Sadie

Sadie Pictures

October, 2010. Our first foster dog was Sadie, a two year old 48 pound dynamo. She came to us very mouthy and jumpy, having been at the shelter for three months without finding her "forever home".  When the staff member brought her out she was jumping so crazily that it was no surprise she was getting passed over.

I spent about an hour walking Sadie, quickly curbing her from her jumping and mouthing.  She learned very fast once you firmly set the rules out for her.

When I brought her home I immediately took her and our dog Boomer for a walk, one on each side of me.  I didn’t let them interact at all for awhile to make it clear they had to meet on my terms.  I let them have a quick sniff, then more walking, then another brief meeting and so on, the pattern I would use to introduce all of our future foster dogs to Boomer.

She quickly learned the rules of the house, although house training was an ongoing challenge. She would go several days without an accident, and then somewhat inexplicably pee in the house not too long after being outside.  But the longer we had her the less frequent the accidents became.

Sadie loved our morning runs, chewing knotted rope toys, and running around in our fenced-in backyard with Boomer.  And of course she loved floor-time with her foster mommy and daddy.

We fostered Sadie for about three and a half weeks.  She was adopted about two week after she went back to the shelter.