Saturday, May 14, 2016

The New House Guest

On Thursday, I shared on social media that we have a new house guest. Her name is Farrah, and she is a Pit Bull Terrier dog. If she looks familiar to some of you, that's because she's made some appearances on the blog before.

Farrah belongs to a family member and due to unfortunate circumstances she can no longer stay with him. It's a long story and I probably shouldn't go into all the details. So, Farrah is staying here for now. I have no idea how long she'll be here. It could be weeks, month, or even years.

The last few days have been somewhat stressful for myself, to say the least. I'm doing an animal shuffle where I move dogs and cats from room to room, trying to keep everyone safe. Farrah is a super friendly and high energy dog. Her tail wags a mile a minute and she's always smiling. She tries to sit in my lap even though she probably weighs 60 pounds. She's great with the kids too and has fun playing with them.

There are a few issues I'm trying to work out though. The first being that I still have no idea if her and Shiner will get along. I've had to make sure the two of them stay separated until I can do a proper meet and greet. I can't do it by myself, so I'm just waiting until someone can help me with that. I am hoping to introduce the two of them today. Paws crossed that their meeting goes well.

The second issue is that Farrah has a bad habit of nipping the heels of certain people. My boyfriend came home from work on Thursday and she didn't like him. She barked and growled, and when he walked away she went after his feet. I am trying to teach him how he should handle the situation so that she won't continue doing it. The good news is that she hasn't done this again since the first night she was here. So hopefully that behavior won't show up again. I think she has a thing against men in hats, maybe.

I found a tennis ball!

This heel-biting behavior is something she's done to my Dad for quite a while. She will do it when he goes over to her normal house. Since she's been staying at our house, she hasn't done it to my Dad and seems perfectly happy with him.

I read a little bit about it, but should probably look into it some more. Apparently, it's a behavior that herding dogs have sometimes. I don't really see any type of herding dog in Farrah, but who knows?

As for Callie, Farrah doesn't seem to show much interest in her. Callie isn't overly excited about her being around though. I'm monitoring the two of them closely and they aren't allowed in the same room alone together for now.

I'll keep you posted on progress. You'll likely see more of Farrah around here!

23 comments:

  1. Welcome Farrah. It is so nice that you were able to help your family member and Farrah out.

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  2. All the best, that could be quite the challenge but we know y'all will work it out.

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  3. Hi Farrah!
    Hope you all have a wonderful weekend...

    Noodle and crew

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  4. wishing you the best of luck! She is a cutie!!!!! She is lucky to be with you! And...it was wonderful of you to take her DakotasDen

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  5. She's beautiful & she looks like a lot of fun. I wish I had some decent advice on the heel nipping. I had a herding dog mix growing up and I kept hearing about it, but I've never actually seen it happen.

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    1. Fortunately, she still hasn't done it to him again. I think that first day he came home, he was wearing a hat and not handling the situation correctly. That led to the heel biting incident. I gave him some tips on what to do and things seem to be going well. She's definitely a lot of fun. WAY high energy lol. I let her off leash in my big yard and she just ran everywhere for a long time.

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  6. Welcome to Farrah ! She's lucky that you can take care of her ! Purrs

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  7. Farrah is such a cutie! I hope you can get her settled in and comfortable with the whole household. I think as long as you don't rush it, it will all work out (though I know how difficult the shuffling around can be!). It was great of you to take her in.

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    1. I'd probably like for things to happen more quickly, but I usually have to wait for help since it's not really a solo job. But, it's not such a bad thing. We are taking our time for now.

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  8. Farrah has a sweet face. We hope you can get things worked out and everyone gets along...we know how stressful this can be.

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  9. I wish you all the best with your boarder, Farrah. I hope Shiner and Farrah will become best friends.

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  10. Good luck on integrating her with the family!

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  11. Whoa! Nice of you to take Farrah in no knowing how she'd fit into the family.

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    1. Yea... she doesn't have many other options for now. Good news is everything is going well with Callie so far.

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  12. I'm sure with a bit of time she will settle into the family group and learn her place in the group,xx Rachel

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  13. Farrah is adorable, it is so unfortunate when people have pets they can't keep. So few are lucky enough to have someone like you to take them in and give them a good home. I hope things work out for the best for everyone. Love Dolly

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  14. Oh my gosh! She's beautiful! I bet there is tension in the house but I'm praying it works out for everyone! Welcome Farrah!

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  15. Welcome, Farrah! We are purring and praying that everything goes smoothly with integrating this beautiful girl into your home.

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  16. Sounds like you've got your hands full and plenty of blog material in your future. Remember to take it one day at a time, and prayerfully in time - everyone will have full access to the house! #pawscrossed

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    1. Ha! You got that right. Seems like I'm dealing with an abundance of pet issues over this past weekend... happens all at once!

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  17. Busy household! Bless you for providing a safe place for this "little" soul. Not the same situation, but I can relate to the "shuffling dogs" thing a little bit; we have two Tibetan Spaniels and a Pyrenean Mastiff puppy who is 120 lbs and counting. He's a sweet boy, but he's BIG and he's STRONG, and he doesn't realize that he can easily knock his people flat or pull them off their feet, not to mention that his whole head is about the size of his small brothers. So a fair bit of shuffling goes on here, too. :) Hope everyone gets used to each other at your place soon!

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  18. I'm glad that you are able to help Farrah and her family out! Hoping the adjustment period goes smoothly for all of you.

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  19. my middle child does this to men or strangers coming to my house. i think it is a protective instinct for her. mini schnauzers are very protective of the territory and people. when my dad passed away, my dog who became my parent dog not by choice, but they would not let me have her back after they kept her for 3 mos while i doing an internship for college, she would not let any men in the house. she was very protective of my mother. she would let my brothers in but no other men. mother had to put her in a separate room when workmen or male friends came over to visit. i am glad that you are able to help out with Farrah. that is so nice of you. hopefully she will adapt. Tressa will do this, bite at their heels and bark at men coming to my house unless she knows them very well. i have to pick her up and after a few minutes she will accept them if they are nice to her and pet her. her younger sister is totally different, a real love bug. Evie, the oldest is/was very submnissive in her younger days, but if she sensed something not nice abt the person, male/female, she would bark at them and not let them near the house. she would not bit at them, just bark at them. dogs seem to sense things abt people coming to the house. i always know if someone is coming to the house, i have a very long driveway, if they hear a car coming, they start barking to let me know someone is coming down the road.

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