Exciting News!


 

RichPB (richlife)

TVWBB Wizard
Things suddenly did get exciting at hour house this afternoon. You can see my little 16-month-old Affenpinscher, Tonto, in my avatar. He came to us in Feb with a big surprise -- he had major anxiety and trust issues. With time and love he has progressed very well, though there are still numerous things he has difficult with. From the very start I felt that having a companion would help him out a lot, but my wife really didn't want another dog (although we have had at least two for most of the past 48 years -- mostly large dogs). Late last week she suddenly changed her mind! Tonto's original breeder announced two retired breeding Affenpinscher females available. It took a few days and some competing interests, but we learned today we can get Icy. An almost 4-yr-old, 8 lb, fully trained sweetheart. Really quite perfect for us!

So now part two. We could have her flown to us from Washington state, but we actually think Tonto's issues may have resulted from a bad flight at 7 months -- not typical, but it does happen. Also, and most important, we have been discussing taking our first vacation since Covid, but couldn't decide (agree) on where. Washington is a great distination and since this will be our 4th roadtrip to the distant West, right up our alley. We still have to work it around some commitments, but likely we will leave early next week. I'm looking forward a lot to the 40-hour trip out there! Then we can take our time doing what we enjoy most: Traveling this great country with our two dogs and maybe finding some places we missed the first three times. (Even a total 18 weeks on the road is not enough to enjoy all of what the US has to offer! And that doesn't include our shorter eastern roadtrips.)

We have only 7 states we have not visited, including Alaska. Will we get to some of the others? TBD.
 
Things suddenly did get exciting at hour house this afternoon. You can see my little 16-month-old Affenpinscher, Tonto, in my avatar. He came to us in Feb with a big surprise -- he had major anxiety and trust issues. With time and love he has progressed very well, though there are still numerous things he has difficult with. From the very start I felt that having a companion would help him out a lot, but my wife really didn't want another dog (although we have had at least two for most of the past 48 years -- mostly large dogs). Late last week she suddenly changed her mind! Tonto's original breeder announced two retired breeding Affenpinscher females available. It took a few days and some competing interests, but we learned today we can get Icy. An almost 4-yr-old, 8 lb, fully trained sweetheart. Really quite perfect for us!

So now part two. We could have her flown to us from Washington state, but we actually think Tonto's issues may have resulted from a bad flight at 7 months -- not typical, but it does happen. Also, and most important, we have been discussing taking our first vacation since Covid, but couldn't decide (agree) on where. Washington is a great distination and since this will be our 4th roadtrip to the distant West, right up our alley. We still have to work it around some commitments, but likely we will leave early next week. I'm looking forward a lot to the 40-hour trip out there! Then we can take our time doing what we enjoy most: Traveling this great country with our two dogs and maybe finding some places we missed the first three times. (Even a total 18 weeks on the road is not enough to enjoy all of what the US has to offer! And that doesn't include our shorter eastern roadtrips.)

We have only 7 states we have not visited, including Alaska. Will we get to some of the others? TBD.
good on you guys! i highly recco Alaska. we vacationed there this July and it was an amazing place to see and visit. wife and i even discussed going back to Alaska in the future.
 
Rich, hi!!!!!

My first post in almost 2 weeks, glad it's to you. Just want to wish you a safe and happy trip, and happy times with your doggies. Keep in touch.
 
It was actually here on TVWBB that I first posted about our plan to get another Affenpinscher. And three weeks later we've crossed the country and back with some time out on the way and growth in our family. I'm copying here my post from the Facebook "I Love My Affenpinscher" page along with the pics.

I've been holding this back for a couple of weeks now to be sure all would go well -- and it has! I've always felt that having a companion might help Tonto get over his extreme fears and it has! A few weeks ago we learned that his original breeder, Terry Benefit had a breeding female she wished to retire to a good home. We contacted her and she agreed to allow Icy to join our family. So with three days prep, we drove off to Washington state to pick her up. No, we're really not totally crazy, We've done several road trips around the country since retiring in 2003. We also had been talking about a first vacation since Covid, possibly to Colorado. So it was a simple thing to lock down that possibility and extend a couple of days travel on to Washington.
But it did quickly become tiring and after getting Icy and staying for several days at Crested Bute, Colorado, we decided to make the trip shorter and head home. We also wanted to get the dogs together in a stable environment rather than changing day after day.
All in all, we spent 13 days on the road at about 450 miles per day for over 5500 miles.
Tonto and Icy accepted each other immediately -- what a load off our minds! The first pic below is returning from Terry's place on the short trip back to our motel. Years ago for Dante, the consummate tourist, I built a window-level platform, locked down by the seatbelt system, and ran a zip line across the car at the roof, We have two short leads anchored in place on the zip line to prevent the dogs from get thrown against any window or against us. Our various dogs have well over 50,000 miles around the US using that platform. More on that below.
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The second pic is that first night together in that motel with Sheila. Tonto has slept on our bed since we got him in Feb. That first night in the motel, we crated them together in a 21x30" crate and held our breath. Success! With just a little whimper at first, they both settled down and slept through the night. That has continued every night since. We have had no tussles at all between the dogs -- not on meeting, the first car trip, the first night or all the days and nights since including coming home with Tonto having to share his life. They do love to chase each other around and wrestle -- another big win! And they have continued to sleep in their crate together since arriving home -- a real benefit for Sheila's allergies.
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So the two other pics are of Icy and Tonto exploring their yard together. Notice the main indicator of who is who (they are distantly related). Icy has a trimmed tail while Tonto has the full plume. We think we'll keep it that way because they can be so difficult to tell apart though Icy is 8 lbs versus Tonto's 10. She also has a slightly longer nose, but good luck trying to use that as an identifier. Terry's dogs all seem to have really nice Affen faces. It was a treat meeting her current brood including Tonto's father.
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As to the effect on Tonto... he's been coming more out of himself and enjoying being with Icy and us. A good dose of jealousy keeps them both sharp on who is getting what attention. Icy is learning about our dog door and tags around with Sheila constantly. She is clearly happy with her new life and surroundings and is a joy for all of us. Tonto still is overly fearful, but continues to demonstrate improvement with Icy's help.
I promised more about our dog safety platform system. After all the miles and years of travel, it finally got tested in the extreme. While motoring on I-40 through the tight curves on the NC side of the Great Smokies, we rounded a blind curve to sudden red lights about 50 feet ahead. I stood on the brakes at 55mph to a complete stop. Fortunately, the guy behind me did the same. The dogs came flying forward, were pulled back by the zipline and were completely unhurt. Believe me, they were a bit shook up and we took care to comfort them as we proceeded, but they were safe! And remarkably enough, there were no collisions among the 40-50 vehicles involved in that sudden stop! So, as designed, the platform/zipline/tether system performed precisely as intended. I felt sure it would, but proof is always good.
And as Sheila just said, "Icy is such a doll. She is so sweet."
Edit: I should have said, Icy is on the left in the first pic.
 
Now you have two cuties. Icy and Tonto are off to a great start, it's great that they bonded so quickly. Barb and I have had two dogs most of our 40 years together. Mostly Golden Retriever rescues with a Cocker Spaniel and one Black Lab and our Golden Retriever/Husky/Coyote mix we have today. Just watching them interact with each other always puts a smile on my face.
Abby our labs favorite thing to do is sneak up behind Whitney and yank her tail and then it's game on!
 
You're completely right on all counts, Rich. Like you and Barb, Sheila and I have had at least two dogs since 1975. Various breeds and mutts mostly quite large. Tonto and Icy are the first two in years that truly turn our living room into Romper Room. 😁😁
 

 

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