Dexter our fourth foster Nov 2011

Dexter is a 4 month old lap mix puppy. He weighs about 25lbs. So far he knows sit, and lay down we are working on other commands. He is very well behaved and mannered for a puppy. Dexter loves to give kisses and cuddles. He seems to be fully housed trained. At this point we let him out every hour because he has not learned the bells on the door yet. He is great in the car! He traveled from Ottawa to Sarnia which is about a 9 hour drive. He slept most of the way, other than when he needed to go to pee. He is great with other dogs he came from Ottawa where he was with 10 other dogs, and he is now in foster a home in Sarnia with a dog. Dexter is not cat or children tested yet. We will be doing this soon. He is fairly quite seems to only bark when he is playing with his foster brother or when someone’s at the door. Dexter is learning leash skills he does pull, but that’s just because he is so excited. He is a very happy go lucky puppy, seems to just be happy to be alive! He is very tall, but slender and has huge feet. Dexter loves toys, and bones. Dexter has no food/toy aggression and doesn’t resource guard. His energy level is mid-high which is normal for a puppy his age. Dexter’s forever family will need to be able to provide him with the direction that all young pups need. He is very smart and a fast learner, picking up things by watching his foster brother. Dexter seems to do okay when left alone with his foster brother without being crated; however, being a puppy he will get into things and has a thing for his foster moms socks! Dexter has not shown the “normal” lab traits of nervous chewing of objects. Lol hes not a fan of the vacuum or the carpet cleaner. He has discovered my crocheting basket lol and is pretty sure he needs to pull all of the balls of yarn out every time I turn around. He loves his daily walks normally about an hour with his foster brother and is not pulling nearly as much as he first did. He listens very well when I tell him its time to come inside from going to the bathroom he is the first to come into the house.
Update: Nov 24, 2011: Dexter knows sit very well now, kinda knows stay, has great recall in the backyard, walking on leash is getting much better. We are working on meeting strange dogs on our walks (needs a bit of work). He loves cuddles and has to be right with you all the time :) He sleeps either in our bed with us on the floor next to our bed. He has not messed in the house since he had a bout of the runs. He is going to the vet tomorrow to get all his shots!

So excited he is such a good baby! I hope he finds a forever home soon, and he is going to be a big boy!

Ottawa (First Visit)

I went to Ottawa for my first time ever on Oct 11, 2011. The drive wasn't that bad, the weather turned out really nice for driving which made me very happy I was not looking forward to snow. I hate driving in the snow. I didn't get to see as much of the sites as I would have liked to being a history buff and all, but what I did get to see was breath taking. I have yet to see a more beautiful city. I got to see Parliament hill, two malls lol the cat hotel and the canal. Our first night we didn't stay in Ottawa, we had Hammy with us and it was hard to find a place at 1am that allowed dogs and was not $200.00 a night. So I called a million places well pulled over to the of the road there was only one place that had a room that allowed dogs, well that’s a story and a half. We get there, it looks shadier then shady, there is a sign on the door that says be back in 5 mins so we wait 20 min and no one comes I call the number on the door, the man who answer the phone tells me "Christine" is down the bar, bar tending go on down and see her and she will set you up with a room. So I do what the man on the phone says. I get into this bar (guess I didn't read the sign outside) it’s a "gentlemen’s club" oh man I'm thinking what have I gotten myself into, okay it can't be that bad, eyes on the floor try and find bar tender by the way she looks like a 50 year old hooker when I do find her. She takes me back up to the motel counter and rents me a "room" no ID required. She takes me down to the "room" and well I would have rather slept in the car, but I have paid for it so I guess I am sticking it out. She says to me "Oh I guess you will want to check out in the morning well ummmmm just leave the key on the table and close the door" At this point I am so grossed out, I don’t want to touch anything the room is gross the lady was gross and my skin is crawling. Well I look around which takes I donno me stand in one spot and looking from side to side this is what I see: A bed, a table, a chair, a cabinet that at one point had a TV in it, now has a bar fridge with moldy meat in it, a hole in the wall that is blocked by this cabinet, a bathroom with one towel. The bed has a fitted bottom sheet and a top blanket two pillows without pillow cases. I say okay one night I can do this just "man up" Lucky me I have Jer and Hammy with me lol. There is one outlet in the whole room and it is in the bathroom we set up the laptop so we can watch vampire diaries. All of a sudden as 2am fighting starts in the hallway Hammy is losing it, and it lasts until 5am. At 7 am with no sleep and there is no way I am showering here or touching anything else for that matter we pack up and leave. Oh did I mention that when I pulled the top blanket back the fitted sheet was covered in mold needless to say I slept in all my clothes (well there was no heat anyway) on top of the blanket and cuddle up to Hammy, with Jers back against mine to try and keep me somewhat warm. The next morning Jer tells me as we are leaving what that place is really used for and I thought I was going to be sick :(
We take Hammy to Kim's house who is the founder of Friendly Giants Dog Rescue where I get to meet Brett who is her partner, what a very kind man he was. I introduced Hammy to him and stayed for a few mins to meet their pack. I didn't stay long I wanted to explore and the longer I stayed the harder it was to leave Hammy.
We spent a few hours exploring Ottawa then I got to go and visit Dogs At Camp Ottawa which is the coolest things in the whole world! What it is, is a "free roam" doggy day care the dogs get to spend all day outside with each other and 2 employees, at feeding times they all eat in the giant barn and when it comes to bed time they all move into the barn for the night. Its super cool they also hold two spots for foster dogs for Friendly Giants. I would love to have one of those places down here, but full of fosters! The ladies there are very nice and it was great to see all the campers that they had that day.
We found an ecno lodge, and it was a dream compared to what we slept in the night before. The first thing I did when I got there was shower lol. 
We had dinner at Don Cherry’s which is one of my fav places to eat and we no longer have one in Sarnia.
I watched the Toronto Hockey Game, we had heat lol and each got our own beds. And I slept like a baby compared to that other place.
Sunday morning we went back to Kim’s and we spent the day with Kim and Brett and their wonderful pack. At that time they had 12 foster dogs.
We talked about which doggy I was going to be bringing back with me lol by the end of it I was taking Rocky, Todd, Dexter, and Diego lol too bad I only had my little red car!
I was sad to leave Hammy behind I didn't like the idea of not being able to be there while he had to see the vet about his mass. He is such an awesome little guy and I just wanted to keep him at home with me.
We ended up bringing Dexter a 4 month old black lab puppy home with us.
We drove straight home from Ottawa and I was more than tired when I got home. We did the introductions with Dexter and Ace which went very well which at the time I was grateful for as it was like 2am lol.

ALL in ALL minus the first motel I had a wonderful time in a very beautiful city and I can't wait to go back and see more of it!

Muhammad "Hammy" Update!

As it turns out Hammy is one very sick baby :( I had him for 4 weeks before I took him to Ottawa to Friendly Giants Dog Rescue founder Kim's house. He has to see a specialist, have a hole drilled in his head a biopsy taken of the mass that is right before his brain in his sinus cavity. I hated leaving him at Ki's place. I know he in the best hands, but I hated knowing that I wouldn't be able to be there for him while he goes through all of this. It would be way different if he was going to a forever home. They are going to do the testing and see whats going on with him and then decide weather or not he will be able to be adopted. He is as sweet as pie aside from his medical problems. He loves to cuddle and be right with you at all times. He even started to give me hammy kisses (Which I miss very much) He was quite unless someone came to the door, we were working on some commands, and had gotten down gentle :). He still had food aggression with Ace when he left, but not nearly as bad as at the start!
On the drive to Ottawa I had my friend Jeremy come along for the trip and he fell in love with Hammy and wanted to adopt him. Hammy did awesome in the car even though it was an 8 hour drive! Kim says hes doing well at her place and that he will be going to vet on Thurs.
If it turns out he has to be put to sleep then I will be making another trip up to Ottawa ASAP to be there with him. If it turns out that he is going to be fine I have requested that he comes back into my care until he gets adopted!

The green circle is where the mass is :(