What an great first week!

Today is Martin's 9th day with us and we can't believe how well he is doing. He goes up and down the stairs now with no food enticements at all. His sleep habits are awesome - we don't hear a peep from him all night and he waits patiently and quietly until my husband or I announce that it is time to get up and start our day (we had a nice sleep-in on Father's Day)! He is affectionate and likes to be part of the family. We will slowly be working on some time out of the crate and without his muzzle, closely supervised, so that we can begin to teach him about the difference between his toys and our toys. He is eager to please and responds well to correction, so it should be just a learning process. We got some nice bones for Martin and Journey and they have been enjoying them for desert this week!

Am I being played? : )

We have a flight of uncarpeted stairs between the main floor of our house and the bedrooms. Martin has a comfy bed in our room in an ex-pen, alongside our own grey. So one of our first jobs has been to teach Martin how to come down stairs. After trying a few strategies of varying success, we hit upon one that worked: my husband taped down non-skid rectangles on each stair and I made the task more attractive by putting a chunk of rotisserie chicken on every other stair. I went into the front room to get Martin's lead to help coax him, but came back to find him nearly all the way down the stairs, lips-a-smackin'! He seems to have made the connection: if I'm at the top of the stairs, she puts really awesome stuff all the way to the bottom! Woo hoo! So now during the day we have to head him off at the pass as he tries to scoot up the stairs to initiate the sequence! Today he managed to get past me and I decided to call his bluff. As he whined at the top of the stairs, I sat quietly to see what he would do. I'm glad to say he's not the stubborn sort - he came down without chicken-motivation in just a few minutes. Then we had a big celebration and treats to reinforce his efforts. I still have not sorted out how to upload video of Martin (hope to soon), but here he is with a few of his toys.

Doh!

Only managed to post the first frame of the movie. Sorry. Will try and remedy and re-post.

Here is the video . . .

Welcome, Martin!

We brought Martin home yesterday to foster. A rainy day is not the best for getting acquainted with your new backyard, but we went out whenever the rain eased up. Martin enjoys chasing down a tennis ball and exploring all the sights and smells. He REALLY enjoys toys! We had to limit his choice as he seemed quite over-whelmed with free-reign of the toy basket. He had a pretty good first night - initially tempted to wander and explore, but settled when we put some boundaries around his sleeping area. No toileting issues at all so far. The stairs in our home are his biggest challenge - but we've experienced that before with fosters and know that Martin will master them in time. I had a look at his race history today - he was a pretty good runner! Glad he is now starting his well-deserved retirement with SEGA. Will try to post a short video of him playing with the bunny (that is if I can figure out how to!).

What a lovely dog Oneco is. He had such a fun time playing with the tennis ball in the run tonight. He will bring the ball back to you for you to throw again - so unusual for a grey in my experience! He is also very patient, waits his turn, and then totally engages with you. He loves being with people and interacting. I'm not an expert, but he really seems to be a pretty smart guy; very aware and responsive to his environment.