Gibbs Update

It has now been just over 5 months since we were fortunate enough to bring Gibbs... now named Rafael (Rafa) to our home in Vancouver, British Columbia. On June 11th we lost our beloved 10-yr old havanese AJ and two weeks later our hearts were healed when we were approved as 5-yr old Rafa's new parents. As with many rescues, his history was sketchy but he was thought to be a havanese-cross with a bad start in life. We immediately did a DNA test and discovered he was primarily havanese and poodle with a bit of Schnauzer & Pomeranian thrown in.

Upon settling in we discovered that he had plenty of energy, attitude, passive-dominance issues, separation anxiety and the occasional in-house accident. It was clear that he needed to learn who was the alpha (me) and where he stood in the pack. We hired BarkBusters to assist with retraining and the separation anxiety and he no longer howls like a wolf when left alone. We are now able to simply walk out and leave him alone for several hours with access to the entire house without incident !! He hasn't been left alone for more than 4 hrs at a time and this works well for us and him. No more crating, den-gating, doggy daycare and/or baby-sitters.

He is now well-behaved on-leash (never walks ahead of us), has learned several key commands/words and does all his 'business" during his daily walks. He has even figured out a way to communicate to us that it is time to go out.... rarely a false alarm. Best of all, it is clear that he has accepted us as his pack members as demonstrated by the abundance of kisses we now get that we didn't recieve the first few months... we initially assumed he just wasn't an affectionate kind of dog... we were wrong!

The plan was for him to sleep in the den on his own doggy bed and that eventually worked well if we gated the den. Recently, however because of his good behavior we have been letting him sleep w/us... he nestles between the pillows at the headboard and sleeps there all night long. I have a feeling that this is going to become the norm and the den plans are out the window.

He has plenty of stuffed toys to terrorize, rubber balls to retrieve and has made some doggy buddies in our complex. He loves to chase things that move... especially cats and squirrels... although I'm not sure what he'd do if he caught one. His favorite thing appears to be car rides with the window down so he can stick his head out and enjoy the breeze. Our vet has certified him as healthy (he's gained 3lbs) and our groomer is pleased with his disposition during his monthly visits. I'm not sure if he has seen snow before but he really enjoyed running and jumping in it last week. We'll be taking him to Palm Springs for Xmas/New Years so we'll get to see if he can swim in the pool.

Thanks PUP for saving Rafa... I'm sure he'd agree that he's in a much happier place.