BHRR’s Shiva is scheduled for her HWT on Friday September 5th and later today, we shall do her nails plus microchip. She is also now on Sentinel given monthly. Once the results of her HWT are in; she will be up for adoption soon after. SHE is a fantabulous dog!!!!! Just wonderful!!!! I took quite a few pictures yesterday and hopefully, I can get them up later today and before I leave for Albion, NY on Friday to show Bronson. I now call her ‘DIVA SHIVA’ 😆
UPDATE: 10 pictures of Diva Shiva have now been added! 😉 While not the best pictures ever, it is a start!

What an exciting update to be making on BHRR’s Shiva! I think me leaving for a few days was the BEST that could happen to her in getting over most of her skittishness with men. She had to ‘depend’ on Sean for food, cuddles, water etc. and in arriving home yesterday from Ohio, I could tell that she has become a ‘Sean’s Baby’! She will sit right back on her haunches and place both of her feet very gently on Sean’s lap and nudge him for loving. I think I am jealous! LOL She was a bit soft ‘woofy’ with me when I arrived home yet as my smells are all over the house; she settled down when asked. She has not had one accident in the house since last Wednesday and she will now run to her crate for that special treat and is great at night. She does do some low soft cries of ‘I wanna be out there with you guys’ yet calms down quickly in her crate and sleeps well. Her crate is in the main floor of our home and one busy traffic zone. She only makes these small soft few cries at bedtime. She is up like the sun around 5:00 – 5:30 AM each day and her day begins! She is now fully integrated with all and has been wonderful! At this time, we need to microchip her, do a HWT and give her much needed pedicure/manicure; possibly even tonight. From there, in another week or so; she will be put up for adoption for she is doing AWESOME! She needs much in regards to leash manners plus more public socialization and we will work on that but these are also things that her new forever loving home can work on too. We will give her those strong foundations and her new home will be required to carry through in continuing to build on those foundations. She cannot go to an inexperienced home for she is a very strong willed and minded gal and I admire her deeply for that. She is brilliant and is going to excel in things like obedience or therapy work. She really is beautiful and hopefully, I shall get some pictures posted up of her soon. I have had 702 emails to address since I got home yesterday and it has been busy! If I were to post a complaint on Shiva it is her constant desire for zooming in the house and getting the other dogs to do the same!!! 😛 Sean just loves this girl and I know that she is sure to steal someone’s heart out there! At this time, I also would like to see her in a home whereby someone is home all the time or a part-time work home. I do not feel at least at this moment in time, that it is in her best interest to go to a home whereby someone is working full-time. She needs stimulation and a ‘job’ to have in order to keep her on the ‘right’ path. She has done very little barking and absolutely no chewing at our home. She will also need a home with a very very very tall fence for she cleared ours the first day she was here. She is also a ‘rough houser’ Dane pup and ‘gentle’ is becoming a constant word in her training program! 😆

Just one more update before I get on the road to Ohio. Shiva had a good night. She did really well in her crate. I often find that the second and third night of a new animal in our home is the most ‘upsetting’ to all, so we will see what the next few nights brings for everyone. She seems to be having a problem understanding that she can drink water inside as she will drink outside from one of the bowls yet not inside. She also peed and pooped in the house, despite an open door. She has now been integrated with all but two of the dogs(Mazda who is one of KB/JB’s closest buds and keeps him ‘calm’ & KB/JB as we continue to keep KB/JB’s excitement and stress down to avoid a possible bloat situation). We will wait a few more days before that meeting so that KB/JB is used to the sight and smell of her before a physical introduction. I know that Mazda and he are also going to love Shiva just as all the other dogs do. She is a very playful sort and you can see that she definitely is enjoying being the ‘centre’ of attention plus has a strong ‘leader’ personality. We need to ensure that it is shaped in the proper direction for already she wants to try and ‘boss’ some of the other dogs around to get their toys etc. She is very gentle about taking treats and has already managed to figure out how to get out of the fenced in yard. She is a jumper too. Busy, busy, busy girl this one. It is interesting to watch how even our Cherokee ‘submits’ to Shiva. Yesterday, Shiva could not get enough of outside. Today, she is very reluctant to even put a toe outside. She wants to play and zoom inside and though she will stand just in the open door and watch the outside, she is not keen on taking one step out there. She is a really nice girl and full of life!

Shiva’s owner met me at the hospital today and you could tell just how much she loves this girl. She sent with Shiva, her favourite toys, a blanket and some food. She even gave BHRR a donation. I promised to send her updates and pictures and she has our website to follow Shiva’s progress. I brought Shiva into the hospital and she weighed 39.4 KGs(86.68 pounds) and we also verified her spay(she has a noticeable incision). She is a good weight(a wee bit plump) yet looks wonderful and though a bit skittish, settled down well. Once she has had time to get used to being with us, we will micrcochip and do her nails. Shiva sat on the scale beautifully(she knows her commands in french really well) and was a model passenger on the way home. She lied down and other than looking about her; was very content to lie there and at one point just flopped right on her side and stretched out! When I arrived home; Sean had put all the dogs away and she was a bit growly in the car at him and her hackles went up slightly. She is suppose to be better with women than men and with me leaving tomorrow for Ohio; this will be a great oppotunity for her and Sean to get better acquainted. Once I brought her out of the vehicle, she was less stressed with Sean being there and after a few moments of her looking a bit nervous, I handed over the leash with some calming words/a touch and went to our car to get some things out. She was very calm and no longer worried. She pulls a bit on the leash, so we will be working on that. She came into the house without any worry and I had Sean keep her on a leash while I let the 4.5 month old Porridge out of his crate. He was so funny…he was all over ‘mom’ first and once he felt that he got enough of the ‘mom’ AKA ME; he greeted Shiva. She was a little wary yet within seconds was fine and I took her off the leash. Abbi, who was in her crate in the sunroom, was making all of these sounds and play bowing in her crate and tail was wagging a mile a minute. After about 10 minutes and Porridge trying to bring Shiva every toy in the house to play with him; LOL; I let Abbi out and WOW! WOW! WOW! Abbi took to Shiva like one of her DBB sisters. She was playbowing, following her and trying to get Shiva to play and Shiva began to play! I opened up the front door when things began to get a bit rambunctious and out the three of them scooted to go romp in the yard. Shiva has been doing a lot of exploring and Abbi is staying close to her and playing with her and doing a lot of playbowing….Abbi LOVES Shiva and Porridge has a crush! LOL They have now been in and out of the house several times and things have gone beautifully. I will not integrate Shiva with the whole herd in one day and will soon crate her to give her some ‘safe’ & ‘quiet’ time. She has not gone to the bathroom since she arrived nor drank anything yet she has shown a lot of curiousity in her surroundings and has done a lot of investigations. Even with the rest of the ‘mob’ LOL barking and whining throught the ensuite windows; she has shown no fear, just curiousity at everything. She does love the outside, that is for sure…..I wanted to give a bit of an update after her arrival and before I left as to how she is doing. She is not much bigger in height to Abbi either! I have also learned that her birthdate is June 10th, 2007, so she is 14 months old now. A pretty wee thing, just like Abbi! You can tell that this girl has spunk and pesonality and I look forward to the challenges that lie ahead as we get to learn each other and progress to Shiva being that great asset to home and community. I can tell already that she is going to keep me on my toes! LOL Her vaccines are not due until January 3rd, 2009. I also promise to get some pictures of this beauty up soon! I honestly do not feel that it is going to be long before this sweetie will be available for adoption. We will have to work through that ‘honeymoon’ period and do a thorough temperament and behavoural assessment BUT I am loving what I am seeing. She is going to deeply benefit from some detailed obedience classes and we will see how the crate training goes and how anxious she might become upon being left alone plus any housebreaking, barking and/or chewing issues she might have in relation to that. Like any new addition to our program, the first few nights are the hardest on all of us and we will take it one day at a time with her. I do know already that she should really be in a home with at least one other dog and whether she needs to be in a home with someone there all day or part-time or can go to a full-time working home; that remains to be seen. Right now, the three monkeys are tearing in and out of my house……LOL and she has already added her signature to our newly re-finished hardwood floors with some scratches from those nails of hers! 😛 WELCOME to our home Shiva! LOL NOT YET AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION!!!!

If all goes well, Shiva will be arriving on Tuesday August 19th. We have requested a copy of all of her vet records for the o/s form sent back to us, indicated that no records would be coming with her. We really would like and need to know about vaccine history, her spay, any heartworm testing, heartworm preventative. etc. She sounds like a really sweet and wonderful GD and we look forward in meeting her.

BHRR’s Shiva – Black female Great Dane, 1 year of age, spayed and what we have been told is that the woman wants and feels she needs to give her up as she is a single working mom and works all day. We have been told that it is believed that Shiva suffers from SA(Separation Anxiety) and we were contacted as the contact for the SPCA Monteregie would like to keep her out of a shelter environment. We have been told (trying to make a connection with the woman who owns Shiva) that she can keep her until August 18th as she is on vacation so she is at home with her; yet I received a message from this woman that would like to drop her to us tomorrow. We will need to connect for BHRR cannot take her until the 18th and would dearly love to assist. Shiva is apparently good outside yet if she is left alone in the house; will chew, go to the bathroom and bark non-stop. When there are people home; Shiva is supposedly; obedient, calm, social, friendly with children, visitors etc. We have also been told that the woman has contacted a trainer, tried anxiety medication(we will be asking for vet records as we also need to know if Shiba is utd on shots, HWT, HWpreventative etc.) and yet when Shiva is alone she gets very upset. This woman got the Dane at 6 months of age from someone else and has never owned a dog before. We will update Shiva’s blog as we can and I am hoping that I can make direct contact soon for as mentioned above; we would love to help Shiva. NOT YET AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION!!!