After: Sparkle in her eyes


Nina and her friend Ella


Nina is happy!

Before: Nina in the shelter

Those who met her would never believe she's even the same dog. Nina spent 6 weeks in one foster home, literally stuck in a basket. She would not interact with people or dogs or anything. Just stared blankly at the wall, and would need to be dragged outside for potty breaks. Then immediately ran straight back to her basket. Not food motivated, not movement/toy motivated...just not motivated.

At mid-end of July, we were getting desperate on what we could do to put a spark into this dog. Nina came to live with me, as my home was quieter, and maybe she just needed a change or scenery. We just needed to try something...anything.

Nina still sat in her spot for about 3 weeks without much interaction, but we slowly did start to see progress...which was absolutely amazing at that point. She stopped pooping herself at everything new. One big breakthrough was at an agility trial where I had her and my Aussie Ella ex-penned together....and we saw Nina raise a paw at Ella...an inviation for interaction!?!?!? We couldn't believe it! That one paw was the beginning of great things for Nina!

Nina and Ella continued to become good buddies, and learned to wrestle and chase constantly She became very food motivated as every good Aussie should be And then I couldn't even ex-pen her, as she would hop right out to come find me at agility trials...you know..."Loose dog!!!"...while that was Nina running to find me!

Me and Nina became good buddies too, and I am so proud of her. And lucky for me, her new mom is my agility friend. So soon enough, we'll be competing against Nina in the ever-competitive 22" class!

I just couldn't be happier for the little black tri that could.

Joanne, foster mom

Update on Nina, 3/05/06 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nina and her sibs

Nina Today

I adopted Nina, who came up to Canada to ARPH and was placed in foster care with Joanne L. I got Cali (changed from Nina) in November 2005 and what a beautiful dog she is turning out to be inside and out!! Joanne did an amazing job with her for the 4 months she had her in foster care so when I got her it was just a matter of continuing the great work Joanne had started with her.

She is a very active, goofy and an adorable dog, my other 2 dogs grew to love her very quickly and they are now all best buddies. They wrestle on the couch constantly, they have slowly destroyed every stuff toy available through tugging (this has been great for her toy drive) and Cali gives my other female such a good run at the dog park, it's great. So far she has been a perfect house dog, there were a few "mistakes" in the beginning but she learnt very quickly where she was supposed to go and since has been awesome. She makes us laugh every day, she's such a clown!

I've been training her in agility as I do it with my other 2 and she's a natural. She's picked up the commands and equipment so quickly and seems to really love the sport already; I can't wait to start competing with her. She is still shy and doesn't like crowds of people or dogs but I know with time and patience she'll come around even more than she already has. She has come such a long way from the young dog that just sat in a basket staring at the wall. I'm so very proud of her and couldn't have wished for a better dog.

I just wanted to sent you some updated photo's of her in her forever home and let you know she is very loved and we thank you so much for taking a chance on this incredible dog. I just hate to think of what might have been if it wasn't for the all the people that helped this little girl out of such a horrible situation and gave her a chance to really live.

Thanks again

Faith

Feb 07 Update on Cali, the Agility Dog!

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