ELLIE
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 Ellie was found as a stray and brought to the Arizona Humane Society by their Emergency Animal Medical Technicians on April 9th with a badly fractured jaw and a mysterious wound on her head (see picture at left). Dr. Egar at the Humane Society repaired her fractured jaw but was worried that the wound on her head would not heal. She was moved into a foster home on April 22nd where she was on soft food for six weeks to enable her jaw to heal.
Surprisingly, the wound on her head did heal, and the jaw surgery was a complete success, but soon after her last round of medication ended, Ellie began to scratch her face and neck. A second round of medication made the problem subside for a while but the infection came raging back. Without doing any testing to find out what was causing Ellie's itching, the HS vets tried other medications that did not make sense (a flea & tick preventative that has been recalled), and which not only burned Ellie's skin at the application site, but seemed to make matters worse. Thankfully, her foster family had had enough and took matters into their own hands; they spent June and July fighting the infection and, finally, in August the infection seemed to subside. On August 23rd, the HS released Ellie to her foster family so that they could pursue rescue options with her.
Ellie is crate trained and up-to-date on shots. Her foster mom reports that Ellie is very smart, sweet and loving. She is very excitable and has a tendancy to jump on people when she's nervous (or over-stimulated), but her foster folks are working on that. She walks well with a halter and leash but will pull when she sees a person or another dog. She LOVES people but has not been socialized with other dogs, cats or children. Her foster mom reports that she does not seem to be aggressive with other dogs but does tend to take a dominant stance. Ellie will be evaluated and further photos taken this Sunday, so please check back.
As class progressed, Ellie became more and more excited and, without a proper collar and leash, it was difficult to control her exuberance. However, with some gentle direction from Bert, Ellie finished out the session and decided to sign up for class! This will give us a chance to see her progress each week.
In a word, Ellie is a sweetheart with very little training. We have placed her age at about 3 years. Her overall condition is good, and her teeth show very little wear or tartar. She does have a chipped canine tooth, which does not seem to have caused her any problems. Her facial hair continues to grow in slowly after her surgery, and we should continue to see improvements in all areas each week at Boot Camp. If you'd like to meet Ellie, c'mon out to Boot Camp on Sunday. She'd love to meet you!
UPDATE 11/11: Ellie needs a confident pack leader. When her foster mom or dad are in class and get flustered, Ellie seems to act out; however, when one of the trainers in class takes the leash, Ellie is compliant and more than willing to do what it asked of her. She's just like a kid. If you insist that she follow the rules, she will; however, she will test you every step of the day. Ellie's new mom and/or dad must be a strong, confident leader. Ellie will continue in Boot Camp every Sunday so that her training is ongoing. Adoption fee to be determined.
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About 3 weeks ago, Ellie's foster dad took her out in the backyard to play fetch with her, which she loves, but had been unable to play due to her jaw surgery. Now that her jaw has completely healed, fetch is Ellie's passion and the activity has broken the pattern of scratching. Her foster family has continued her increased activity and Ellie seems to be thriving, with healthy skin and hair growing back on her face and neck (see photo at left and photos at top taken on evaluation day).
UPDATE 10/5: Ellie came out to the park for her evaluation today. Other than a noticeable lack of leash manners, Ellie is a sweet, easy going girl. She greeted everyone with a wag of her tail, and had no problem greeting all of the dogs and people as they arrived for Boot Camp. It looked like fun, so Ellie's foster mom decided to stay for class.
