The journey begins
Caroline and Sadie came to us in late July. Jill drove to Florence, SC and brought them the rest of the way on the Brittany Express. We've had the girls now for about 11 weeks. The first few weeks were spent with trips to the vet to make sure the girls were well.
We knew when we took them in as fosters that both would need heart worm treatment.
Most of the month of August was spent keeping the girls quiet while they recovered from HW treatment. They made it through with no problems. Next up each girl had to be spayed.
Caroline had a tumor removed from her breast area while she was being spayed. They were both very good patients throughout the entire process. They both are now healthy and happy.
Happy mostly to be out of the circumstances they spent the last part of their lives in. They were confined to a small fenced area and both were tethered. Tethered in a small pen with obviously very little human contact is no way to go through life.
The girls are making great strides getting used to being inside dogs. The social skills of both girls have improved tremendously in just a short time. We feel Sadie has the development of about a one year old Brittany but she is making rapid progress. They both love playing with our 2 Brittany girls.
Caroline loves to be petted and brushed. She will sit for as long as you are willing to give her attention. She likes to lick you to show her approval. She has a typical sweet Brittany disposition. She loves to run and play with the other Brittanys, especially her daughter.
Sadie loves to be petted and brushed as well. She likes both in short spurts as she likes to keep moving. Sadie is full of energy and when it's play time she doesn't waste a single minute. She plays well with the other dogs. Sometimes she gets too excited and plays a little rough with Caroline but Caroline doesn't seem to mind at all. One of our Brittanys is small (22lbs) and little older (almost 9) so she doesn't play much. Sadie seems to know instinctively to leave her alone. When they do play Sadie is very gentle with her.
It has been fun watching Sadie develop over the last few weeks. She is such a smart girl and is eager and willing to learn new things. She has picked up on her commands such as, sit, stay, down and even roll over. She pays attention to the come command about 90% of the time. If something has distracted her she can be a little stubborn. But she has improved a lot in this area over a short period.
Some of the Facts
Caroline and Sadie are both medium sized. They weigh about 38 pounds and are 17 to 18 inches at the shoulders.
Sadie
has a very short tail- just a stub really- and when she wags her tail,
which is always her entire backside wiggles. Caroline has about a 4
inch long tail. It wags like a windshield wiper on fast speed.
They both tolerate nail clippings with no problem. One of us gently holds while the other clips.
Bath time is no problem. They are very tolerant and seem to enjoy the warm water and all of the rubbing going on.
Sadie
sometimes puts up a little fuss when we leave the room. She'll bark a
few times and maybe whine a little but very quickly settles and quiets
down. We never hear a peep out of Caroline. The only time she barks is
during play. She'll bark once or twice to let everyone know how much
fun she is having.
They love to ride in the car.
Both in the crate or strapped in with the harness they ride like pros.
At first Sadie is very excited and anxious to see what's going on. She
settles down after a few minutes.
They both pull on the
leash when they start out on a walk. Sadie pulls more than Caroline.
Once they have walked awhile and are tired the pulling stops. They both
are very interested in squirrels. They need work on their walking on a
leash skills.
Sadie loves chasing birds in the back
yard. One issue with Sadie is that once she gets fixated on something
like a bird to chase it is hard to get her attention. This is pretty
common with many Brittany's. We are working on this and she is coming
around slowly.
The girls eat twice a day. One cup in
the morning and one in the evening. On a scale of 1-10 they are about a
5 on the excitement level as the food is being presented. This is
about 3 excitement steps better than what our own Brittany's are. They
are learning to sit and wait once the bowls are placed down.
