Adoption Update: Speck!

Hi Sarah, 

I just want to give you a state of the Speck update.  As you may surmise, no news is good news and change happens quickly, very quickly. We are beginning week 4 with Speck as part of our lives.  Speck is lively, intelligent and affectionate.  He is also very well behaved.  He does not jump on the counters or the dinner table.  In fact he does not even beg at the dinner table and will lay near the back door (about 10' away).

Not knowing what Speck's life before rescue was really like, we can't really say what is surprising and what should be expected.  The life and sounds of the big city do not seem to bother Speck too much. While his ears may turn down and he may get in a crouch when a fire engine or other first response vehicle goes by, he does not get agitated.  He is learning to walk the city streets and responds to "Stop" when we get to a corner. We always have him on a 6' leash, but that is long enough to get him into trouble if we are not careful. 

There were several things that Speck has had to come to terms with since arriving in Philadelphia, going over bridges, the hardwood stairs of our house and cars. 

It was a little surprising and it took us by surprise when crossing an abandoned rail line (now parking for various buildings), he would cringe and cower and not want to cross.  Even a wall that led down with stairs of for a window into a basement were problems. On one occasion, he was so taken by surprise, not realizing he was on a bridge at first, that he leaped across the side walk and onto the curb. Well, I took him to a place where I knew we would have a problem, a basement entrance to a church.  The door is 3' below the sidewalk (so that the top half is at or above the sidewalk).  It is the entrance to a pre-school so there is a ramp leading to the door from the other side. We walked as close to the wall as was comfortable.  Then I crouched in front of him and had him come to me.  We did this until I had my back to the rail, Speck looking around me and between my legs.  When we got to the rail, I moved aside and he stuck his nose through the rail to look.  We then walked around the wall/rail to the entrance and then walked up the ramp to the door.  For the next two days it took a little coaxing at bridges, but he never panicked again and now has no problem.  

The hardwood stairs of our house were more problematic, we live in a very vertical house.  We sleep on the third floor.  He was sleeping on the first floor. We could get him about halfway up.  The solution was to buy carpeted treads for the stairs.  We waited for our trainer to come over on Tuesday night.  He did not make it all the way up that night, but did much better.  Thursday night he made it all of the way up to the second floor and was looking at the third floor.  On Saturday morning, I put the treads on the stairs to the third floor and on his second try, he was walking around on the third floor.  Then on the way down he stopped on the second floor and started investigating (which he had done before).  Now, he did not want to head down to the first floor.  The turn to the stairs was terrifying for him.  After an hour of coaxing and needing to leave the house, I picked him up and carried him down.  While he did not struggle, he was not to pleased either.  I could feel his heart pounding in his chest.  Last night, he spent on his bed on the third floor.  After Pam took him on his morning walk, he came up again on his own (no treat).  Later when I headed downstairs for coffee, he followed.  He purposefully turned off of the stairway on the second floor and went to the office.  Then he turned around and headed for the stairs and walked down the stairs.  This is a dog that likes to confront his demons.  We see this time and again with him.  

The last of his issues is the car. This is something that Pam and I will have to start working on seriously.  We wanted to take him to the park and walk with him. We stopped along the way and ran some quick errands and then trying to get him back into the car.  Luckily, we were outside of a cheese shop and Gouda got him back in the car.

One of the reasons I wanted a Border Collie is to run with.  He has been a great running partner.  Thus far our longest run together has be 10 miles.  The first time we ran 10 he was pretty tired afterwards. We also ran 10 yesterday and while he was tired, he was not exhausted.  

 Thanks for everything.