Woody and Cordova

Cordova moved to a new foster home today. I'm very happy for her, it will be good for her, and we'll be even happier if it ends up being an adoption as well. Cordova is a smart girl, a nice girl, and very good looking. That leaves just two dobie pups here with us, Rex and Cara, so I need to start giving them a bit more time and attention, and more importantly, begin teaching them a few things.

I missed Cordova's departure this evening, because I was on my way back from a vet visit with Woody, the second in two days. A couple of weeks back he had gotten one of his ears torn up in an altercation with another dog, either Bailey or Norman. We tried a home repair job with superglue but that was coming undone and then got really undone and made worse after another altercation, this time definitely with Bailey. I took him to the vet yesterday afternoon and he got his ear cleaned up, stitched up, and bandaged. He was groggy all evening and didn't eat. I put an inflatable donut around his neck and he slept it off in a crate overnight.

He ate the next morning and became more active as the day went on and much more bored with being crated. Early this afternoon I put him out in the a/c yard for a little crate-free time and in less than 15 minutes he had gotten the donut and bandages off his head. I put a cone on him and Erika called the vet, who agreed to see him late this afternoon to re-do the bandages. I'm glad because he soon removed the cone as well. The good news is that the ear itself still looked pretty good, all things considered. 

I took him back to the vet and they bandaged him again and before they even had a cone on him he managed to shake it off. They then double bandaged him and put a new cone on him and I brought him home. He feels good, he ate well, but he's not happy with the bandage and cone. The bandage needs to stay on until Monday at least and he'll be wearing a cone for much longer. 

I'm giving him trazadone to help him cope with all the crate time in his future. But what the dog really needs is to learn to read a room! I saw the final altercation with Bailey and it happened because she was busy playing with the water hose and he kept pestering her to play with him until she had to put him in his place. He's young and dumb, but basically very sweet boy shepherd who still has a lot to learn.

After the stitches and first bandage application yesterday.

After rebandaging today

Back home in his new cone.