Pup Profile: Topaz

Official Name: Topaz
Alias:  Topy/Toby
Alleged Breed(s):  miniature poodle
Suspected Breeds(s):  poodle + some springer spaniel
Color, in terms of coffee beverages:  latte-mocha swirl
Approximate Age:  5 years
Background:  Ohio puppymill
Our Foster Since:  Sept. 22, 2012
Temperament/Personality:  Sweetheart!  Loving, affectionate, friendly but also hesitant; expresses trepidation about new people for a moment, but once he finds they mean him no harm he adores them and follows them around; he loves to lay with someone on the couch and sometimes insists on being petted.  He adores being brushed, and is patient for baths and other grooming.  Learns quickly from clicker training.
Level of House-training:  making progress; he is crated overnight and does not eliminate in his crate; he is kept in a room with a linoleum floor during our work day and has twice had an accident during the day.
Behavior Challenges:  some separation anxiety, expressed through barking (no destructiveness though); sometimes jumps up when walking on leash.
Known Health Issues:  none, other than some car-sickness.

Considerations:  He enjoys and is submissive toward other dogs and continues to learn from them. He has met at least one kitten and was curious but respectful of her distance. He has been friendly toward and tolerant of children.  He does not like to go to the bathroom with a person close by and would benefit from a fenced yard.  He barks when left alone at night, but is fine when crated in bedroom with people.

To Adopt, Contact:  Luv4K9s
For More Info:  Topaz on Petfinder

and we're back!

Topaz the Poodle(ish)

This is Topaz.  He is a kind, sweet, loving puppy mill survivor.  He is about 5 years old.  He is, to be honest, my most challenging foster so far.  Which is to say that he is remotely challenging, compared to my previous fosters who were absurdly easy.

His biggest difficulty is that, in his desperate attempt to gain human love, he walks very close to my feet, sometimes tripping me, and every so often jumping up when he's on the leash outside.  I suspect he was trained to walk on the leash using treats, so he is expecting to get something if he jumps, but this will fade quickly.

He gets along beautifully with other dogs.  He loves meeting new people (he backs away at first until he realizes they aren't going to hurt him, then he follows them everywhere).  And he was even a total sweetheart with my sister's new kitten...

...whose name is Frankie.

discovering herself

Sometimes it's a metaphor, but in this case, I mean it pretty literally.  Charmin appears to have discovered her reflection in our full length floor mirror for the first time today.  At first, she seemed to think it was a door-- she kept trying to walk into it, head-butting her own reflection.  The mirror has some lovely nose-prints now.

The mirror is upstairs, meaning she also discovered how to go up the stairs in our house.  However, she has yet to discover how to come down them.  I had to carry her back downstairs twice, which she was a good sport about.

I started reading about Amish puppy mills yesterday, which is where Charmin came from.  Truman's mother also was, sadly, a puppy mill dog from Arkansas.  Apparently, to keep the massive groups of dogs from barking too loudly, they have a method of "de-barking" the dogs, which means hammering a metal pipe down the dog's throats to destroy the vocal chords.  I respect cultural differences and all, and I get that not everyone views dogs as friends the way I do, which is fine.  For some people it seems acceptable to treat them as livestock.  Unfortunately, we treat livestock pretty horrendously.  If they were treated like the animals on my great grandparents' farm, I could deal with it.  But when they don't get medical attention for oozing sores and exposed bones and eyes falling out of sockets, and when they get carried around by the leg because the farmer doesn't really want to touch them, I think that goes beyond treating them like animals.