Weekend Aug 13-14, 2011

Orville has had a very busy weekend partly him being busy with us and partly him watching us being busy.  He went to his first M&G on Saturday for about an hour and one half.  Most of the time he was standing or hiding behind us.  But then he did start coming out as he saw if he did someone would pet him.  He is showing more & more tendencies of really loving to be petted and loved on.  He continues bounding up and down the stairs and really pays attention to our dogs for what he should be doing - sometimes this may be a bad thing!  Saturday I noticed he pulls a lot on lead so will be starting a walking/training program especially while it's cooled off.  Stay tuned for progress reports on walking without pulling.

Thursday Aug 11, 2011

Orville is starting to settle in a little.  He finally found a pillow that is good enough for him to lay on but still spends a lot of time laying at the foot of the steps.  He is very loving and is not afraid to try to get to you in front of the other dogs for those first pets.  I don't think it is really aggressiveness as Yancy doesn't bark at him for doing that, but we will keep our eyes open.  He has done fantastic with being left here while we go to work.  Interestingly enough he wants nothing to do with the crate - no interest in going in and when we've led him to it he looks up as if saying "do I have to?"
We will be taking Orville to the M&G tomorrow (Saturday) on Westport Road and see how he does with shiny floors and meeting lots of people.  Come on over and see him for yourself between 11am to 2pm.

Tuesday evening August 9, 2011

Orville reached his foster home about 7:00pm tonight and meet his 2 foster brothers.  They sniffed one another and walked around the yard for a while continuing to periodically sniff.  Shortly after coming in the house, I went up stairs to grab some supper and Dodge of course followed with Orville at his heals.  Dodge is the best stair climbing trainer!  Orville had a minor issue when it came to coming down the steps but we just held his collar while one stood behind him to not allow him to back up and he proceeded down the steps.  He kept wanting to go up the stairs but we had to go help him down until finally after about 10 times the gate went up - time to go to bed.  When he wasn't climbing stairs he was investigating everything and stood for about 20 minutes looking out the glass door from the middle of the room twisting his head to the right and then to the left.  He has a crate and pillows everywhere but is choosing to sleep at the foot of the stairs.  Maybe he'll move when I go to bed.  Well that's it for now - more as he continues to get familiar with these new surroundings.

Orville's retirement day

DD's Orville retired from his career at the track in Charleston, West Virginia on August 8, 2010.  After a check-up and spending the night at Shively Animal Clinic, he went to his foster home in Southern Indiana.

Orville's foster parents will be posting a report on his progress and, of course, LOTS of pictures!  Stay tuned.