August 20, 2012

Dyna’s has celebrated her 5th Birthday so we decided to send a note to say hi.

Dyna continues to be a very sweet snuggly girl always trying to get all of the attention. Whenever Dyna goes places where there are people around she definitely works the room acting like she has no loving and attention at home. She will politely sit for petting, ear and belly rubs looking at the person with her sweet brown eyes making you feel like you are the center of her universe. But as soon as you stop the loving she moves on to the next victim. Dyna has the typical lab mentality that every person she meets is her new best friend and every dog is just waiting to be her best bud.

Dyna continues to donate blood to Blue Ridge Veterinary Blood Bank every 7 weeks when they visit one of the local vet clinics. She gets excited as we pull into the parking lot because she knows she is going to lots of attention and more importantly food. If the vets aren’t moving fast enough to get her on the table to start drawing the blood (feeding her) she will actually put her front paws on the table and think about jumping up.

Dyna swims twice a week at the Canine Fitness Center. Dyna knows the routine and seems to know when I come home from work which days are swimming days. Once we get to the pool both girls know they have to take a break before we go into the pool area. When we are cleared to go into the pool area they run right into the pool and start swimming for the fish (Dyna) and tennis ball (Maddy). Dyna has become the faster swimmer of the two and enjoys grabbing Maddy’s tennis ball and playing keep away with Maddy trying to chase her down. They are so familiar with the routine once their time is up in the pool they carry their toys out of the pool walk into the shower and wait to be rinsed and dried off. Coming out of the showers they need to be on a leash otherwise they will walk back into the pool.

Dyna enjoys the foster dogs that come through the house. It gives her an opportunity to show off her good manners and means someone else is the last one to get the treats etc. Dyna is very excited because she has been allowed to keep one of the foster dogs and is enjoying her new brother Brady.

Dyna hopes everyone is having a great summer despite the heat. She wants to thank all of the nice people she met at LRR that helped her find her forever home.

August 13, 2011

It has been a little over a year since Maddy and Dyna’s last update. Maddy turned nine in July and Dyna turned four. It has been a busy year.

Dyna became a blood donor in August 2010. I knew that Dyna could and did lie quietly in all situations and would do anything for food / treats so I figured she might be a good blood donor candidate. Dyna started donating at EVBB. Dyna is DEA 1.1 negative, so she is in the universal donor category. I like the idea of using family dogs to donate blood vice caged animals. In Jan 11, to keep the blood bank open EVBB was bought out by Blue Ridge Veteran Associates and has become BRVBB. If you live in the LRR operating area (Maryland, Virginia, DC and West Virginia) more than likely www.BRVBB.com visits your area to collect blood. The web page lists the blood donor criteria.

Dyna attended advanced obedience training in the spring and successful passed her Canine good citizen test with flying colors. She was again the calming influence in the class and the dog that the instructor placed with the other dogs when they were struggling with one of the evolutions.

Both Maddy and Dyna want to wish everyone a Happy and Safe Summer and to thank all of the nice people at LRR for finding them and helping them to find their forever family.

July 9, 2010

Maddy and Dyna celebrated their 8th and 3rd Birthday’s respectively on 4 Jul and decided to update everyone at LRR on what’s been happening.

Maddy (Madison) was adopted in Feb 2008. She actually started out as my first foster dog. She was only in the house for about a month and moved on. About 3 months later she came to spend Christmas and never left. At the time Maddy came to stay there were already 2 older (settled) dogs in the house. Maddy at 5 ½ was still very energetic and kept her older sisters on their paws. She also completed the set being the Chocolate member of the family with the oldest sister the Black, Sadie, another LRR, alum as the Yellow. Those stereotype things you hear about Chocolates being a little crazy (psycho) aren’t true for most Chocolates. Maddy is the reason most of those stories are told. She is has a love for life and all things in it that make you laugh and frustrate you to no end.

Maddy (like Marley) was asked to leave her first round of basic obedience training because she was too rambunctious around the 6 mos old to 2 year old dogs. It was obvious the standard training without some type of positive reward (food) wasn’t going to work for Maddy. Maddy has since attended Basic and Intermediate Manners classes and done great. She has does some basic rally training and is able to master most of the skills.

Maddy continues to be a bad influence on the foster dogs showing them some of the behaviors that she knows will not make their forever families happy. Despite her high spirited antics Maddy has a great heart and loves everyone. She especially likes the foster dogs that are willing to play fetch, chase and / or keep away.

Dyna also came into the house as a foster dog and figured out how to worm her way into being a permanent member of the family. Dyna is easy going and settled. She likes to snuggle and sit quickly by anybody to get pets. This is the exact opposite of Maddy who is in constant motion.

Dyna was adopted in Oct 09 while recovering from her first FHO hip surgery. Both Dyna and her brother were diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia. Studies show that if as puppies that had gotten plenty of exercise, feed a good diet and not allowed to be overweight some of the severity of the dysplasia could have been mitigated.

As part of her recovery Dyna started swimming at the Canine Fitness Center pools in Crownsville MD. She took to the water like a Lab and enjoys just swimming around the pool. About the same time Dyna was recovering from surgery, Maddy started having problems with her knees and hips. She was diagnosed with mild hip dysplasia and a partially torn knee ligament. Maddy at 7 was still trying to keep up with the 2 and 3 year old foster dogs chasing the tennis balls and each other. Maddy also started swimming once a week. At first Maddy didn’t think much of the swimming and would spend more time splashing then swimming. Once Maddy got the tennis ball in her mouth she settled down and swam. After about a month Dyna and Maddy were able to be in the pool together, Dyna just paddling around and Maddy the retrieving machine. They both look forward to swimming and get a little crazy in the car as we get near CFC.

Dyna had her 2nd hip surgery in early March 2010. Dyna was able to quickly recover from her surgery and within a week was showing her distain for the e-collar. I was barely able to keep up with her destruction of the collars by purchasing every large e-collar in the all of the local pet stores. Luckily she started destroying the last collar I was able to find just as the stitches came out and She was allowed to get the collar off.

After her recovery, Dyna attended a Basic Manners class. She was the dog in the class that all of the other dogs got along with. This is the exact opposite of Maddy who was typically the instigator. Despite being only 3 years old Dyna continues to demonstrate her good manners every day and is a calming / positive influence with the foster dogs. Maddy at 8 years old continues to be a work in progress.

Both Maddy and Dyna want to wish everyone at LRR a Happy and Safe Summer and to thank all of the nice people at LRR for finding them and helping them to find their forever family.