Sai pUpdate

Sai has just gone off, happily bouncing along with his new mom and dad, wearing his new red collar and leash. There is a 10-day trial period, but if all goes well, he has been adopted!

Hooray for Sai!

I will miss him. Don, in an equal but opposite proportion, will not miss him.

Are you a wiener tree???

pUpdate on Sai

Sai is coming along in leaps and bounds and snuggles.

Leash: He now comes for the leash with no treats and no darting away. I call him and put him on the leash two or three times during each walk and then take him off again. He barely notices anymore. I still keep treats with me on most walks just in case. Although I had to take cheese yesterday because the kids ate all Sai's wieners.

Biting: No bites in sight. I don't think Sai will bite anymore unless he's cornered or frightened in some way. He's very responsive to gentle handling, and just a loving little dog. He especially likes men, which is not a good thing in our house because he wants to snuggle with Don.

Crate: Still great in the crate, although about every 3rd night I let Sai sleep at the end of the bed. I think it's good for pack bonding. Don does not like this. As the Alpha Male, he gets his way 2/3 of the time.

What's that you say?

I am as beautiful as a flower???

What do these clouds look like?

Okay, so they're not clouds. They're Sai examining Iggy going pee in the back yard at night. Don't ask me how the picture turned out this way. It just did, and it's far nicer than the real thing.

Sai is teaching me a lot.

At first, I thought he didn't listen very well. For example, when he was outside and started barking at something, I would call him to come in. He wouldn't even look at me. So I would call him again in a sharper tone, and he would either continue what he was doing or run away. During one such event, I called him once and then just stood there, thinking, 'what the hell am I going to do with this little shithead?' and I realized he was also just standing there at the far side of the yard, looking at me intently. And then he suddenly ran to me like a puppy.

It turns out that whenever I ask Sai to do something, he has to think about it. It's as though he's deciding whether or not he's in trouble. If he is, he turns away and goes to SaiLand, where no one can catch him because he's as fast as a speeding bullet. And besides, he can always use his teeth if he has to. But if he's not in trouble, he comes running.

I think this is what Sai needs to be a good dog - slow, patient and gentle. It might take him a while, but he does listen and he doesn't think about biting. He still barks when he hears something frightening (like the sound of a slipper touching the floor or a fly buzzing). But I think he'll improve when he begins to realize that only good things happen to little dogs named Sai.

I don't think he'll bite anymore either, as long as this method is used with him. As the days go by, he's becoming so much like a typical little shitzu that it's hard to think of him as anything else. He is just such a happy little guy. I chose the picture of him running in the field because that's what his personality is like.

Getting him to let me put the leash on when we're out walking is a work in progress. Yesterday, I put the leash on him and walked a little way, and then gave him a treat only when I took the leash off. That worked three times, and then he figured it out and went back to playing Catch-me-if-you-can. I refused to join in. As soon as he darted away, I walked on and ignored him. He was very disappointed, and on Try #5, he let me put the leash on. And today, he accepted the leash twice with no treats. So we're getting there!

Sai will be a great pet for someone. I secretly don't care if no one adopts him, as always. And (also as always) Don secretly wishes someone would adopt everyone who has fur.

My happy little munchkin

Ginny and Sai

"Ach! This wind! I can't do a THING with my ears!"

Sai the Invisible Tub Dog

Sai is never far away when I'm getting ready for work in the morning. He gets to come up on the bed for a snuggle, and when I go into the shower, he plops his little self down outside the door and waits. But every once in a while, he disappears and I find him in the bathtub. So here is Sai's bathtub story.

"What are you doing in there, Sai?"

SAI: "I'm just standing here."

"What do you want?"

SAI: "I want a bath. No, wait. I want a drink. No, wait. I want attention. No, wait. I want all those."

"Well, I think you should come out."

SAI: "Well I think I am Sai the Invisible Tub Dog, and I can't hear you."

Why, yes! I would like a piece of wiener!

It turns out that Sai likes wiener more than he likes to play Catch Me if You Can.

I took his leash off as soon as we got out of the car this morning,and Sai came to me and let me hold his collar every single time I asked. I didn't even bother putting his leash back on, because he would stand on his head if he could for just one more piece of wiener.

One down, two to go!

'Hey... hey... hey... are you mad at me?'

Sai has enrolled in a third class called Not Playing Catch Me if You Can.

On last night's walk I took his leash off because he wanted to play in the creek. That led to my discovery of Sai's favorite game.

He came to me each time I called him. He lay down in front of me each time I said 'Sit'. But as soon as I reached out my hand, he bolted. He was having way more fun than he should be having.

The thing about training dogs (for me) is that it's trial and error. You just keep trying new things until you find the one that works.

1. I started walking. Every time he zipped past me I turned around and walked the other way. I thought he would eventually get tired of going back and forth.

2. I got tired of going back and forth, so I sat down and ignored him. His circles got smaller and smaller until he was right in front of me, bounching back and forth, barking, 'Catch me! Catch me! Come on, just try itI Try it! Look how close I am!' I lifted my hand, and ... you guessed it.

3. I got Ginny and Iggy to lie down beside me and we all pretended Sai was invisible. He lay down right in front of me, head between his paws, looking for all the world like a sad little orphan. Until I moved my hand.

4. I decided I would sit there all night if I had to, and until he climbed right into my lap I would ignore him. Iggy started to make his little 'Woof! Woof! I am unhappy! This is not ordinary procedure!' noises. I ignored him too.

5. Another human came along. Silly Sai forgot about the game and went up to her to be petted. She slipped her hand under his collar and that was that.

So now I have all my dog books out. I'll have to buy more wieners because Sai doesn't like any of the five kinds of dog treats and the one kind of cat treats I bought to temp him with. But one way or another, I'll win.

To adopt Sai ...

... visit Pawsitive Match - over to the right, under 'related sites', you'll find a link.

And speaking of adopting Sai, he is learning so quickly to be a good boy. He's already crate-trained, leash-trained and house-trained. We're working on two issues - barking and biting. But don't let that scare you off. With just a little more time he'll be his true sweet self.

Barking: He's used to guarding his den by making a lot of noise when someone new comes in. We're teaching him that if he barks he has to stay right where he is, but as soon as he's quiet he gest to go and say hello.

Biting. This is an interesting one. I felt his little teeth the first time I told him to do something he didn't want to do. But it wasn't an 'I want to hurt you!' bite. It was an 'I don't want you to hurt me!' bite. He only tried it once so I had to find something that would really set him off. It turned out to be his toe-nails. He bared his teeth each time I touched them. So I got out the clippers, Sai got out his teeth and we went to war. By the time it was over, all his toe-nails were cut. I only had one owie and Sai had a little piece of wiener in his tummy for each toe-nail he let me cut without pulling away or biting.

My goal is to get him to a point where he won't bite no matter what, and I think it won't take very long.

Irresistable Sai

Okay, this is the scoop: I'm not supposed to foster while I'm working full time outside the home. That's because patient husband Don works at home, and (and I quote), "I can't get any work done when blah blah blah."

So now I'm working outside the home, full-time. But I keep checking the websites and reading the e-mails. I pretend I'm going to foster certain dogs, stopping just short of the [ENTER] or, as it's known in my house, the [DANGER! DANGER!] key.

A couple of things happened that got me off-track. First, Don has been out of town. And then I kept seeing Sai on the website and one thing led to another and, well ... here's my little buddy.

I mean, really ... how could I have been expected to resist? Have you ever seen such a beautiful face?

"Here is gorgeous little me!"

"Do you think my feet are on the wrong feet?"

A little ball of Not Fluff.

Sai's After-Bath Old-Man Bum

This little guy kills me. He's funny from every angle.