I would like to introduce you to Libby

She was a dog who was picked up on the streets in California as a 5 month old stray, and wound up in a local shelter. Local for her was Orange County California. She was scheduled to be PTS. Held for the required time to allow original owners to claim her, but considered unadoptable because of a cosmetic deformity. 

She has a cleft palette and double harelip. Because of her wonderful personality, a woman from a rescue organization pulled her from the shelter, and put her into a foster home to evaluate her and help her find permanent home.  Within 2 months, while in the rescue system, she found herself in several different foster's homes, and halfway across the country. Everyone who spent a little time with her, found her to be a wonderful, sweet, fun, loving dog. Anyone who spent a lot of time with her found her to be quite a handful. Sometimes normally friendly dogs, would become aggressive towards her, and even attack her, because of her very high energy, and inappropriate, excessively excitable, social and greeting behavior. Each time she experienced these situations, her anxiety behaviors got worse. All this by 7 months old.

At the same time there were several different dogs I was considering for adoption to add to my family. After deciding that 2 of the dogs would find new owners much more easily than her, I decided on 'Sailor' (Libby's name at the time). I guess I thought I needed a project. And, in memory of my dog Willie who had recently passed away, I wanted to adopt a dog that needed. Special needs I guess. She was becoming even more unlikely to be adopted by the day because her needs were difficult to meet in her current situation and even the rescue organization was losing hope for her. The longer she went without a home, the more stressed she got.

After completing her journey across the country, I picked Libby up from the airport in NJ. On the way home, a 5 hour drive, Libby sat politely on the back seat watching out the window most of the way home, when she wasn't sleeping. She didn't even get car sick. I thought, maybe they were exaggerating about her behavior. What an angel!  I had forgotten, I had only spent a little time with her. Most new dogs behaviors don't really become apparent for a couple of weeks, sometimes even months. What I soon found, is that they were not exaggerating. They actually softened the rough edges quite a bit. They also, either never fully evaluated her, or they had just left out a few of the important details. Which is not uncommon. I think, all of the above. 

"High energy" was definitely not a descriptive enough term for this dog. And she had extremely high prey/chase drive towards other animals (cats, squirrels, chickens). This behavior tends to go along with high energy dogs. If this is how she approached other dogs, no wonder other dogs didn't like her. Okay, no problem.

Severe restraint issues, found by attempting to cut nails, and submissive urination, was surely known. Several days after adopting her, we had to have 2 stitches removed from her spay incision. She was only 27 pounds and it took 5 people to restrain her. Clearly this was going to be an issue as well. Her lack of trust in being restrained would surely be stress for her every time she needed to have her nails done, or anything else, like a vet visit or being groomed. Something like that was important to me for her to overcome. I wanted her to trust me to do anything. And not to be afraid if it was something I could help.

She was quite a handful. But I got her over her issues fairly quickly. Many of her worst issues had significantly improved in less than two weeks! And she is, the sweetest, happiest dog you would ever want to meet. Although her enthusiasm for attention is sometimes a little hard for her to handle.

Libby now tips the scales around 40 pounds.

She is very smart, and learns quickly. But is one to really keep on top of since, being so smart, the bad stuff is learned just as easily as the good stuff.

But she has come a long way.

Libby now tips the scales around 40 pounds.

She is very smart, and learns quickly. But is one to really keep on top of since, being so smart, the bad stuff is learned just as easily as the good stuff.

But she has come a long way.

And she has brought me a long way... to discovering new ways to tire her out! The old adage "a tired dog is a happy dog"... should really be... a tired dog equals a happy owner. In more ways than one! 1. No chewed up stuff. 2. No barking and whining. 3. No hot laps, banking off sofa, walls and cabinets 4. No dragging me down the street And on... and on...

She passed her Temperament Test (TT) given by the American Temperament Test Society.

I would like her to become a therapy dog in a children's hospital. I think she would really enjoy that too. But time gets the best of all of us, so who knows if we will reach that goal. It doesn't matter. One has to have goals. Libby also enjoys weight pulling and has started agility training, but due to a congenital birth defect discovered in her spine, these activities are modified to exercises that enrich her mentally and physically according to her needs, safely. All of these things helps vent her everlasting energy supply. Maybe your dog would enjoy some of these things too.

Libby has since passed away (2015) at the age of 11, of cancer. Her enthusiasm with which she approached every minute of her life brought happiness to me that is irreplaceable. She taught me a lot about sensitive dogs and their needs and will never be forgotten.

I will see you again someday at the rainbow bridge my baby girl.