Korean Coco, Day 1

This sunny spot is oddly bed-less.  What kind of hospitality is that?

As I write this, Coco is sacked out on my studio floor.  She's not asleep; she's aware of the sounds of my husband opening and closing doors elsewhere, stomping around and coughing, of the other dogs shifting and sighing, of me turning to look at her and tapping away over here.  Aware, but not anxious.

We're relieved to see that Coco's fears are pretty manageable here.

But, let's start from the top.  I have no pictures of last night.  Sorry about that!  It was dark, and we all had our hands and minds pretty full.  My word-pictures will just have to do!  Hang in there.  There are a LOT of pictures down below.

Last night, Annie and her husband arrived with Coco and their greyhound Breezy.  We took them into the yard, where the two girls got a chance to sniff and potty, with the security of Annie and Geoff in sight.  Breezy took a couple of good tears around the yard in the chilly gloom, but Coco stayed timidly sedate.  I had a treat pouch on, and dispensed treats pretty liberally at this stage.  Coco figured that was alright, as long as I didn't get too familiar, yet.  Breezy just took what was given!  I also gave Coco a dose of an herbal calming mix.  She almost bit the dropper off!  Guess it tastes alright!

After a bit, we put on the girls' muzzles, and I brought out 8 year old greyhound Brilly, muzzled, and he was thrilled to meet two girls ... in his yard!  All the usual sniffing and tail-wagging ensued.  Coco was engaged, but not quite to the point of being playful.  Then we brought out Pogo.  Pogo is a six year old greyhound, but he's one of the rare forever-puppies of the breed!  He proceeded to craze around, rejoicing at the girls' presence, bumping into everyone, and generally enjoying himself (or making a pest of himself, depending on your point of view).  Coco was able to take most of it, and avoid the rest, without any obvious fear or snarkiness.  She actually pranced around a bit, which was so charming!  Lifting her front paws up so high and trotting towards the other dogs with careful pleasure.

Timid; yes.  Scared?  Not quite.  You get the feeling that just about every single thing that she encounters is new, and should be regarded as potentially dangerous, but might also be interesting. Including people and all their unpredictable movements, sounds and demands.

Eventually, we all went inside, where Geoff had already brought Coco's crate.  The dogs milled around while we talked, and the greyhounds eventually just settled on beds, as greyhounds will.  Coco stayed pretty close to Annie, and the love between them was obvious.  They've been through an awful lot together, and Annie is clearly Coco's safety blanket.  We talked about her maintenance (antibiotics for a foot infection, prednisone for same, pepcid for a tendency to vomit after eating, some eye gook that is just showing up, grooming, behavioral stuff, tendency to eat poop ... ), Annie handed over meds and paperwork, and then it was time to go.  Coco had found and gone into her crate by this time.  Annie and Geoff took their leave without fanfare, to minimize drama.

It was almost dinner time for the animals by then.  I had a D.A.P. collar left from Pogo's earlier days, which has passed it expiration date, but I hope it's still got some mojo, at least 'til the new one comes.  I put it on her, with the excess curling loosely around.  I'll have to put a strip of tape on that, but I didn't want to mess with her too much just then.

Once dinner things started happening, she was pretty interested, following Pogo as he moved from baby-gate to baby-gate, supervising the preparations.  The routine here is that I prepare food for the dogs and cats, then carry the food to the bedroom for the cats, while Pogo goes to his hallway feeding zone and gets gated in.  Brilly and Coco followed me and the catfood down the hall and waited impatiently while I delivered it, then followed me back to the kitchen.

There ensued a little dance of encouraging Coco to come through the gate into the kitchen, then watching with care while I asked Brilly to sit, and put his food in the feeder.  She didn't try to take it, but was watching avidly!  I then called her over to her bowl, set it down and told her to wait, then released with "okay!"  When I stepped back, she and Brilly both dove in with gusto.  I gave Pogo his food (following a complex routine of commands and a final sit-wait-okay), and Coco was done shortly after that.  I gently wiped her face (in preparation for future handling, like toothbrushing), which she was none to sure about, but didn't resist strongly, then told her "out", encouraged her out of the kitchen, praised her for "out", and gave her a bit of apple.  She quite liked the apple!  She watched Pogo eat (a messy, slow and noisy affair, due to his damaged upper jaw), and wandered back and forth a bit, then helped Brilly clean Pogo's bowl when he finally finished.

The evening proceeded as you might guess.  She was in and out of her crate, checking out our activity, whimpered a few times, asked to be taken out a few times, each time looking for Annie and Geoff's car.  She seemed interested in a cautious way about everything, even growing to enjoy some very good rubbing.

We're starting as we mean to go on, in that we are teaching her house rules as they come up.  "Wait" at the door and yard gate, "out" whenever that's appropriate.  When we see her sit or down, we give it a name (adding hand signal), praise ("Sit!  Good sit!  Good girl, Coco!  Good sit!") and treat.  So far, she's not really getting the connection, but she will.  She's already learning to wait when told, even looking up at us to see what's next.

Bed time rolled around, we took a final turn in the yard, then she went in her crate, and I shut the door. I've decided to keep her crate in the hall, out of sight of the living room, and just outside our bedroom door.  She's welcome to come and go, but she'll get no attention while she's in it.  If she wants to join the family business, she'll have to come out where we are.  At night, she can stay there, door closed, while the cats have the run of the house.

She was quiet until a little after 5am, which is apparently when Annie and Geoff had been used to taking her out.  In their city home, it was the only peaceful time, when Coco wasn't too scared to do her business, or walk at all.  I let her whine a bit (snooze alarm style) until somewhere after 5:30, took her out to potty, then put her back in with minimal attention to sleep until we were all ready to get up some time later.

Pretty girl in the morning light

 Now we get to some pictures!  When I took all the dogs out this morning, it was frosty but clear.  Coco was by turns slinky and curious.

Coming over for some petting

   We were out there for maybe 10 minutes, at the end of which she approached me for some snuggling and a rub-down.  I rubbed and talked to her, touching her face, ears, feet, belly, back, thighs ... all over, and we both thoroughly enjoyed it!

Coco slinks around the dog yard

Pogo and Coco supervise breakfast preparations

Breakfast went just like dinner last night.  I followed up with a finger brush for Coco (note to self: get electric toothbrush!)

While I was eating my breakfast, H took Coco out.  Coco seems to have taken a shine to Humphrey!  

Coco and Pogo look to H for more attention

Coco gets it: H is pretty cool!  Pogo agrees.

She's giving him that Look of Love!

Oh yeah.  He's pretty good at the loves.

Look how un-tweaked she is by him waving his arms around.

Hey, don't go!

He went out ... and came back again!  :D

Oh yeah.  She likes him.

It won't be long 'til he catches on, I think.  

Yes, the carpet needs cleaning.  ;P

We've been in the studio now for quite awhile.  And out.  And back in again, although it took her a few seconds to work out that she had to go around the door to get in the room.  Or that she could, and was being invited to do so.  She had to check things out a bit: beds, bucket o' toys (zero interest), window, beds, sunny spot, door ...  

Um.  I can't get to my crate.  What's that out there?

Good sit, Coco!  *treat treat treat*

I dunno.  Guess I'll wait out whatever this part is.

Might as well get comfortable...

What?

You will succumb to my delicate beauty!

It looks like Pogo is going to be her guide.  Well, he moves around more than Brilly, so he's definitely more fun to follow around!  

Both the boy-dogs have taken Coco's arrival in stride.  They like girls, and she's pretty easy-going.  It's like she's been here all along.

Alright, that's quite enough for now.  Enjoy!