She has relaxed a great deal but has a lot of energy. When I am at work or away she goes in her pen and dog house and is perfectly content. Evenings Ginger and Angel rotate around who has the best bone to chew on. She's very good on leash but still does not respond to commands unless she wants to. Ginger gives lots of kisses and Angel is mimicking tentatively. I can hold and hug her, smooch her ears, nose and head and she is tolerant.
Miss Angel
This spring I hope to work more intensely on obedience and maybe we will progress to agility. She would be great at that. She can run and dive around obstacles like nothing I've ever seen. We just need to connect with the language first. She's very smart and has figured out all of our routines and is quite tenacious when I don't follow the "norm".
Angel and Ginger
Way to go, Angel!!
Hi! Just some questions for Angel's mom - or anyone else who's done massage therapy for their Gabbs dog:
ReplyDeleteDo you think the massages were helpful for Angel - and did they resolve a particular quirk? How many sessions did she have - and was there a point when you knew the massages were helping?
Thanks,
Buffy’s Mom, Mary Ann
I'm afraid I am not the immediate source of information on the massage therapy. I believe it was the people working through Best Friends that used the massage on Angel. The High Sierra Animal Rescue folks said they felt it helped but I don't know how much "therapy" she got. She was with the last batch of dogs removed from Gabbs and by the looks of her when I first saw her, all the changes were hard for her to adjust to. About a week after getting her she pulled a muscle in her neck and I came home from work with two stressed dogs. I sat down on the floor with a real calm energy and massaged her neck and chest and she relaxed to the point of yawning and almost falling asleep. Since then I occassionally take either dog's nose between my knees and massage from the back of the head and slowly, with little circular moves, work down the neck to the shoulder. They both kind of melt over that. Who doesn't like a nice massage? Janice McClure who also took on one of the real timid dogs used massage I think, and felt it really helped. I could ask her vie e-mail and see if she has more to add. Personally I think a calm positive energy toward them does as much as the physical massage. Janice also recommended herbal remedies. Thats my two cents worth.
ReplyDeleteIn my storytelling of Angel I said I had got her through Best Friends and what I misunderstood in her early months was how High Sierra Animal Rescue took her in from Camp Reno and worked with her for two months before her Pets on Parole program. I thought they got her from Best Friends. Sorry to all those wonderful volunteers that worked so diligently for her!!! I hope my correction will make amends to anyone that has worked with her.
ReplyDeleteMost apologetically, Lorraine