[Eremite]

Baltic Winters Sled Dog Association: Rescue Round Up

This boy was found in one of the empty dog runs at Recluse Kennel clearly abandoned. We don't know who dropped him off there or why but we do know he is terrified of men.

owner;; PaintLily
full name;; Sergeant Johnson
call name;; Sergeant
age;; 5 Years
gender;; Male
colour;; Revere Brindle Irish White
genotype;; kbrkbr/away/BB/Emem/Gg/irI/SiSi/tt
have all the tasks been completed?;; Complete
Stats;
speed- 23
stamina- 21
strength- 15

No posting until PaintLily has posted their claim! You have until 8th April 2016.

[PaintLily]

I am claiming my Baltic Husky!
full name;; Sergeant Johnson
call name;; Sergeant
tasks;;

Task 1 - Welcoming your new dog home - Complete
I walk up to my new dog and hold out my hand for him to sniff, but instead he jerks back away from me. "Hey, shh, it's okay boy." I say softly and slowly get closer to him. He waits a moment but backs away again. I sit down a little way away from him and just wait there for awhile, to let him get used to my presence. After about twenty minutes I move a little closer to Sergeant, and I repeat this action every twenty or so minutes until I'm about three feet away from him. I sit three feet away from him for about ten more minutes, and then slowly reach my hand out a little way from his nose. It takes awhile, but he does eventually sniff my hand; although, the first time I try to pet him he does back away a little, but it doesn't take too much longer before he lets me pet him. Once I've pet him a good bit and given him a couple treats, I reach for a leash. Sergeant notices this, though, and jumps away the moment he sees it. "It's okay, I'm not gonna hurt you, boy." I say softly and reach one hand out to pet him. While I have him calmed down I clip the leash unto his collar and walk a small distance away. At first he doesn't follow, even when I try calling him; so I walk back to him and beckon him to come as I pet him. When I get him to start following me, I take him for a walk to my house, or, rather, our house now. We go inside and lead Sergeant to the area I prepared for him. I unhook the leash from his collar and call him unto his "couch" made up of two seats from my truck and a big fluffy blanket on top. Next to his couch is a food bowl and a water bowl and a few toys. "Welcome to you're new home, Sergeant Johnson."

341 words

Task 2 - Bonding - Complete
That night I put a couple stools next to Sergeant's "couch" and slept the night with him. Every now and then I would pet him, until eventually I fell asleep. When I woke up the next morning Sergeant had his head on my chest. I pet him and smiled "Good morning, boy." At first Sergeant freaked out a bit, waking up next to me, but I calmed him down "Easy, Sergeant, it's okay, boy." I got up and filled his food bowl and water bowl. He sniffed the food cautiously and ate a little; after pausing for a moment he gobbled it all down. After he ate, he lapped up all the water. "Thirtsy, huh, boy?" I said and refilled his water bowl. I pet Sergeant for awhile, and then I attempted to kiss the top of his head, but when my face got closer, he jumped back and freaked out. I waited for him to calm down and then pet him some more. For the most part I just went about my day as normal, but throughout the day I would pet Sergeant Johnson every now and then. I also gave him a couple treats at lunch and table scraps at supper and made sure to keep his water bowl full. I continued to sleep with him every night and pretty much just repeated what I had done the first day. Gradually he got less jumpy and more accustomed to me, and I started leading him to my bed to sleep in it with me, because I knew he would get used to sleeping with me, and it was far more comfortable sleeping on my own bed. I hadn't had him sleep on my own bed at first because he was still frightened of me, and it was easier to just let him stay at his own area of the house. While Sergeant was getting used to things, I used his name as often as possible and was clear about where he was and wasn't allowed in the house.

340 words

Task 3 - Gaining Confidence - Complete
Now that I felt like Sergeant and I had bonded fairly well, it was time to work on trust. He liked me pretty well and understood I wouldn't hurt him, so it should be easier to get him to trust me with things like putting him on a leash--which seemed to frighten him terribly. I walked over to Sergeant Johnson with the leash in my hand and he whimpered a little. It took a bit of petting him and talking to him sweetly to calm him down and get him to let me put the leash on. To start with I just walked him a short distance in the house and took the leash off. I did this every day and after a few days I walked him a little farther than I had the first times, and I slowly lengthened the distance I walked him. Eventually I started taking him on short walks outside, and a little bit longer and I was taking him on walks around the whole neighborhood. Once I'd tackled leashes, it was time to move on to getting him to let me hold him. This one was more difficult because I had to start without actually picking him up. I started with lots of pets and putting my arms under him as if I were going to pick him up. He jumped away the first few times I put my arms under, but after about a week I started lifting him off the ground a little bit. Each week I lifted him a little higher off the ground, and the first couple days after each time I raised the height, he would be rather skittish. Finally after quite awhile I got to holding him in my arms about chest height. Now I had to get him used to me walking around while I was holding him. I didn't move very far the first few times, but as with everything else, I slowly worked my way up until he was comfortable with me carrying him as far as I wanted.

345 words

Task 4 - Training - Complete
When I first got Sergeant it hadn't really crossed my mind to train him for sledding, but then one of my friends mentioned that he looked like a sled dog. I realized that he was bred for it, and it would be good exercise for him, so I decided to train him. Because it was new to me as well, I looked on the internet and in the library for anything I could read up about sled racing and training dogs for it. I began with teaching him verbal commands, as the books suggested, and when I wasn't training him I worked on building a sled, my first one was a total mess, but I did eventually manage to build a somewhat decent one. Sergeant proved to be a fast learning and soon I had him pull the sled. To start with I only had him pulling the sled, with no weights on it, but it wasn't long before I began adding weights. Sergeant is a strong dog, but he couldn't pull me and the sled on his own. This caused a problem,as I didn't have any other dogs. Lack of dogs aside, Sergeant was doing very well with the commands and maneuvering well. I called some people and managed to convince one of them to let me borrow a couple dogs to work with so Sergeant could get accustomed to working with other dogs. The owner had to be present, but that wasn't a problem. It was hectic trying to get Sergeant to cooperate with the other dogs, so I decided to take them off the harness and have them hang around each other until they were comfortable with each other. After that it was still took some time for Sergeant to be able to work well with other dogs, but he was much more willing to try. The first time they worked well together was amazing; it was the first times I really got to experience a sled ride, and it had me determined to get some more dogs of my own so I could race.

349 words

Task 5 - Your choice [optional] - Incomplete/Complete
[your task 5 goes here]

He's so pretty! (Brindle was what I wanted most out of the patterns I listed, so yaaaay! Can you read minds?)

[Eremite]

He's so pretty! (Brindle was what I wanted most out of the patterns I listed, so yaaaay! Can you read minds?)

Maybe

[PaintLily]

I completed all the neccasary task.
(I hope to be able to complete the optional one later, but if I don't it doesn't matter too much, since I'll still get to keep him.)