boy, listens very well and we are so happy to have him. He does seem to have some mild anxiety (wants to be sure Doug or I are around) but I'm sure that will subside with time. We had a horrible moment when we got home yesterday - Rocky tried to jump out of the 4Runner and his legs slipped on the garage floor and he feel to the ground yelping - very scary as Doug and I thought we were headed to the Doggy ER. But, he was soothed by some Peanut butter (with Tramadol) and he was able to get up on his own. Doug and I plan to take him on two leashed walks a day and manage his diet in hopes that this will help his hind quarters. We want to give him some time to lose weight and try supplements before possibly talking to Dr. Landry about Vet-Stem or surgery. In the meantime, we will continue to give him the Tramadol and Gabapentin as directed. We adore Rocky and he seems very happy, he is eating well, playing with toys and taking care of business.

I'll keep you posted! Thanks, Suzy, Doug and Rocky

Sad news about ZZ Top

ZZ Top was originally found as a stray late February and was saved from a high kill shelter in Wichita, Kansas by BDHPI. He was transported to Colorado by C.A.R.E. and was extremely ill upon arrival with a high fever. He was hospitalized and treated with antibiotics for 2 weeks for what we thought was a very bad case of kennel cough. He finally started to have less nasal discharge and was perking up quite a bit, so he was released and went to his foster home with Kristie Mendralla. She gave him a bath and he was eating, drinking, playing and doing great for about 6 days, but Wednesday Kristie took him to the vet because she believed he had a seizure the night before. She woke up to him breathing heavily. When she turned on the light, his eyes were moving quickly up and down, his mouth was opening and closing and she could hear his teeth clicking together. His entire body was shaking. When it stopped, he had wet his bed. He seemed kind of clumsy the night before and was slipping and falling on the wood floor. He didn't want to eat anything either. Z had a fever of 104.2, so he was hospitalized again and put on heavy antibiotics and fluids. His condition began to deteriorate rapidly and both Dr. Winton and Dr. Bentz at MRAH highly suspected Distemper due to the neurological changes. By yesterday, he could no longer stand up, he was urinating on himself, and he was suffering. The doctors all felt that the only thing we could do for him was to end his suffering by humanely euthanizing him. He was surrounded by friends and passed away peacefully last night. We are very grateful to everyone along the way who helped with ZZ Top. We wish there was more we could have done to help him, but he was simply too sick and no longer had quality of life. He was a very loving boy who will always hold a special place in our hearts!

Piper is becoming a real dog!

Dogs wrestling and playing might be a common occurrence in your home, but it is not uncommon to find a foster dog that doesn't know how to play with their fellow canines. This has been the case for Piper.

When Pipes came into rescue she had lived her entire 7 years outside, and did not even have a name. It quickly became evident that Piper LOVES her humans and loves to play with plush toys. She will fling them all over the room, making all sorts of noises. But she has never really engaged the other dogs to play with her.

In the last week, we have woken up to Piper, our Dane and Mastiff in the backyard wrestling. It has been so fun to watch her come out of her shell. Well today, Jasper Bastyr came over and I thought for sure Piper would not appreciate the not-so-gentle-nature that Jasper possesses. Boy, was I wrong. After them whining at each other through the door, I decided to try my hand with introductions. The following video is the result of that introduction. It warms to heart to see Pippy Longstocking become a real dog!

Godspeed, Kenai

From Bree Dew, HR Director:

As volunteers for BDHP we are fortunate to meet and interact with so many wonderful foster dogs in our program. It is usually a quick relationship, and we so happy when our dogs move onto their new lives with their new families. An added bonus to being involved in this rescue is the relationships we form with the personal dogs of our fellow volunteers. We become so involved in one another's life, it is only natural that all of our own pets join us in the journey.

We were all very sad to learn today of the passing of Kenai, the beautiful 12 yr old Malamute mix of our very own Behavior Director, Kari Bastyr. Kenai was such a great old dog who loved his toys and his mom very much. What is so interesting about Kenai is that he wasn't always a great dog- in fact, he was a shelter reject who everyone else had given up on...until Kari found him, only hours before he was to be euthanized 12 years ago. He had separation anxiety, aggression and a multitude of other issues that Kari was faced with, and patiently worked through.

I will miss Kiki very much. I often went to Kari's to let out Jasper and Kenai if she had to work late. Jasper would run around the yard at break neck speed, while I would grab a handful of hotdogs or treats and pull up a chair on the deck with Kenai. Jasper was too busy running to notice, but I would sit there and just freely hand out the treats. Now, in Kari's house the rule was that a dog has to "earn " their treat....nope, not when Auntie B was babysitting! Kenai knew it and would happily gobble them down. If I wasn't handing them out quick enough he would howl at me. Than, when he had had enough, he would leave my side to go sunbathe.

Kiki passed today surrounded by Kari, Ethan, Sheryl and his beloved vet Apryl at TenderTouch.

Buy your tickets for now!

We are very excited to announce our next fundraiser...dinner at BD's Mongolian BBQ!

The specifics:

March 17, 2009
Anytime between 4 and 7pm
BD's is located at 1620 Wazee St, Denver CO
$25 per person- includes soup, salad, bowl of stir fry and drink. Tip and tax is also included

$10 of each meal will go back to BDHP!

Please email bree at: bree@bigdogshugepaws.com to buy tickets!

Hope to see you all there!

You can't have just one...

You may remember the Wilson family from an earlier post, they adopted mantle Jager. They recently also become volunteers for BDHPI which is something that we always love to see happen! After becoming volunteers, they also decided to try their hand at fostering.

Mable was their first foster, and also quickly became their first foster failure- by the next morning an email was waiting for Lindsay to confirm that they would like to make Mable a permanent member of their family!

We always say " You can't have just one!!"! Mable's new name is Sophie.Congrats, Wilson Family!

Quirky Piper

Piper is a 7 yr old Merle Dane who has quickly earned a reputation as a "character". Danes are obviously known for their personalities, but she has more than most! We were just saying the other night, " Even how she sits is funny!", now we can add" Even how she sleeps is funny!"