# Adopted a lab/shar pei mix this past Sunday 6/9/13



## brakel (Jun 14, 2013)

We took her home on Monday after she was spayed so this is only her 4th day with us. She was found abandoned in a house in TN. The no kill shelter that we adopted her from got her from a high kill shelter in TN and brought her up here to Illinois. They said she is a three year old lab/shar pei mix and was found abandoned in a house after having recently had a litter of puppies. The puppies were found dead. She's not allowed to go for walks or any other exercise for another 10 days because of the surgery. We named her Jess. "We" are my wife, my adult daughter and me, a middle-aged fat guy. She already comes to us when we call her name. That happened yesterday and continued the whole day. It was so cool! At the shelter she didn't seem to be too familiar with walking on a leash. I walked with her around the shelter grounds for about 30 minutes and she seemed eager to learn to walk where I wanted to walk. She responded really well to gentle guidance. We've been taking her out on a leash at home to do her business in our backyard. She seems very curious about our neighbor dogs but just woofs once or twice to acknowledge them. Other than that she just likes to sit and be petted. My daughter put down a blanket on our couch and she will sit next to my daughter for hours at a time. She'll wag her tail whenever my wife or I come in the room. She likes to lay down belly up on the couch and put her head on my daughters lap and be petted and get belly rubs. When all three of us are in the room at the same time she'll get up and start wagging her tail so hard that her whole body starts wiggling. Is she just glad to be here?

Then she'll make the rounds to get some attention from my wife and I before she goes back to my daughter. My only concern with this behavior is if I'm on the same level as Jess is she'll kind of lean her whole body into mine and then rest her head on my chest. I've been around dogs my whole life and I've never seen a dog do this. Is it just a showing of affection? It doesn't seem dominant to me but it seems odd.

The other behavior that I'm not sure about is that she will, in the middle of the day, just start wandering around the house whining. We'll take her out but she doesn't do anything and then will just want back in. She has plenty of water in her bowl. She's been eating well so its not that she's hungry. I'm just not sure what to do for her when she does this. So far we have just been ignoring it. 

Lastly, she is really stubborn. If she sits down next to me while I'm putting on my shoes and she wants to be petted she will sit there in my way no matter what I do. She's only 40lbs but if I try to gently guide her to the side she becomes a 40lb brick. I have to really block out the area that I need to put on my shoes with my arms in order to get the task done.

After she gets the stitches out we're going to sign up for some training classes. I'm just hoping that some of these questions that I have don't become issues before we learn to deal with them. So far I am very satisfied with how Jess has seemed to get comfortable with us and so affectionate. She has also adjusted to our family schedule really well. After the first night where there was some moderate whining and restlessness, she has been sleeping through the night really well. She's only had one pee accident and that was on the first full day with us. I think she just didn't know where/how to tell us yet. Now she goes to our patio door and whines. Good system!

When I tell people that things are going well so far they tell me to not be surprised if she starts having some problems in a month or two. I'm trying to not dwell on that but I'm prepared to do whatever we need to help her through getting adjusted to living with us.


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## brakel (Jun 14, 2013)

Here's a pic of Jess and my daughter. My daughter is the one with the blonde hair.


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## brakel (Jun 14, 2013)

Jess played with us for the first time today! She's still on reduced activity so we threw her squeaky toy at her feet and then she'd bring it back to us while squeaking it the whole way. Good day!


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## CrimsonAccent (Feb 17, 2012)

Maybe its just an attention whine, or an I'm bored.whine? I'm not sure how much traffic this section gets. I only skim once a blue moon. If you want answers I'd try the.first time owner or general section. Or training. They get a lot of members answering (unless someone has pm-ed you, in which case nevermind). Good to hear she is transitioning smoothly.


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## brakel (Jun 14, 2013)

CrimsonAccent said:


> Maybe its just an attention whine, or an I'm bored.whine? I'm not sure how much traffic this section gets. I only skim once a blue moon. If you want answers I'd try the.first time owner or general section. Or training. They get a lot of members answering (unless someone has pm-ed you, in which case nevermind). Good to hear she is transitioning smoothly.


Thanks for the reply. I'll post up in the new owner or general area after I see how she does over the next week or if anything gets worse. The whining was better the last two days. We also found out she has a couple of parasites and a possible infection, so she might have just not been feeling very well. She's on meds for these issues and she's taking the meds in her food without issues. Hopefully she'll be feeling better soon.


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## CrimsonAccent (Feb 17, 2012)

Ahh no wonder. I'd be whining too! Maybe she'll gain a little more energy when she's better.


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