Rusty Update

 There is nothing like a sleeping pup to make a great picture. But how is Rusty?

He is a ball of fire, MOST of the time.

He is doing well. I have learned a lot more about his condition. I spoke with Jocelyn for a long time about Rusty. She is an expert amateur reference on dogs (an amateur expert?) - she has read and knows a lot. She ran a Labrador Rescue in upstate New York for years, so she has had to deal with many different dog health problems.

Now, Labradors don't have this liver issue directly, but her books and reference materials had some information. We also had an expert trainer come to our house once to visit Rusty.

Turns out, his (extremely small) liver has consequences past what we thought. Eddie and I knew that giving him his meals would crash him for a few hours. Well, even though his food was created for liver problem dogs, actually making his food would help even more. His liver works better with what they call "good proteins". And one of Joc's books even had some basic recipes for him.

I am not a believer, in general, in making a dog's food but this is massively helpful with Rusty. he now eats 3 smaller meals to hep him digest. AND, I make most of his food myself. Usually once or twice a week. It has perked up Rusty a ton. That's isn't always perfect for us (that dog LOVES to bug Eddie and play!), but it certainly has made the world of difference to him. 

It has also helped training as he loves cut pieces of carrot and (thank you Aldona) green beans.

We actually had the trainer over (once) because Rusty had regressed with pooping in the house. We think it was mainly a function of it being hella cold here for a few weeks, but once it starts it is a hard habit to break. She helped us with some mistakes we were making. For example, apparently, I would say something like, "Rusty, can you Sit? Can you Sit?" instead of "SIT" once, forcefully.

He has now been much better about pooping outside, He knows SIT, DROP IT and DOWN. He may not do them all correctly 100% of the time, but at least he knows what you are asking. He has also learned, on purpose or not, that NOT YET, means come back into the front room with us you lazy bones. And OKAY, means you can go to your cage for the night.

And, since working with him and giving him different food, he has become more loving and trusting. We know think he was probably purchased for breeding and then returned before we got him. He is slowly becoming more and more of the family. He sits and watches TV with us at night and is a good pup.