Dog Journal
Day One 6/15/03
Actually, technically today’s day two, but who’s counting.
Cedar and I are getting a dog! I’m very excited. Cedar’s moderately enthusiastic I’d say. After 3 years of work, I’ve finally convinced him.
As many of you know, I’m a dog nut. But Cedar and I decided we wanted the perfect dog - that we weren’t going to settle for almost perfect. That made us think that a puppy might be the right thing since we could raise and train it to our specifications. But we’ve also decided that we’d look at adult dogs who have the right traits. Since there are so many rescue organizations that foster dogs now, you can really get a good sense of a dog’s personality since the foster family will know the dog so well. Here are the traits we wanted:
1) short hair
2) medium size (70 pound max)
3) very people/stranger friendly (no shy dogs)
4) young (puppy to adult, probably not older than 5 years, though that isn’t the most important thing)
5) moderate activity level (no “I need to herd sheep for 12 hours a day” border collies)
6) Affectionate (likes to be petted)
7) Dog friendly (so we can take it to the Frisbee field)
Those are the important traits in about the right order.
For my birthday Cedar got me a box of dog chews with “The Search begins, 6/14/03″ written on it. It was very cute. So yesterday, the day after my last final, was June 14th and we started our search. We went to Seattle Animal 
Shelter (SAS), where I volunteer as a dog walker once a week. Before I go further, I just want to say that SAS temperament tests every dog and only the ones with good temperaments get put up for adoption. We looked at a dog named Dagwood - he was about 2 years old, black with brown and grey piping. Probably a black lab mix, but hard to say. He was pretty active, very food motivated, liked to fetch and play tug. I had walked him the week before and really liked him (the food motivation made him quite tractable with the clicker. More about clicker training later). So we walked around with Dagwood (I know the name is horrible). He was somewhat jumpy (he exuberantly launched himself at my face a few times) and snarky with treats (meaning a bit rough with his mouth. He was not possessive at all). I liked him b/c he had good toy and food drive. Cedar pointed out that his manners weren’t great, and that he wasn’t particularly affectionate. He wasn’t too interested in petting (he didn’t mind it, but he preferred the ball or treats). Upon reflection Cedar convinced me that he wasn’t perfect. I think I respond well to dogs who are treat motivated b/c I get fast results with them, but that doesn’t mean all those dogs are right for us. It was good to hear Cedar’s input so we could calibrate our dogometers.
So last night I did some searching online, saw a puppy or two who might work, but didn’t do much else.
Then today, I did some more thinking and later in the day realized that a dog who had been at the shelter for a long time (two months) might actually suit us, at least based on what I knew of her. Her name is Natasha (I don’t really like that name either) and she is a pit bull mix (looks like a small, dainty pit bull). She is a red/red nose (her nose is brownish pink instead of black), about 35 pounds, very friendly and affectionate. She likes balls and sticks and fetch. I had walked her a couple times and enjoyed her. I hadn’t considered her because there is a tendency for dog aggression in pit bulls. But she actually doesn’t show any aggression, which is why I realized that she might suit us. So we scootled out to SAS again and lo and behold she was already out in the exercise corral getting her twice daily walk (all the dogs are walked at least twice a day). So we went in and hung out with her for a while. She sat for some treats, got some petting, chewed on some sticks (she likes sticks), rested under the table in the shade (it’s warm today), and fetched a ball a little. (Funny side story, the volunteer walking Natasha called a tennis ball “a green baseball.” She wasn’t joking. Cedar and I concluded that she hadn’t played sports much.) We then took her on a walk. She had ok leash manners (a little mild pulling, a little wandering and crossing in front), but was very polite and was happy to take some treats, walk with us, interact. She (like almost every pit bull I’ve walked) takes treats extremely gently - no teeth at all. Here is her listing (link is dead now). She looks like a pure pit bull in the picture, but in person, she looks like a small pit. We got to talk to the volunteer who took her home for a night. The volunteer really liked her and as you can see from her description, Natasha did very well in a home environment. Cedar liked her and I liked her so we decided to foster her with an eye towards adopting her if she fits. We’d like to see how she does with other dogs, how her house manners are, etc. So probably tomorrow we’ll pick her up and we’re off to our life as dogged (maybe dogful?) people! Wow!
We’ll take plenty of pictures and put them up here. I actually think she might be part Staffordshire Bull Terrier (Staffy Bull) b/c of the shape of her head and her small size. Staffy Bulls have more angular, wedge shaped heads than pit bulls (who have wider muzzles), and they are about 40% smaller. She’s a muscular little thing (you can see the muscles on her side rippling when she runs) and her little tail flies back and forth when she’s happy - it hurts when it waps your leg.
So that’s the start of our dog search. I intend to update the journal at least every few days for the first few weeks, so check back.
