As Told by Athena: Busy Ladies

Hi Guys!  Athena here.  You're probably wondering where this little brindle butt has been because she has totally been slacking on her blogging duties lately (ok....let's be honest, it's been like a month)!  Well friends, I've been a busy lady and so has my mom.

Mom and I take a second out of our busy schedules to pose for a photo last weekend

Mom comes home every night and says that life is crazy in the garden with her 31 gardeners.  I don't get how gardening could be so difficult, but apparently it's hard when the gardeners are only 5 years old...and when there are 31 of them.  Mom says she's a bad blogger because she promised one blog post a week, but she didn't even succeed at that.  She hopes that you all understand that gardening has taken over her life for the time being.

My mom's busyness means that my social life has soared through the roof!  That's right.  I get to go to my favorite doggie daycare THREE days a week now!  Mom says this makes for one super duper tired Bean every night, but it also makes for lots of cute picture in my mom's inbox.

I'm also still flyballin' regularly at practice and I recently raced in two tournaments.  One of the tournaments was held at a big ole' doggie event where there were agility demos and a lure course set up.  Mom paid $3 for me to give lure coursing a try, but she wasn't sure if I'd be interested in chasing a silly little plastic bag around.  Of course, this Bean thought that lure coursing was the most fun thing in the whole wide world!  After my turn was over I kept trying to pull my mom back to the course for another run, so she gave in and paid another $3 to let me do it again.  Mom says she sees lure coursing in my future.

Flyball is still my most favorite extra curricular activity and I'm getting pretty good at it with all of this practice that I do every week.  I'm even now known as a FDCh-S which stands for "Flyball Dog Champion Silver" because I've won over 1,000 points at tournaments!

So yeah, that's a little update on the life of the Bean.  I really miss all of my doggie friends out there and I'm so sorry that my mom has let gardening take over her life.  As you can see though, I don't mind one bit because it means that I get to play with my doggie friends more often!

What's up with you guys?

Athena: Dog Aggressive or Dog Social?

Exactly five months ago we adopted Athena from a local shelter.  It feels like just yesterday that I was writing about Athena's two month Adopt-a-Versary and all of the struggles and accomplishments that we had faced.

Five months ago as B and I stared into Athena's kennel at the shelter, I noticed a pile of pee on the floor next to her and a glaring label on her information sheet that read: Dog Aggressive.  I remember turning to B and saying something like, "I don't know if we want to get a dog that's aggressive.  Isn't that bad?"  He of course assured me that this wouldn't be the end of the world (although I now realize how hindering dog aggression can be for everyday activities such as a walk around the neighborhood or even a play date with a friend's dog depending on the severity).

Dog Aggressive?  Who, me?!

Before placing a hold on Athena, we decided to get all of the facts from the shelter workers about her dog aggressive label.  Apparently she received it from the previous family who had adopted her for three weeks and determined that she wasn't the right fit for their family dog.  We were then told that although she came with this negative label, Athena did well with other dogs when introduced into the shelter play groups.

So, with these mixed signals, we adopted a Sorta Dog Aggressive dog.  From that day forward I have continued to be extremely cautious with Athena around other dogs whether it be a dog that we see out on a walk, or a friend's dog that we introduce her to play with.  I'm always wondering if someday she will exhibit the aggressive signals that she showed the family before us who returned her.

Athena loves walking with our dog walking group RespectaBulls

Whenever B and I discuss Athena's 'dog aggression' with others, everyone seems to come to the same conclusion.  They think that Athena wasn't properly introduced to the previous family's dog which may have caused some tension between the two.  If B and I decided to ever get a second dog (or foster) we will most definitely be following some strict dog-dog introduction rules such as those set forth by Bad Rap in their guide A New Dog in the House!

To this day we haven't seen any aggression from Athena.  I will actually go as far as to say that I consider Athena to actually be Dog Social at this point in her life (seeing as she's still sort of a puppy, she could move towards being more dog selective as she matures).  She is the kind of dog who is just DYING to meet other dogs because she loves friends so much.

Athena with one of her doggie BFF's Bingley

When the time came to take Athena to daycare for the first time, part of me thought that I might get a call saying, "Please come pick up your aggressive dog!  She's not allowed back!"  But of course, Athena had a stellar evaluation and was described as a "Daycare Pro."  We now take Athena to her daycare once a week for socialization (both dog and human), exercise, and time away from home.  Each time we pick her up, we hear nothing but rave reviews about how easy she is to incorporate into the pack and how well she plays with her friends.

Pictures sent to us from Athena's daycare

Athena playing with a daycare friend!

Pictures sent to us from Athena's daycare

Even though Athena has proven herself time and time again at being friendly towards other dogs, she will always carry her dog aggressive label.  I always wonder how many people passed by her kennel before us and thought that she was not adoptable based of her label.  To be totally honest, I'm sure many people walked by and thought that there's no way they would adopt a Dog Aggressive Pit Bull.  I also constantly think about the many dogs in the shelter system who may be mislabeled or who receive a label without much to back it up.  A 'dog aggressive' label could be a death sentence for any dog, but especially a pit bull type dog.

So with that, I'm curious if any of you adopted a dog (or know of any in the shelter system) that was mislabeled?

Doggy Daycare Pro

Next week there will be one day when B and I will both be away from the house for over 12 hours.  I have been freaking out about it because obviously we can't leave Athena at home alone for that long without using the bathroom and stretching her legs (we crate her when we are away from home).

I decided that I would look into the option of putting Athena in daycare for the day.  However, I was  nervous that Athena may not be a daycare kind of dog, or worse, her "dog aggression" might surface in the presence of so many dogs (refer to It all started with a pit... for more info about Athena's "dog aggression").

Moooommmm, how often do I have to tell you that I LOVE the other doggies!

After looking at every single daycare in our general radius, we finally decided on a daycare that had decent prices ($24 per day), allowed pit bulls, and had excellent reviews.  This particular daycare is a bit different than the others that I looked into because it required a two-hour evaluation (the evaluation includes introductions with all of the dogs and caretakers as well as play time in the group of 30+ dogs).  All of the other daycares only required a fifteen minute evaluation.

I feel silly admitting that I had trouble sleeping the night before Athena's evaluation because I was just so nervous about how Athena would do.  In the morning, we dropped Athena off and the daycare staff promised to call us an hour into the evaluation to give us an update.

Exactly an hour after dropping Athena off, we received a call and I held my breath as they gave me a report on Athena's first hour of the evaluation.  I almost cried when I heard this, "Athena is doing excellent.  She has shown no signs of fear or anxiety and she's acting like a daycare pro.  She got right in and started playing with all of the dogs and has even made a couple of best friends."

I told you there was nothing to worry about!

We picked Athena up an hour later and heard a further rave review, "Athena was perfect!  All of the staff agreed that they couldn't even tell that it was her first day of daycare."  You better believe it that my girl got some extra special lovin' when we got home because I was so extremely proud of her!

So, next week Athena will be back at daycare playing with all of her doggy friends.  It feels great to know that there is a place where Athena is welcome when we don't want to leave her at home alone.

Do you ever take your dogs to daycare?  What did you look for when searching for the right place to take your dog?