New (MAJOR) responsibility at shelter!

[Ino]

She is adorable !! Congrats, Liz- I am sure this will be a great experience for you (challenging but rewarding)!

[LMM]

What a great opportunity! Good for you girl!

And she is BEAUTIFUL!

[pitbullmamaliz]

Thanks all! I spent some time this morning browsing the interwebz and finding info on training deaf dogs. I've also contacted all the volunteers and asked them to email me or call me re: any incidents they've had with Noel so I can be prepared with all the necessary info for tomorrow's training.

[Hundilein]

Way to go Liz! I can't wait to hear updates on Noel's progress!

[pitbullmamaliz]

Thanks. I'm like 99% confident I can do this, but that horrible 1% of my head is telling me it will be my fault if we can't help her and she gets euthed. I know realistically it won't be my fault, but it's hard to stop thinking about it! LOL

All of the incidents I've received so far sound just like inappropriate mouthing, nothing "aggressive," so that's good. Seems like a lot of frustration and impatience on Noel's behalf.

[airwalk]

Okay, I'm going to give you the head slap now....You did not breed Noel, you did not create Noel, you did not abandon Noel...you are giving her the very best opportunity she can have to find a home. If for some reason that does not happen you have given her love, opportunity and a reason to use her brain. She is warm, dry, fed and safe, which is more than she would have had on the streets.

She has people that touch in love, train in love and just generally love...which is more than she would have had on the streets.

If for some reason she does not find a home...you will celebrate her..you will celebrate that she found warmth, food, training and love and that she died peacefully, humanely and happy.

Cause Liz..if you don't you won't last long as a volunteer in a shelter. This is something we have to tell ourselves every day. We celebrate them all...if they find a home we celebrate that..if they don't we celebrate the amazing animal they were.

[pitbullmamaliz]

Thanks, Diana! Realistically I know it wouldn't be my fault at all but there's still that little nugget of insanity, you know?

And she is definitely well cared for! This shelter is awesome - the dogs are constantly getting walked and they have small pens in the back they can run around in when the weather is halfway decent, they all have a crapload of toys, beds and blankets in their kennels, etc. I'm so glad I was persistent with volunteering there!

[tiva]

Liz, how are things going with her?

[pitbullmamaliz]

Slowly. I've done a couple trainings for the people who are working with her, and some are already asking for refreshers. She's very frustrating to deal with because her impulse control is just non-existent. She goes 0-60 in a split second. She actually pulled me off my feet last Sunday because it was snowy and I had her in a back pen playing - she got the zoomies and then grabbed my pants leg by my foot and yanked. I ended up on my butt. Then she nailed me in the hand and I still have a bruise from it. One of the volunteers ended up having to use DirectShield on her to get her off.

That being said, I still feel confident that we can teach her to act appropriately. I just keep reminding everybody (including myself!) that often things get worse before getting better.

Thanks for asking!

[pitbullmamaliz]

So I'm excited because I worked with Noel this morning and she had made HUGE strides. It's obvious that my volunteers are really taking this seriously. She only had one episode of mouthiness this morning. It was a good one though - she tore my sweatshirt and nailed me on the forearm, giving me a nice little mark and bruise. But for her to only act up once during the 40 minutes or so I was with her is AMAZING.

I ended up splitting my volunteers into 3 training groups. Level 1 is for my volunteers who want to help but are a bit hesitant, so all of the level 1 behaviors are done with Noel back-tied and the volunteers working from a safe distance. Level 2 is pretty much the same behaviors as level 1 (basic foundation behaviors) but off-leash in the back pen or during a walk. I only have a few level 3 trainers, and we're the ones working on impulse control and tug-work with her. We've only had this system in place for a week but wow, it's working!

I was just really excited about her progress and wanted to update people. I sent a huge thank you email to my volunteers today so they know how much I notice and appreciate their hard work.

[Suzi]

What a great update.....

[Hundilein]

Yay! I'm so glad to hear that you're making progress. Please continue sharing updates, I love hearing about stuff like this!

[TheRedQueen]

What great news! Sounds like you've got everything planned out! Wonderful! Congrats on the big strides that your Noel and your Noel wranglers are making!

[tiva]

Great news!

[PetieMarie22]

Update Liz?? Hopefully things are still coming along!

[pitbullmamaliz]

Sorry! Yeah, things are still going really well! Noel's little mouthy moments are becoming fewer and farther between. I guess the only problem is that she's starting to get a tad, um, rotund. But that's easy enough to fix and I'm thrilled that obviously people are giving her lots of treats while working with her. Not this weekend but maybe next weekend I'm going to see if I can take her a pet store or something to get some exposure for her.

[PetieMarie22]

Good! Glad to hear she is progressing! She is a cutie! I hope she finds a really good home when she is ready for it!