GIP!

[moominmuppet]

I finally got a decent headshot of Tarma to use as an icon. There are also a bunch more photos up on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/moominmuppet/tags/tarma/ (I haven't sorted out the bad ones, or the ones where I look particularly ridiculous in the background -- feel free to point and giggle)

She's continuing to improve on the steps, and whatever caused the intermittent limp for a few hours the other day seems fine since then, which is a relief. She's now coming up the steps on her own almost all the time with little or no added encouragement. She's still freaked by the view from the top of the steps, but if I carry her about 1/3 of the way down, she does fine walking the rest of it. Hopefully we can get her through the last of that fear before Becca finds her summer job -- I don't want anyone but Bec or me trying to carry 60 lbs of nervous dog down a flight of steps.

I've heard some more back from her other shelter in Indiana -- I should get to talk to her foster caretaker this evening, maybe. Apparently she was directly involved in Tarma's initial rescue, and then fostered her for a month, so I should get some good info from her, as well as being able to let her know that Tarma's got a home now (If I were a fosterer, and one of my dogs went to a shelter in another state, I'd want to know that she'd been adopted).

Comments

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*grin* No Kethry yet, but you're spot on regarding the origin of her name. Tarma always was a favorite of mine.

We've tried the treats-on-steps approach, but her fear overwhelms even the tastiest of treats, unfortunately, and she just won't bring her hind legs down to the next step (she'll come down as far as she can on her front legs, but seems to have a lot of trouble figuring out how to move her hind legs, and then she gets off-balance, gets nervous about the height, and then pulls all the way back onto the porch). We're using them a lot to reward any improvements, though. Once we get her started she does fine, it's just that first step...

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could put in a dog slide, one side is slick to go down and the other rough to climb up. Whee! arf.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I'd half considered the idea of an astroturf ramp, myself.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

Don't know how much she likes the water but Leroy might like a waterslide.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

Oh, I bet he'd love a waterslide.

I was rather sorry the water was so cold the days we went out to Edgewater. I think if I'd gone in, he would've come right in with me.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

In all the photos where you can see water, he's right up near it seemingly waiting for his chance

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

He splashed around in it some, and drank a lot of it, but wouldn't go more than knee-deep by himself. That's where I think that once he sees that people can do it, he'll be all about it.

[calebbullen.livejournal.com]

Do they make snorkels for dogs? Leroy could try to make fish his friends!

[burnout-ohio.livejournal.com]

She\'s SO damn cute.

[moominmuppet.livejournal.com]

*grin* Isn't she, though? And she's got wonderfully soft fur, especially on her head.