All About Trixie

Trixie’s foster mom is a teacher, and her students love seeing pictures of Trixie and hearing about how she is doing. Today she asked them what they would want to know if they were considering adopting Trixie.

“What color/breed is it? Is it a boy or a girl?” Trixie is a female, brindle greyhound. :)

“Is she healthy?” She is very healthy. She was a little on the skinny side when she came to her foster home, but she is almost back to her racing weight. She’s been checked out by a vet who says she’s in great shape.

“Is she potty trained?” Yes she is. She had a few accidents in the beginning while she was learning her way around the house and her foster family was learning her signals, but she has been accident-free for quite a while now. She goes “hurry” almost immediately when she gets in the front yard, unlike her foster brother who wants to explore the whole neighborhood first!

“Is she playful?” She is pretty playful, but she’s also pretty lazy. She loves squeaky toys, and she loves to shake around a stuffed leopard that is almost the same size as her. But most of all she loves to nap.

“Does she need lots of room to run around?” Trixie loves to run, but she does really well at the small dog park near the house. She doesn’t run for very long before she is tired out and wants a nap. Her foster home does not have a fenced-in yard so she doesn’t get to run more than a couple of times a week, and it doesn’t seem to bother her.

“Does she bite?” She has not bitten any person or dog that I am aware of. Once when her foster mom was playing with her she got a little mouthy (putting her mouth on her hand, but with none of the pressure of a bite), but she has not done it again.

“Is she friendly to strangers?” She likes meeting new people. When she first came to live with her foster family and everything was brand new she would follow her foster brother’s lead around strangers, but as she’s become more confident she will walk right up to them to introduce herself.

So that’s what some excited 6th graders wanted to know about Trixie. If you’re interested in this sweetheart contact the Adoption Team, and if you have any questions to add to the list we’d be happy to answer them.

Her Favorite Thing

Car ride!!

You're Gonna Love Her!

Halfway through Trixie’s second week, and she is really becoming familiar with the routines of the household. 

For the first few days she would run into the kitchen anytime she saw her foster mom head towards the stairs, thinking it was her chance to get up to some mischief.  Now she understands the command “upstairs” and follows her foster mom and foster brother without any hesitation. 

She also used to wake up in the middle of the night to play with her toys, but now she understands that she’s going to get playtime in the morning and evening, as well as all day at daycare. 

Her previous family reported that she had some food aggression, but she and her foster brother have not had any problems.  They are fed separately, and before she is fed she has to “sit” and “wait” to be “released”.  That routine seems to have made her feel confident that she doesn’t have to defend her food from anyone. 

She has been so quick to adapt to everything in her foster home, she will probably pick up your routine and expectations just as quickly if you adopt her. 

She is also becoming more comfortable with physical affection from her foster family.  When she first arrived she would stand right beside you like she wanted to be petted, but pull away when you tried to rub her or scratch her behind the ears.   Now she will come up and stick her face into your lap for you to love on.   

She still loves car rides, and it will melt your heart to look in the rear-view window and see her big grin!  She loves going to the dog park and has even managed to convince her lazy foster brother to chase her around until they’re both exhausted. 

Check Out Trixie!

Trixie’s first week in her new foster home was full of a lot of new experiences. 

Her first day she had to spend a couple of hours in her kennel, which was something she didn’t do much of in her previous home, but she was a total champ!  She was happily entertained by a Kong toy with peanut butter and had no stress about it. 

On Monday she went to day care for the first time.  She was a little confused and shy the first day, but she hung close to her foster brother and by the end of the week she was having a blast. 

There have been a lot of people coming in and out of her foster home this week; it was her foster mom’s birthday so there were several evenings when they had company over.  She was super friendly and happy to meet new people each time.  By Friday night she was laying calmly in bed while the humans ate and socialized, completely comfortable with the idea.

Trixie is fantastic on her leash, and loves to go for long walks.  She got to go on a hike last weekend, and even though it was very cold she still had a great time.  We also tried going for a jog around the neighborhood and she loved it!  She also loves car rides, and will stand up looking out the window and smiling the entire time.  Her favorite toys are stuffed animals that have squeakers in them.  She has not shown any destructive tendencies towards the toys yet, and doesn’t chew on anything besides her toys.

Trixie would be an amazing match for an individual or a family that has the energy to make sure she gets lots of exercise and play time.  She is a very curious dog, but when she is exercised she is much less interested in trying to investigate places and things that may be off limits.  She is still a greyhound, so she of course loves long naps after she’s run and played. 

A Couch-bound Hound

Well, our time together has almost run out. It's week 10 for Trixie and soon she'll be leaving for her forever home. Trixie went through final testing this week, and she passed with flying colors. For those of you who don't know what final testing is, it's a comprehensive test where the dogs must show that they know all of their commands and behaviors. It seems like only yesterday that Trixie was fresh off the bus, and curious about everything. Now she is ready to start her final journey to her adoptive family.

Don't be surprised when she plays with her toys for the first time. She takes play time to the extreme! It's high speed running fused together with amazing cornering ability. You can either play with her, or let her play on her own. She is happy either way. Trixie will be missed by everyone here that knows her and her new family is going to have a unique member of their family soon!

Ready to steal your heart

Trixie got to experience Swap Week this week!  This means spending time with an alternate training group to work on commands and to see how she does away from her primary training team.  We know you’re wondering how she did... and we’ll tell ya…

Her alternate inmate trainer says that Trixie is a happy excited girl!  She’s loving and brilliant.  She knows all of her commands and didn’t have any problems being away from her primary trainer.  

Her alternate inmate trainer says that Trixie sits at feeding times and waits for her meal like a proper lady.  She loves food and will work hard to win that reward.  If she can eat it, she’s happy.  He says that Trixie is an all around sweet girl who is sure to steal the hearts of everyone around her.  

Terrific Trixie

Time really does fly when you are having fun! Trixie is still an amazing dog to work with. It's week eight of her training, and he is still finding new facets of her personality and abilities every week. A few days ago, she was running on the recreational yard with all the other dogs in her group. If you have never seen greyhounds run, it is truly awe-inspiring! They go from a dead stop to forty miles per hour in three strides. Trixie was running with her group, then she broke away and swerved to the left. She hurdled a bench seat and then came to an immediate stop on the other side! Her trainer called her over and she sauntered up to her trainer like nothing had happened, then was off and running like the wind again. Abilities that an Olympic athlete could only dream of, and to her it's just a morning run! Like I said, time really does fly when you're having fun. Whoever is lucky enough to become Trixie's permanent family is in for a rare treat. A dog who is obedient to a fault, but still sassy with a flair for drama! 

Isn't She Lovely?

Where has the time gone? It’s already week seven and the days are flying by. It will be greyhound graduation in the blink of an eye and Trixie will be enjoying the luxury life with lots of love from her new family. I know she can’t wait! Trixie is still doing great with her commands. She knows them all, so her trainer is working on perfecting them to a “T”.

Trixie’s trainer said it has been a privilege to a part of her growth and development into the greyt dog and companion she is. He knows Trixie’s forever family will enjoy her and love her as much as he does. There’s not doubt about that.

Dream Dog

Already past the halfway point?! Time sure does fly when you are having fun! Trixie’s inmate trainer is glad to be closer to his own release, but the down side of time flying is that he’s that much closer to Trixie graduating. But that’s okay - Trixie’s trainer says that he has learned to accept that these dogs get to move on to bigger and better things every ten weeks. He’s just happy to know that they go to good homes with lots of love - and chew toys!

Trixie is without a doubt a dream dog. Besides being beautiful, she already knows all her commands and plays well with her toys and everybody. Her trainer has started teaching her extras, which he doesn’t do with all his dogs because sometimes the last half of the session is better spent refining those basic commands before swap week arrives. With Trixie, he started with a simple one: shake. Another one, bow, is more difficult because you can’t really put a greyhound in a bow position. You have to wait until they do it on their own (usually when stretching) and then tag or treat it. The next few weeks should be an adventure with all these extras, and Trixie’s trainer will keep us posted on what else he comes up with for her to learn!

Quirky Girl

Well, it’s week five already and time is really flying by! Trixie’s secondary trainer spent a lot of quality time with her this week. It seems like only yesterday that she had just arrived, and nervous about her first bath. Friday was the midpoint of this session and that means it was time for another bath - she didn’t mind at all!

Trixie is still enthusiastic about her training and it is a real pleasure watching her execute her commands like a pro. When she is in the training room, she tries to race through her commands as quickly as possible. It’s so cute! She gets the commands done correctly, but she adds her own personal quirky style to everything. If you ask her to sit, she gets ready and then slowly slides back into a perfect sit. She then waits for her treat and praise before bouncing back to her feet and waiting for the next command. The down command earns a quick belly flop, then she waits again for treats and praise. If you tell her bed, she will spin in place sniffing all the parts of the bed, then she drops down like her legs just turned to jelly. Once she gets settled in, it’s hard to convince her to get back up!

Her favorite command by far though is “here”. This one is used when you need your dog to stop whatever they are doing and come to you immediately. And it definitely works with Trixie. You will see a brindle tornado screeching to a stop right in front of you! Head up, eyes focused on you, and ready for another command.

That’s all her secondary has to report for now - thank you for reading, and we hope you enjoyed the trip!

Outgoing, sweet girl

Trixie’s inmate trainer says they are in the thick of training now.  At this time in the session is when all the groundwork you’ve done comes to fruition and the dogs start to really blossom.  He says from this point on, there’s a connection between trainer and dog.  The dog now has an understanding of how training works and what the commands mean. 

Now, this is not to say that you don’t continue to discover something new about your dog every day. He says that Trixie is an energetic girl who is most often sweet and easy going.  Every now and then she has a burst of energy where circles are mandatory. He says that she get’s a sly playful look in her eye and you know it’s coming.  She’s a lot of fun to watch.  Her joy is contagious and her energy makes the day entertaining.

Getting better every day

Good progress this week on sit! In fact, Trixie’s trainer thinks she pretty much has it. As with any command, repetition is the key. At this point in the session, not all the commands will be mastered, but now her trainer can add sit to the thrice daily run-through of all the commands. For example, she’ll lay down on a dog bed when he gives the bed command, but she spends a few seconds sniffing it and might try to get up before he says “release.” This is the kind of refinement that the upcoming weeks will take care of.

This week, all the dogs will start working on the jump command. The point of this one is to teach them how to hop into a car or SUV, so they’ll practice on something that’s about the same height as a truck tailgate.

This is all the fun part, the process and small successes. A few special words from Trixie’s trainer:

“On the outside, I had one of ‘those jobs.’ The kind you’d be hard-pressed to explain to your kids what exactly you do, without boring them to sleep. Many of you out there know what I’m talking about. To find joy in something like that is to understand the intricacies in a way that others do not. To produce something, however small, that was not there before (in this case, getting a dog to perform a sit), is thrilling. So for me, this program is a true taste of freedom!”

Just look at that face!

Trixie has settled in nicely and has gotten used to the new routine at the prison. So far her favorite thing to do is sleep, but when it’s time to play this girl turns it on like a light switch. For a reward after her training session, Trixie gets to pay with a squeaky toy, which she loves. But who needs a toy when you can entertain yourself, and Trixe does just that. She will run back and forth and in a circle as fast as she can. Stopping on a dime, front legs down, rear in the air; ready to take off again at the slightest sound or word… then she’s off again! It’s the funniest thing. Oh Yes, Trixie definitely loves playtime!!

As far as training goes, Trixie is right where she should be. He trainer has mainly concentrated on leash walking, “waiting” at the door and “heel”. Trixie is going to be a good dog and a greyt friend to some lucky family. Could it be yours?

A whole lot of sweetness!

New Year, new training session and it’s going to be a good one!  Trixie’s inmate trainer says that Trixie is a beautiful dark brindle with a lot of sweetness and a little spunk.  

Trixie seems eager to learn… it could have something to do with the treats, but we shouldn’t jump to any conclusions just yet.  She loves to run in the big yard leading the pack and playing with her friends.