I took Shiva to work with me last night to do a skin scraping on that spot and there were NSF(no significant findings) yet that does not truly mean that she does not have Demodex. She had no temperature and is eating, drinking, playing and doing everything else normal. Thursday afternoon, I noticed that the red spot was larger, more hair was missing and that it has begun to ‘ooze’ again, so in she went with me. We have put her on Cephalexin 500mg; 1.5 tabs every 12 hours for two weeks. I just plop them in her food and she just gobbles them down. Today, when the kennel manager came into the reception area shortly after I arrived, she began to bark at him. She has not done anything like that in some time(Sean says at our open house, she was a bit nervous of one man there too)and in feeling cornered; she felt quite nervous. She settled down well yet when one of the vets startled her in opening up a door or when one of the techs came around a corner too fast; she was all nervous again and began to do her ‘bark’. It is half in fear and half in ‘bluff’ of ‘step away from me…..’. She does settle down well…liver treats work well and I distract her in having to ‘work’ for her treat and her commands in French are almost flawless…in English, we are getting there! 🙂 She is quite bonded with me and loved the car and is a great traveller! She also became nervous for I did the ‘post appointment’ trip through both McDonald’s and Timmie’s for her and she did a small bark or two in the drive-through at McDonald’s yet no reaction at all at Timmie’s. It was amazing how great she was at the Wiggle Waggle and so, we shall continue to hit social settings, armed with treats and have strangers, especially men feed her. When we got home though, she could not get to Abbi(who was sitting so pretty on the lawn looking for Abbi) and Sean fast enough! She also weighed in at 38.6KGs(84.92 pounds) and I could not have been more WOOHOO! SHE looks FANTASTIC! The last thing that we did with that spot/area on her side is to measure it to see if it is going to get any bigger etc. As Shiva has had a history with demodex, it would not be overly surprising if it was something like that and I will post updates as I can.

The honeymoon period with Shiva has begun to end! LOL Last night(and as many know, I was waiting for this to happen as she is a natural female leader) she exchanged some words with our Kona, 9.5 year old Newfx who has been our leader female for her whole life with us. Today, Shiva then attempted to see if she could move up the chain and had some words with our almost 8 year old GD, Maggi. There are many trainers that will say do not interfere yet as a trainer and someone that works deep in the trenches of behavour; I do intercede where and when needed. Shiva is to be very hopefully adopted at some point; Maggi and Kona are ours. In the whole time we have operated BHRR; no one has ever tried to step up and be the natural leader female in our home, especially since Kona has been with us since 1999 and took on that role. We have had this happen with male rescues and our own males and even now, we have a very fluid male leadership going on in our home since Jasper was failing in health over the past couple of years and then crossed over this past June. Animal dynamics is very interesting and fascinating! Abbi and Mudslide are so content to let Shiva lead and to date, Shiva has not attempted anything with Mazda or Cherokee; two other females here. For people that do not understand this natural progression of animal behavour in a pack; it is neither unusual, scary, unheard of, unnatural or even wrong to have these things occur. We do not in our home set any dogs up for failure and live in harmony and the fact that two dogs exchanged a few words about things; is completely normal. What is the underlying cause is what is so interesting and I look forward to watching things develop. We have determined that Shiva can be adopted out with our BHRR’s Abbi(they are very very very close) or she needs to go to a home with at least one other dog as previously mentioned; or if there are two+ other dogs; at least one male would be great and the female must be open to having a natural and most wonderful(so very rare to see such a natural leader female in such a calm, confident without being dominant or overbearing manner like Shiva is) leader female in the home. Dogs like Abbi and Mudslide are really benefiting in having a Dane like Shiva here in helping them even more with social confidence etc. I am so loving this Dane and Sean and I have said many times over that if we did not have Kona(our own spectacular natural female leader) that Shiva would be here to stay. She is just PERFECT!!!! As long as she is continued to be molded and guilded in the right direction, this gal can do anything! Obedience, Therapy, Agility and the best family companion and asset to home/community that anyone could ever wish for. The one thing that we are going to be taking a closer look at is something on her skin. Before I left for Niagara last Friday, I noticed a ‘bump’ on her side(close to her hip) and upon touching it, it was very tender. The next morning just before I got on the road; the lump had ulcerated and was oozing and I put Shiva on antibiotics. When I got home on Sunday night; the bump was gone, the area was very dry and flat, with a small scab and it looked like some kind of skin condition. I know from reading her past vet records that she did suffer from Demodex AND it is possible that this is what this is. The area is now quite a healthy pink, no hair and has healed well. I think we might do a skin scraping on her too if need be.

On Sunday September 7th, Sean and I plus kids did the Wiggle Waggle Walk with several friends; THANKS Leesh, Suzanne, Chuck and Matt! Suzanne and Chuck took some wonderful pics(we forgot our camera) and we would like to share! We ended up taking Shiva with us. Other than some excited barking as we pulled into the parking lot and a few barks here and there throughout the event; she was awesome! She even handled the attacks from an unleashed Bernese Mountain Dog extremely well. SO, did Leesh who had been walking Shiva! Needless to say, I had a few words to say in respect to that display of unresponsible ownership by the owner of that dog. UGH! I wish I had the same ‘voice’ inside of me when I was showing in Ohio in August with Bronson when a Black Great Dane attacked him and me!!!! After how great Shiva did on this walk(yes, her leash manners NEED work and she has not yet been here all that long with us; yet the required round of at least one round of obedience classes is going to work wonders with this); I have decided to now place her up for adoption!!!! I shall be adding her to our PetFinder site later today. She is a great dog!!!! Just awesome! She handled all the noise, dogs(wanted to play with everyone!!!), people, sights, smells just beautifully! She truly is one well rounded dog! I know that Sean will be ‘ok’ should she never be adopted either for those two are well bonded!!!! 😉 AVAILABLE FOR ADOPTION!!!!!

BHRR’S Shiva & BHRR’s Linus

BHRR’s Shiva, BHRR’s Linus & BHRR’s Porridge at the OHS Wiggle Waggle Walk

First thing I want to say is that to whomever Shiva is going to be adopted to; to note that her micrcochip is NOT quite between her shoulder blades yet closer to mid-way down her back. I have put it in her file at KAH and have noted it in my records too. I took Shiva to work with me last night for her HWT and she was a great patient! She weighed 40.6 KGs(89.32 pounds) and boy! HAS she muscled out since she has been here. She also has this most wonderful shiny black hair coming in with the homecooking, yogurt and raw eggs plus shells that she is getting. The one thing that is going to delay her going up for adoption is her ‘car’ manners! LOL We are going to have to work on that. She is great in the country yet once we get to the city and poor Porridge’s ears and MINE! and goodness help us if she passed on any of this to Porridge BUT she likes to ‘bark’ and wag her tail as if to say ‘HEY! LOOK GWEN! A CAR’ ‘OH WOW! GWEN’ ANOTHER CAR’ ‘OMG! YET ANOTHER CAR GWEN’ ‘NO WAIT! LOOK AT THOSE PEOPLE! WHAT ARE THEY DOING?’ ‘ I WANNA JOIN THEM’ “WHAT IS THAT GWEN?’ “WOULD YA LOOK AT THAT ODD THING(meaning a bicycle) THAT IS BEING SAT ON AND OH KEWL! IT MOVES’ 😛 I could go on and on about all the things that she would perk up at and stand up and sometimes squish parts of poor Porridge sitting beside her(Mr. Calm)as she found new things to bark and excite over and ‘alert’ me too. I think I almost went deaf. She was so quiet when I picked her up from her previous owner(very understandable), rode great in the car and this was her first trip outside of the home in a car since she arrived. I think we are going to be going to my work a LOT over the next while! HOLY! 🙄 She was a bit skittish at the hospital, yet allowed pets and was curious BUT man! Does she love all other dogs! LOL She was very fascinated by the small Chi pup that one of the staff at KAH has and even sat as if ‘hey, is that a treat????’ She was great, once shown that it was not a treat and in fact, the Chi had a few words to say to her! LOL So, I am going to hold off on Shiva The Diva’s adoption for another few weeks for we have some ‘public’ and ‘social’ manners 101 to work on with riding in the car! Her leash manners still are not the best and we continue to forge on those and she has also become a wee bit selective when it comes to ‘sitting’ on command. Sean just adores this girl and if we were ever looking for a new ‘leader’ female in our house; she would be ‘it’ with continued right direction molding and guiding. She is playful, a flirt and she sure has Sean wrapped up in her paw! 😛 I have found her very refreshing and delightful to watch as she is like one of those flower Danes we have had in the past; with petals unfolding into the warmth of the sun/love of those around her. We have noticed that when we take out the mop to wash muddy paw prints of the floor that she just cringes and will rush to her crate to lie down. We have been very careful with working with her on that….I leave the mop/bucket out and move it from place to place and she is fine walking by it yet if you take the mop out and begin to carry it by her; she is quite nervous. I have not tried brooms as of yet BUT she is great with the vacuum and paper towel rolls. Her fav spot of late to lie is right near my computer chair and I have to admit; she has a piece of my heart now too…JUST do not tell her that! 😉 She truly is going to make someone an awesome family member! She is so neat and fun and full of personality and it is like watching a toddler explore their world in wonder as they grow up. That part of her reminds me of WinterGirl(Frost ‘T”s sister) who taught me that I really need to stop and smell those roses/flowers more than I do. Shiva is teaching me all about the same life lesson that WinterGirl did up to her death in 2004. Some things are meant to be as they say and Shiva crossing my path is something special indeed.
UPDATE: I received a call this AM from the hospital that Shiva’s HWT is negative!