Sunday communion: Chicken strips and a boy named Chunk

To lift our moods on this crap-tacularly rainy day, new boy Chunk and I went for a little walk on a local golf course. It's usually empty during rain, so I looked forward to getting better acquainted with our new charge in a quiet, albeit soggy setting. We're designing best foster options for our new boys right now, and everything they can tell us about themselves makes the matching that much easier.

This lovely boy walked at my side like an old pro. Nice. He's a wee tiny thing, similar to Linda Chwistek's boy Audie in size. As cute as he is, Chunk hasn't wanted to take treats from our hands since he got here. It seems to be part of his submissive nature ... He's just trying to be a respectably polite doggy, since - in his mind - polite dogs don't dare take food from big tall hu-mans. While that's super sweet, we want to get him passed that so we can help him learn cool new manners and tricks that will help the world adore him. Plus, we want him to enjoy the fun of getting tasty treats from friends.

To help him feel more at ease, I chortled to him all around the golf course, especially during those moments when he looked up at me (which was often). Me, trying to read funny little him and him, looking up and trying to read funny strange me.

We got back to the barn and I laid chicken strips on the floor while he was feeling especially perky from his hike and stepped back ("I'm not looking"). Hmm? Then ...Slurp.

Then, chicken strips laid out on my outstretched hand on the floor. Careful nosing, then - Yes. Then, a choice morsel in my palm raised up closer to his face. He stared at me, questioning. Can I? 'Yes Chunk. Good boy.' He braved up and licked it from my hand, ever so careful not to use a tooth. Then, several more went down the hatch. A small hurdle for a dog who will soon learn that the world is a wonderful place full of welcoming, outstretched hands, treats and praise.

We always say that fostering is all about problem solving, working to soften those caveman behaviors and help streamline dogs from crap beginnings into real life: The barking, the poo dancing, the shyness, the over-exhuberant greetings. Every new dog has a pocketful of behaviors that need fine tuning. We take note, we puzzle, we compare notes and, with some luck, we solve. It's not rocket science to polish up a new dog, but it helps to bring a fresh eye to each individual. Who are you? What does the world look like to you? How can we help you find your way? I guess the rain was good for both of us tonight.

More pix of Chunk and Robin here.

Pit Bull Awareness Day

Thank you to everyone who attended our heavy-weather Open House at training class this weekend.

The rain held off just long enough for us to have an enjoyable couple of hours greeting the visitors and showing off the dogs. Jonny, Uba and Audie were a big hit of course. Not sure what they thought of the pawtographing part of the day, but our guests sure seemed to like it. Photo: Beth Cannon snapped Jonny signing "The Lost Dogs" for a fan.

Channel 26, a news station that serves SF's large Asian American community, came out and did a nice story on the dogs. If you're curious to see what Jonny, Uba and Pinky look with Cantonese subtitles, double click on the graphic to the right to see what the KTSF26 archive page looks like, paste the url in your browser, then fill in the fields as shown in the jpeg to get you to the story. I can't be sure, but the tagline next to the pit bull image seems to say, "Bulldog bite cases. Easy to generate fear of this dog, whether it be misunderstood Bulldogs." If you speak better Cantonese than my online translator, please share.

We were thrilled when some of the visitors who watched shelter dogs working in class applied to adopt them once class was done. We always love when that happens at our Open Houses, and it seems to be a pattern now! Many thanks to Patsy who stationed herself at the Berkeley shelter to handle impromptu tours. It paid off: A longtime resident who'd been at the shelter for nine long months (Ruby) found her people this weekend and is sleeping in her new home tonight. As part of our commitment to Berkeley's pit bulls, Ruby's owners will get free training in BR's classes, so we're thrilled to be able to help them transition. Stay tuned: Video junkie Becky Correia is preparing a fun video of the day with little snippets of interviews from guests who attended the event this weekend, so check back soon for that.

Below: Photo by Rob McNichols of Ruby with her new people, saying good-bye to a shelter volunteer. Congratulations Ruby and new family.