Meet Sunny!
We adopted her yesterday from a BYB who figured out after one litter that puppies aren't the gold mine he thought they would be. Description of this 15 month old was pretty fantastic on the phone, but on arrival, not quite so good - she's really emaciated, I'd be hard pressed to say she is 50 pounds and very bony all around. Also, "basic obedience trained" means she understands the word "no" and she seems to come to a double clap pretty well and that's about it. She came to us matted and dirty with a really goofy pregnancy haircut. On the upside she's a real sweetie, unconditionally loving and very mellow. She is doing supurb with the kids too. Here's her story as I've been able to piece it together from several conversations with the owner(s): She started out life pretty good at Relative A's home, a multiple OES owner. She had monthly groomings and had lots of attention. She got pregnant from one of the other OES dogs (can't quite tell if this was intentional or not) and she got passed on to Relative B who decided to try and make his fortune from the puppies...but didn't have room for her so she went to Relative C's home for the pregnancy (where I got her from). She had her puppies, and shortly thereafter Relatives B & C figured out there wasn't a fortune to be made and decided to let her go along with the puppies (first time OES experience with them). Both families A & C had small children (good for us!) that interacted with the dog. From her skeletal state the pregnancy was pretty hard on her poor little body. We've got an appointment to get her spayed on a couple of weeks. Yesterday with her was a delight. The drive to get her was darkly overcast and drizzly. When we arrived and found her tied to a tree outside, her bubbly and sweet personality shone like a ray of sunshine in the gloomy weather. Despite having a couple other names already picked, her attitude plus the clouds breaking into a beautiful blue sky on the way home clinched her new name "Sunny". After responding well in the backyard for a while, we let her offleash and she immediately found the one vulnerable spot in the fence necessitating a trip to the hardware store to make some repairs. Afterwards, We brushed her out, bathed her and enrolled ourselves in "Home Hack Jobs 101" to get started on the matting problem since we haven't gotten OES strength grooming tools yet. (Hopefully there isn't a pop-quiz from the class!). We hacked her coat down with sissors to even out the goofy pregnancy shave and allow access to start on the mats. She has one blue and one brown eye. She was very tolerant and patient of our grooming efforts (disaster?). She is GREAT with the kids and they love her. After a couple hours getting to know her they piled all over her (strictly supervised, of course) and Sunny just ate it up. She was marginally behaved on-leash when we took her for a walk, but does need some work. She is very well house trained. It took about 1543 milliseconds for us to learn that a kiddie gate isn't any deterrent. However, that gave her the chance to demonstrate that she has superb table manners as we ate lunch and dinner. She is very submissive about her own food and treats too. She is very mellow, though maybe some of that has to do with the shock of the day, leaving her home and some of the puppies that still remained from her litter. Our first nightime with Sunny was a little rough. Unwilling to give her free reign of the house, we kept her closed in our bedroom (where we intend her to sleep forever). She developed some loose stool (I'm guessing because we were a little too prolific with the treat bones on a weak tummy or maybe the switch to IAMS) and had to go out four or five times (no accidents, yay!). Add to that a habit of making the rounds every hour to kiss us (which is-ummm-very disconcerting if you tend to sleep with your mouth open...) to make sure we were OK. Finally she had a REALLY hard time believing that her bed could possibly be the one of the floor when there was a great big cushy one with warm bodies right next to it. We're very excited and happy to be her new home and think she's just about perfect because, though she's rough around the edges, her core self is truly sunshine. (Let's keep our finger's crossed that it holds after a week and she has learned what animal suckers and pushovers we really are!). Waiting for pictures to clear the admins for those of you waiting on the edge of your seats! |
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| How fortunate Sunny is to have found you. Can't wait to see the pics. |
| Sunny sounds like, after a hard, probably lonely life, she has found her forever home.
I can't wait to see pictures of her now.. (but I am really looking forward to pictures after a couple of months of love and attention.) 
Keep us posted!!!!! |
chowderdawg wrote: So, let me introduce you to Sunny, our newest family member!
Congratulations! What a wonderful narrative. She sounds just great for your family and your family for her. Nothing is better than setting a sheepdog free (or any dog) tied to a tree - Good luck to you and Sunny and wishing you many years of joy with your new dog. This is Sheepdog2 not logged on. |
Oh my! She sounds like a doll on good behavior  I'm so glad she found a great home! |
She sounds wonderful...you were so lucky to find each other! Can't wait to see her happy face.  |
| Can't wait to see pictures. Sounds like you had quite a day and night! |
| Sunny is adorable. She does look quite thin, but that is fixable with food and TLC.
I took the liberty of pulling up her after picture - 
Not a bad job at all - and WAY better than the before! |
| Thanks. I'm glad you think it turned out OK! She still needs LOTS of work on that coat, but that was enough for the first day.
Here are a couple before shots when she first arrived home: 
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| Sunny is going to fill out nicely and be a gorgeous girl.
I'm worried about her puppies left behind. Her former owners shouldn't have dogs at all, let alone little defenseless Sheepie babies. |
| Yeah, we're worried about the remaining pups too, but didn't know what to do about it. We would of loved to have brought one home with us too, but we're not ready for two OES and weren't willing to shell out their firm asking price either. They have a couple other dogs, toy breeds, but I didn't seem them. I really doubt this family is intending on keeping and raising any of the OES puppies. They did ask a lot of the right questions to me about the future home of the mother though that tells me they are thinking about good homes for the dogs at least. |
Thank you for rescuing her. I cannot believe they bred her so young. 
She's a beauty and I'm sure she'll flourish in your care. |
| sunny looks fantastic! what a beautiful addition! |
| She sounds delightful. Let's hope the pups go to good homes. |
Pepsi's Mommy wrote: Thank you for rescuing her. I cannot believe they bred her so young.
She's a beauty and I'm sure she'll flourish in your care. Our vet was not at all happy to hear she had been bred so young either. We'll do our best to spoil her rotten! |
| I wonder if adding some probiotics to her food would be in order along with glucosamine, calcium, etc. Such a young girl to be a mommy and now so skinny. Surely she is lacking some nutrients. The gluco and calcium just for awhile, probiotics maybe longer.
How wonderful she is now in such a loving home. |
| That's a good thought. I'm going to generate a new thread in the medical/nutrition index... |
| She looks to be a beauty! So glad as I'm sure she is that you found her and rescued her. |
| I'm glad you have her safe and sound. I am glad that the people who had her at least cared enough to see that she had a good home and knew that they didn't want to continue their breeding scheme. That is something.
Some bitches really do become thin feeding a large litter of puppies, especially young mothers. Just not feeding a litter will help put some weight back on her. She's in good hands now, and a real beauty. I hope the pups land in as soft a spot. |
| Welcome and thanks for rescuing Sunny. |
| Congratulations on your big heart and your lovely little girl, she looks like a sweetie |
| Congratulations!!!! I'm very happy you ended up with her - sounds like you're just the right fit! |
| Thank you for taking her in. She'll repay your kindness 10 fold. |
You are an angel for rescuing this beautiful girl!  As Tammy said, she will repay you tenfold! |
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Well, it's been four days now since we brought Sunny home. I have a hard time believing any surprises are going to show up at this point (she has her first real vet appointment this afternoon, keeping fingers crossed) and have to say I think we are the luckiest sheepie owners in the world. She is such a GREAT dog. She has passed milestone after milestone with flying colors. She has earned almost full reign of the house and use of the doggie doors without a single doubt. Only a couple potty problems on day 2 prior to having access to the dog door and that seems to have more to do with our basement exclusively, which she is scared of for some reason (and is currently locked out of). She is also currently banned from the kids' rooms because she has a thing for stuffed animals. Otherwise, she is absolutely perfect with the kids and they just adore her. Her energy and spunk are increasing dramatically having some good food in her tummy. She's done great the two times we've left her home alone, seems like she's mostly just chilling in the back yard while we're gone. She is picking up on the rules and routine of the house incredibly fast. I'm sure you'll be shocked to know she is, however, a professional counter-surfer.  The only "real" behavioral problem we may have to face isn't even her fault...one of the neighbors to the back has a midsize dog with a real barking problem that several of the neighbors are unhappy about and Sunny has gotten into a couple barking matches with her through the fence. Sunny is amazingly good about stopping barking and coming when we call, but I can't vouch for when we're gone and I really don't want her associated with that dog. I still can't tell their two barks apart (they've very close) and so when Sunny is outside I end up having to go out a lot to make sure she isn't the one barking (usually isn't...in fact the only time I think she has done it is when we're outside - maybe "defending us from the aggresive dog"?). Where in her previous life she was chained up outside during the day and inside with her puppies at night, she still has some night/day confusion, especially if we leave the house/dog door open, so it's still a little like having a baby in the house again though we're not getting awoken every hour like the first night. We're still looking forward to receiving our big box of grooming tools so we can get her completely dematted and shaved down evenly.
Anyway we're just excited to give an update since Sunny is doing so well and we're so so so happy with her! Thanks for all your support! |
Wow, what a wonderful thing you have done for Sunny.  She sounds like a wonderful Sheepie, that has met wonderful Sheepie family |
| What a great update! |
Quote: I'm sure you'll be shocked to know she is, however, a professional counter-surfer.
Just one word of advice from someone who had a notorious counter surfer that even turned on the stove while we were gone one day... http://oesusa.com/AboutU358.jpg Do NOT leave out any type of medication or anything that would be harmful to her. Make sure it's put in the cupboard where she cannot access it. Counter surfers can also be garbage divers so be careful with the garbage too. With these types of dogs, "out of sight IS out of mind." Congrats to you on your new addition! |
| Well, she weighed in at exactly 50 pounds today, but otherwise checks out perfectly healthy! Yay! |
| glad to hear she is doing so well but i regret to inform you that you are the SECOND luckiest sheepie owner in the world.
i have only had standard poodles and until last week would have argued with anyone that they are the smartest dogs in the world.. until tulo arrived. he reminds me of a standup comic.. i really think he enjoys being laughed at...all with a straight face , of course...he reminds me of jackie mason. |
tmyslik wrote: glad to hear she is doing so well but i regret to inform you that you are the SECOND luckiest sheepie owner in the world.
LOL. |
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