First, we hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!
Okay, so this particular welcome is a bit overdue — Bertie came to us from Atlanta Beagle Rescue back in August! But he got off to a bad start his very first night here, when he bit my hand … hard enough to draw blood but no serious damage. It was the first time I had ever been bitten in 12 years of doing this. Then we had a second incident a couple of weeks later, so we decided to hold off making his introduction until we improved his social skills.
He was also loud, barked constantly, and had to go everywhere at 150 mph. Moreover, unlike any other Beagle we'd known, Bertie didn't seem interested in people. The folks at Atlanta Beagle Rescue had described him as an "odd duck," and they were right.
We set to work on a Bertie make-over. As in, Miss Manners comes to Rolling Dog Farm.
Early on, every evening when we brought the dogs in for dinner, Bertie would careen around the room, running flat-out and crashing head-first into walls, crates, table legs, etc. He'd pick himself up, then zoom off to do it all over again. (Blindness + Speed = Headache.) Alayne called him "Pinball Bertie." This didn't seem to bother him, but it clearly needed intervention. I began to bring him in on a leash, teaching him to walk quietly and patiently by my side, and not releasing him until he gave me a quiet sit in front of his crate.
"Quiet" was the operative word in his training, because this was a dog who clearly had been able to bark and bay all day long his entire life. We suspect that he probably had been a hunting Beagle and lived in a kennel, where that is normal behavior. He learned that we don't permit that here, and he needed to cool it. That was a struggle, but by us staying on top of him and getting on his case as soon as he started to bark, Bertie is now a much quieter boy than when he first arrived.
We've had no more biting incidents, either, since he learned his place in the new pack.
Bertie is still relatively "distant" in terms of a connection with us, but he does seem a little more focused on us than he once did. Nothing like any of other dogs yet, but our sense is that he is slowly coming around and will one day be affectionate. He spends his days with blind Louie the Beagle and blind Bugsy, both of whom are very affectionate, so I think this will rub off on Bertie, too, just like Louie helped Bugsy turn the corner.
Miss Manners hasn't given Bertie his Certificate of Good Behavior yet, but we can see a day soon when he will successfully complete the course!
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Final Contest of The Year — Please Vote for the Farm!
The latest Shelter Challenge started Monday, October 8 and ends at midnight on December 16. Grand prize in this round is $5,000, plus $1,000 for weekly winners and $1,000 for state winners. There are also other categories … please see the Shelter Challenge website for details.
*** You will find us listed as Rolling Dog Farm. The state is NH for New Hampshire. ***
Please remember, you can vote every day … consider bookmarking the voting page to make it easy.
We just won $1,000 as a weekly winner in the current contest, and thousands more in the previous contests. The Shelter Challenge really does bring in a lot of money for the animals here!
You can vote in the Shelter Challenge here.
Thank you for your votes!
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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