trystinn | Glory update

Last night was very peaceful, folks dropped in to give Glory extra rubbins and lovins - which she enjoyed tremendously. When it all wound down, she let me brush her for about an hour. The longest she's ever allowed me, usually she snaps at me after 15 minutes. We shared some squid jerky, her favorite treat and spent time one on one before she settled in for the night. She quietly let me know she's ready to go, which is what I needed to find out from her.

"I was thinking when I first brought her home from the shelter. Everyone adored her, raving about how beautiful she was, how sweet, how gracious. There was a bit of a kerfuffle while the pack sorted out the pecking order, she clearly won and the pack learned the time honored wisdom that is

don't mess with Crones

. Things settled in comfortably, and we began to notice she never reacted to noise. Vacuums, rototillers, stereo, snapping fingers, dogs barking, nothing. We took her in to a vet who confirmed our suspicions - she had gone deaf. Turns out our vet had taken care of her before she was placed in the shelter for "being incorrigible", and so we found out she had been rescued from a collie puppy mill where she'd been a breeder. *sigh*

We settled in with her, learning about working with deaf dogs as we went. The first thing we had do was deal with her fear response to being surprised. Anyone who came up behind her would suddenly find themselves on the receiving end of a snarl and nip. For the next month, we purposefully would come up behind her and rub her flanks playfully, giving her a full body massage. She quickly adapted, turning in delight with a smile on her face to lean into our legs while we rubbed her down. She continued to learn and adapt to life in a bustling household and even picked up a few hand signals for sit, jump up and come. Not bad for an old dog, eh?"