PAINT

04/26/08

"thanks once again for making :-|ira and my life so much richer with having Paint in it."

04/15/08 "Jonathan and Kira came back early to meet us there. We walked Paint and Kira together for awhile so they could meet and get acquainted on neutral ground. Paint took to Jonathan immediately. After Paint did his initial smelling of Kira he lost interest in her and focused on the trail. Kira was friendly with him but was much more interested in being outside and ta king a walk.

Although he is a friend and former boss, I handled this the way I do my usual adoptions which is if the dogs like each other or are at least non-aggressive toward each other, we do a trial run. We were a bit disappointed that Paint and Kira were not very interested in each other but Jonathan felt it was worth a trial run because he really likes Paint. So I gave Jonathan the paperwork and your contact information.

We helped Jonathan get them in the car and Kira was not territorial about it at all. He emailed me Sunday night to let me know that he has to feed them separately as Kira was not thrilled about sharing her food bowl but other than that they were doing fine.

He emailed me yesterday that while Kira is very independent and quite happy to do her own thing, Paint is always right next to him. He bought the Costco food for him and the dog walker is coming over tonight to learn the hand signals and meet Paint so he will know her when she comes to walk the dogs.

Jonathan is back in the office this afternoon. The final hurdle is whether Paint does well being home with Kira during the day while Jonathan is at work. I think he will be fine, as you can see from the attached he quite enjoys the couch in his new home!

Jonathan’s main concern is Paint being happy. Kira loves Jonathan but she is really independent. She doesn’t like sleeping in the bedroom preferring to move around from room to room. She entertains herself and if Jonathan isn’t home, she misses him but she is fine. Paint seems to really want the closeness to Jonathan so Eddie and I are a bit worried Paint could get depressed but maybe he will sleep on the couch all day and be content to have his person at night. We will have a better idea as the week goes by.

At the end of the week, we will meet with Jonathan, Kira and Paint for a status report." Cross our fingers that Jonathan keeps Paint forever!!! Thank you Cinnamon and Eddie for all you did for Paint.

Paint lost his mother due to illness after 3 yrs. WE had to retrain him with other dogs and small dogs, and hand signals again, but he learns so fast he is so wonderful, calm, loving, housetrained and perfect.

he hasn't changed a bit, still loving, cuddly, calm, attentive, smart little boy, but getting resocialized with cats.

*PAINT Purebred Red Border Collie was born deaf, and his loving Breeder was afraid he would be in danger if adopted out and was going to put him to sleep. But his daughter called Denise to see if she could find him a safe home. Thanks Victoria for having a loving heart and open mind to look into the possibility of making him a therapy dog since Intermountain Therapy Association will allow it, so we need to find an adult home that needs the most loving companion and will train him extensively to hopefully be an inspiration to deaf children. He can really help a lot of deaf kids. He is very loving, smart and cuddly. He is the most calm Border Collie we have ever seen. He has been learning some hand signals already. We are looking for a foster home for him as of 10-01-02. 12-10-02 He will be starting one on one hand signal training with our volunteer Rebecca at the Service Dog/Therapy Dog School soon. Thank you Cassie and Bonnie for fostering and training him in our Kids Club program. He will start hand signal training this week with David Lyman and our volunteer Rebecca who wants to work with therapy dogs. Congratulations Cassie on not only training him to pay attention, sit, down, follow, but now to walk around behind you to your left side and sit at attention, walk up to the agility bar, sit and jump on your command. He learns so quickly and loves everyone. Thanks Cassie for wanting to continue to help Paint. Did you see their great pictures in The Park Record?

Wow and after so many wonderful applications from great potential therapy dog homes, We thought we had found him the committed adult who would be able to commit to the 24 hr. a day training he needs, but after we drove him down to Phoenix, we learned that Charlotte already had too many commitments to take Paint on. Our costs have risen to $520 to date and we need a caring Donor to help us get him the specialized training he will need for the next year so he will learn to stay by his companion's side at all times. He sure is smart though. He learned paying attention, sit, get up, heal, and stay in the first two weeks, and he sits at attention. He is now learning the "recall" from far away which is the most important command he will learn. . We are so happy he will have opportunities to work bringing others joy.