Barry has been with us for a week now. One would hardly know that he had heart surgery a week ago today. The very tiny incisions in his groan are nearly invisible at this point. He doesn’t seem to be experiencing any adverse effects from the surgery. For a 4-month old pup with a heart condition, he is doing well. His pregnant mom was rescued out of a difficult situation on a North Dakota Indian reservation in one of Coco’s Heart Dog Rescue events called “Out of the Cold.” Barry was born after the rescue. He is so fortunate for he most likely would not have lived if he’d remained in the previous situation.
Barry came to us with little training. He was whelped in an upper floor of a St. Paul apartment building. In his first four months, Barry spent little time outside and had no idea about doing his business outside. He was used to doggy-pee-pads placed throughout the apartment. Barry had some learning to do when he came to us. After a week, I would say he is housebroken. We may still have an accident or two going forward, but that may be due to our inattention rather than Barry’s intentional use of the pads that we do have throughout the house.
About the only dog-commands that he knew when he came to us a week ago, is “no.” Along with “No”, he now knows “sit”, “lay down”, “stay”, and “wait”. He’s learning “heel” and we haven’t worked on “off” yet. Based on the speed of learning so far, I would say Barry is a smart dog.
Barry would like to get out and run. We live in an area where that is not possible. He has to be leash at all times. I keep a pretty short leash so he doesn’t get the idea of running and yanking me off my feet. With his heart condition, which he will have the rest of his life, he is not supposed to be overly active. It all works out.
The first few nights he was with us, I got little sleep, which is to be expected with the arrival of a new member of the family and still a baby at that. The last two nights have been better. Barry is sleeping through the night until after 7 a.m. What a blessing. In my retirement, I have gotten used to sleeping later. Seven o’clock is just fine.
The one area we have to do a lot of work on with is Barry is kennel training. He will go in his kennel if we leave the door open. Once the door is closed, he freaks out with a very loud barks and lots of whining. This will take time. Since we live in a townhome situation, we have neighbors who are not going to be happy with loud barking. This is going to take baby-steps.
Much of my social live and outings have been curtailed due to taking care of Barry. He had constant contact in his previous home so there is a lot of separation anxiety when one of us leaves him a lone in a room. Baby-steps.
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