Meeting With a Stray Dog

[sunny*days*ahead]

Yay! You have no idea how happy it makes me to read your 'blog' (:
I'm so glad you two are doing well! (except for the peeing problem, but I'm positive you can come up with a solution!)

Wufi is such a pretty girl! I love her ridiculously huge ears xD

[bangarain]

Cutie! :D Looks like a whippet or Italian Greyhound mix, maybe even a Coydog? And try to build her confidence, which will resolve the submissive peeing. Try the first stage of agility, confidence building?

[AnImperialAffliction]

I just found this today, and it's really interesting. It reminds me that not everyone in this world are complete idiots who say "they love animals" but when they are around them, only think about themselves, not how the dog/cat/other animal is seeing this situation. I can say I'm kind of like you, in the way that I'm good with animals, and that I know how to act around them, expecially feral or abused animals.
It's obvious that Wufi has made lots of improvement both socially and physically from your pictures and "blog."
Can't wait to hear more on your situation! ^^

[Pastel-burnt]

Aww this dog sounds so sweet. Good luck on the training. : D

[Orca.Lover<3]

Amazing Story. But You Are Cruel For Forcing Her To Stay With You.

[animalobsessed1]

Amazing Story. But You Are Cruel For Forcing Her To Stay With You.

We never forced her. We took her back to the school several times, and she wouldn´t be with us right now if she hadn´t come back when I called her.

[animalobsessed1]

Cutie! Looks like a whippet or Italian Greyhound mix, maybe even a Coydog? And try to build her confidence, which will resolve the submissive peeing. Try the first stage of agility, confidence building?

Yes, she does look like an Italien Greyhound, but I´m pretty sure she´s not. (By that I mean that not even one of her parents or grandparents was a purebred anything.) The stray dogs here were all born as strays, none of them are purebred, and when they have puppies, the puppies are obviously not purebred either.
I think you would have to look really far back in the family tree to find any purebred dog. And when these people do buy purebred dogs, then they are big dogs like German Shepherds or Dobermans that can be used as guard dogs.

[animalobsessed1]

Did I mention that I found out Friendly Kitty´s real name? His name is Nipper, because he nips people. Personally, I think it´s pretty mean to give an animal a name like that, but then again, it´s not like he actually knows what it means... So I guess it´s fine.

I have been working with her on going to the beach. So far, I didn´t actually go to the beach again, but I was walking up and down the road that leads to the beach in order to get her used to the sound of the waves. Although she is still slightly nervous, at least she doesn´t fight it anymore, and walks on her own. I can´t wait for the day when I will finally be able to actually go to the beach!
The other day at school, the other stray was there again, so I gave her my lunch, which I hadn´t eaten because the food here tastes absolutely disgusting. Seriously, I might as well be chewing on paper! It would taste the same. Anyways, when we were about to leave, another dog showed up, and the first thought that popped into my head was "Did Wufi fall into a bag of flour!? What is she doing here anyway!" It was actually not Wufi though. It was a puppy that was only slightly bigger than Wufi, with exactly the same body shape as her, but fur the color of a yellow lab, only with a black mussle like a German Shepherd. He/She looked exactly like I imagine Sky would have looked like as a puppy (except that Sky is darker:
http://www.youtube.com/user/animalobsessed1
(Sky is the tall one, I don´t have any normal pictures of him right now.) Sky was actually also a stray. His owners found him when he was a puppy, and he had such bad mange that they thought he was an old dog. Anyways, I never saw him as a puppy, because we only met his owners when he was already eight months old (and completely healthy).
So then I stole a bit from the other stray and gave it to the puppy.
What is really annoying me is that I still can´t touch the other stray without touching dried blood! I don´t know if she is just continuously getting new wounds, or if the old ones are just not healing. If it were up to me, I would have taken her home too.
I now know for sure that the strays here are territorial. Yesterday evening when I took her for a walk, I saw one of the young females that live in this area, and decided to let Wufi meet her. (For socialization purposes.) What I didn´t see was the dog lying behind her. (It was dark, the dog was dark brown and black, and I had forgotten my glasses.) Anyways, the young dog just stood there and barked. I knew that she was not going to do anything aggressive, so I just decided to wait until she calmed down and then let Wufi meet her. Suddenly this other dog, who had been lying behind her, got up and charged. The moment I saw the other dog, I knew it was trouble, but I was too far away to do anything. Wufi just ran as fast as she could. I could hear her yelping, but I think that was more fear than pain. (She also started screaming when a cat hissed at her, and it took her several minutes to calm down again.) Anyway, the other dog soon decided that he/she had chased Wufi far enough, and came back. I went in the direction that she had run, and found her lying on the ground, uninjured, about three hundred meters away. I checked her over to see if she was all right, then put the leash on her and went back to the place where the stray dogs were. She tried to change directions once, but then followed calmly. The strays didn´t dare come hurt her while I was right there, and I didn´t want Wufi´s last impression of that area, or other dogs, to be a bad one. I actually think that the other dog would not even have tried to harm her if only she had stood her ground. Why? Because Monkey does that too, if I´m not careful. She charges at other dogs, and if they stay calm, she will either leave them alone or play with them, but if they run or act intimidated, they turn into her prey. (She never actually bites them though, she just scares them, which is exactly what that dog did too.)
This morning I went there again, and the dark dog was there again, sleeping in the middle of the road. I went as close as I could without going into the road.
I have also started letting her sleep in my bed, but it is bretty difficult for me to sleep with her constantly, liking, pawing, and nudging my face. I´ve even had one of her claws in my eyes! Seriously, she´s almost as bad as my rats! And at least the rats don´t have the power to actually hurt me; she does! So now I always have to sleep with my hands over my face so that she can´t reach it. That is the one good thing about it. If I tried that with my rats, they would just find ways around my hands, or even just move my hands out of the way.
OK, so I finally managed to at least upload some of the videos, but other´s I still couldn´t (which is even weirder).
Teaching Wufi to "Sit":
http://www.youtube.com/user/animalobses ... vNGgYU2nNs
Wufi being Cute:
http://www.youtube.com/user/animalobses ... WC9gOI_8AI
And today she finally played with me! I didn´t have any balls though, so I used a toilet paper roll.
http://www.youtube.com/user/animalobses ... 6KggNYH6Ig
I really wanted to upload the video that I took on the second day after we took her home, just to show how timid she was back then, and how much she has improved. Sadly, that is one of those videos that it would not let me upload.

[animalobsessed1]

Okay! After I came back from walking her, and during this walk, my love for Wufi has increased by 200%.
Let me explain...
I´m sick right now and she has stopped obeying me on walks recently. Could be because she senses my weakness, though I didn´t think she´d be the kind of dog to take advantage of something like that. Okay, so I woke up (at 3 o´clock) and was like: "Okay, right now I feel like I might be able to walk a few steps, so I better take her out quickly before I start feeling worse again."
So then I went outside with her, not wearing my glasses because I couldn´t be bothered to get them when I only wanted to go out for a few minutes. (I promised myself that I wouldn´t let her off the leash anyway, since she was being disobedient recently and I didn´t want to have to chase her in my condition.) When I was about to turn back though, I saw a dark, dog sized blob walking around in the distance. I thought it might be the one who attacked her, and it would be such a waste to miss the opportunity to make them friends. So I went in the direction of the other dog, but when I was about 50 meters away from him, it became apparent that it was a different dog. The other one had long fur with the tail carried low, this one had short fur with the tail happily sticking into the air. I thought that it might be a doberman with undocked tail, though I didn´t recall having seen one around here. Wufi started lifting her head and tail and getting a little too tense for my liking, so I had to give a little corrective tug of the leash. If that dog responded to her challenge, she was dead! Then, at two meters distance, I screamed "Pitbull!" and jumped into the air. (Except that I didn´t because of Wufi.) I was so overwhelmed with joy! It was such a beautiful dog. It was a tricolor Pitbull mix. The big type, not the fighting type. This beauty came over, head and tail held high, and started sniffing Wufi, who was now back to cowering down with her tail between her legs. I kind of got a bit scared, because if a dog of that size decided she was prey, there would be nothing I could do, especially since I was sick and exhausted from that "long" walk. " (I get tired from standing in front of the sink while brushing my teeth.) Luckily though, this doggy was a typical Pitbull, and was only interested in playing. The problem was that a dog that size might be able to hurt Wufi without even meaning to, (or is that just me overreacting because I´m not used to handling small dogs?) and if Wufi started screaming again, who knew how the dog would react! Gradually, the dog lost interest because she was just standing there, being rather stiff, and continued on his walk. Surprisingly, Wufi actually followed him! And that was the start of a beautiful friendship... Seriously though, after allowing her to follow him for a while, I decided that it was time to go back. Again, surprisingly, the other dog followed Wufi, even though he had acted like he was bored of her. Then Wufi followed hime again, then he followed us again, etc. It was just too cute to go back home, so I went to the meadow that is right in front of our door. There, Wufi actually tried to play with him! I was like: "Oh well, she´s not going to just run away if she loves him so much..." and let her off the leash. It took her a few seconds to realize it, but then she started bouncing around him, inviting him to play. Then she ran a medium sized circle around us, and then... and then... and then it happened! She did a Bull Terrier move ! She spun around herself three times! Now, while Bull Terriers are the only breed that do this without exception, I know that there are also some individual dogs who like to do this... but I never would have expected it from a dog that looks like an Italian Greyhound! In case you don´t know what I´m talking about, this is what I mean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1j5CXDC7Qg
I just love Bull Terriers!!! It borders on obsession. You should see me when I see a Bull Terrier, I go as crazy as they are! They´re not exactly the most common dog to find in shelters though, so Wufi might be the closest thing to one of these dream dogs that I am going to get. I absolutely refuse to buy a dog from a breeder and support worsening the dopg overpopulation problem.
I just have to convince my dad to stay here in Panama! Or at least let me take her with us to South Africa!

After that, she did run off, I ended up having to chase her. Never again will I let you off leash, Wufi! Do you hear me!? The other dog followed too, though he wasn´t exactly running. After I finally caught up with her, I tried to grab her, but she slipped out of my grip. I called her, she came, then jumped back before I could put the leash back on. She repeated this a couple of times, until I finally managed to hold her. She was still wriggling around though, so I had to pick her up to put the leash on. When I picked her up, the Pitbull was all "Oh! Give give! Give me the treat!" and I learned a new lesson: "When a bigger dog is around, either leave your small dog on the ground, or hold it up high enough that the big dog can´t reach, even when jumping." I gave him a little tap on the nose, combined with a firm "no", and he stopped.
Then a guy (I think it was one of the guards), who was standing a good distance away, called the dog. I think he thought that I was scared, since I was holding my dog in the air. The dog came to him, he patted it, then left (without dog). It just so happened that that was also the direction I had to go in order to go home. Then two more guys appeared and thought that I was scared of the dog, so they pinned him down. I don´t speak Spanish, and the people here don´t speak English, so I had no way of telling them that I wasn´t scared of the dog. When I walked past, they started telling me how friendly he was and that he would never harm anybody. In my head, I was like "I know! I just came back from having my dog play with him. And stop forcing that poor dog to the ground! If he wants to get up, then let him get up already! I want to go home already!" Yes, I am a very polite person, but only as long as people do everything the way I want them to. Then he realized that I didn´t speak Spanish, and started talking English (well, kind of). I was like "Wow, finally someone who speaks English!" but I still couldn´t tell him that I wasn´t scared of the dog, because he just kept talking, and talking, and talking...
I didn´t even get to ask what the dog´s name was, although, now that I think about it, I really wish I knew. That way, if I ever saw him again, I could just call him and have him play with Wufi.

[sunny*days*ahead]

Aw, Wufi has a new friend! Yay for friendly pitbulls ♥
..and about Wufi getting hurt by a bigger dog? Not to worry you, but it can happen.
My friend had a chiuahua (spelling?) that was outside off leash (they live outside city limits) and some lady walking
down the street had a husky (also off leash) and the husky and chiuahuha were playing, but the husky grabbed it by the
neck (I think...it was a while ago) and it died. But the lady was verry sorry and offered to put her dog down. But they said no.
So, little dogs can get hurt by big ones.

Good luck with Wufi! I love reading about her progress (: