On July 13th, we adopted a dog from a rescue organization. She was found in Taiwan and brought to the US.

She was originally named Daisy, then Emily, we have now named her Waffle (in honor of Waffle from Catscratch).

Her foster owner says she is part Basenji (because her mother really looks like one), but there are so many mutts roaming the streets in Taiwan that we’re not sure what she is.

I’ve never had a rescue dog in my life and I’m learning that she needs A LOT of patience and care to get her back up to regular doggy mental status.  I’ll use this page to keep track of her experiences and developing personality.

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7/13/08: Evan rode in the back of the car with Waffle by his side. She seemed not to mind car rides. She let him pet her and sit by her. We had a 2 hour wait for the next ferry so we parked in the shade and gave her some treats and water. She doesn’t like to be walked or on a leash so we couldn’t take her out of the car. She did alright on the ferry too.
Eventually she crawled into her kennel on the ride back. We had to go to Evan’s parent’s house before going home and noticed that she barfed on her towel. I think it was a combination of it being too hot out, being in her crate in the car, and stress.
Once we got home we let her wander around the backyard. I thought we’d made a breakthrough when she started to follow behind me slowly. I got her into the garage and around the patio but she eventually ran to the side of the house and tried to hide (or find a way out).  We took her inside and she wanted to stay in her kennel.

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7/14/08: In the morning, I took Waffle outside to go potty and since she’d been taking so long I decided I’d leave her outside while I took a shower. When I came downstairs I couldn’t find her anywhere! With Evan’s help we looked and looked and found her under a bush by the patio. Coaxing didn’t work so we had to pull her out. She wanted to stay in her crate again.
We took half days at work and came home to let her out. We stayed out in the yard with her. I thought she was doing ok by wandering around the yard. We looked a way for a second and noticed she’d ran to the side of the house and disappeared again! Evan noticed fur on the siding by a gap between the fence post and the house and thought she’d gotten out front. Luckily I noticed her all the way at the end of the cul-de-sac by the mail boxes. So we walked calmy over and were able to grab her before she got any further. We blocked up that hole in the fence pretty quick.
It was crate time once again.  We feed her bits of kibble by hand so she knows where her food comes from but also leave a bowl out for her near her crate. I think she realized how hungry she was and slowly poked out of her home to eat and drink.  We were also able to put her in her new doggy bed and pet her. The goal is to get her out of her crate and into the bed for good.

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7/15/08: This was a good day. Once I got home I took her outside. We keep her on the leash when she goes potty so she can’t get away and to get her use to the leash. I slip the handle on my ankle so it hangs on the ground and she thinks she’s more free to move around. I slowly walk behind her so she can move more and doesn’t try to run away. She sort of realizes that the quicker she goes potty the sooner we can get back inside. 2 times she went potty in under 5 minutes! It was awesome. Of course these events are congratulated with “Good potty! good girl!”
We also tested out what happens when we take her crate away. Since she was in her squishy bed before, it smells like her so she knows it’s ok to sit here. After carefully inspecting her area she crawled into her bed all by herself! I could tell she was really sleepy and wanted to nap but was too worried about her surroundings so she kept nodding off. She naps with her ears up so she can tell what’s going on. Once she took a doggy crash sleep and totally passed out (ears down, sprawled out) but woke herself up. It was really cute. 
So now after going outside I put her in her bed and take her harness off. Otherwise she’ll run to a corner in the dining room and hide under a chair. I think I want to take all the chairs into the garage for a while so she can’t hide.

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7/16/08: Potty training is going well. It takes a few minutes to realize why we’re outside, but she does her business and we go back in. Just before bed we slowly walked around the backyard and she led me to the deck and up to the screen door to go in!
I made an appointment for her at the Vet just around the corner to ask them some questions and have her checked out. I was right! She does have fleas. We got 2 free trials of different flea meds and hopefully that will take care of what she has now. I feel so bad when she nibbles at herself.
I think she enjoyed the car ride to and from the vet. I loaded up her crate just incase she wanted to hide in it but she ventured out onto the seats. She even put her feet up on my seat and sniffed out the window. No barf this time!  Even going into the vet she didn’t want to be in her crate.
Everyone asks what kind of dog is she. I’m learning how to explain her quicker.
She did well with the vet touching her and cleaniner her ears (now I know how to!). I set her down while we waited and she put her paws on my lap to get back in my arms, aww.
We also took her to the healthy pet food store near the house because her puppy food from the foster home is running low. They were able to help us find a similar match to what she’s use to. They also say if she doesn’t like it or it makes her tummy upset we can take it back for a refund or a new kind

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7/17/08: Lots of progress made today (though some was taken away). After going potty she slowly makes her way back to the deck, decides the deck is ok to stand on then goes to the door, decides it’s ok to go inside the door, then we’re all done! You can’t stand in front of her though. She has to be making the decision otherwise she feels like you’re forcing her.
I’ve moved her food bowls a little farther away from her bed so she has to get out of it to eat. She stretches as far as she can with her back legs still in her bed and tries to nibble, then gives up and gets out of it to eat. Sometimes I have to make a trail of kibble to the bowl so she knows there’s food inside.
I had a snack of chips & Salsa on the couch and she perked up to see what I was eatting. I broke a chip piece off for her and tried to coax her over. I set it on the floor for her and she slowly crept over, grabbed the piece and ran back to her bed.
Waffle is also slowly figuring out how to play with toys on her own. I bought a braided fleece rope for her and she will pick it up, take it to her bed and chew on it. She’s even using her paws to manipulate it too. She’s not too good about playing with people though. You can take the toy and poke her with it and sometimes she’ll nip back but she mostly looks at you with a  “what do you want?” face.
We decided to take her upstairs so we could work in our offices. She’s never walked around upstairs, only goes there to sleep. I put her bed in the hallway so she could see both of us but she walked in circles around my office and wanted to be close by me (aww).
Evan thought he’d play with her by putting a towel over her (like you could do with a normal dog). BAD IDEA. She got scared and crawled under the couch in my office. It took some coaxing to get her out and now she’s more wary of Evan than ever. He feels left out.
She still doesn’t like getting taken out of her crate but she’s getting use to who takes care of her and that the house is ok to wander around in.

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7/20/08: I was able to give Waffle her first bath since we got her (she was getting stinky). I had to wait this long because of the surgical glue on her tummy from her spay surgery. Thankfully we have sliding doors on our shower so she couldn’t get out. She wasn’t a fan of the whole experience and hid under the bed for a while afterwards.  
I discovered that she is not as crate trained as we thought. I kept putting old towels in her crate with her so she would have something soft to lie on, but when i come home they’re smushed in the corner of her crate and smell funny. She’s been peeing on them! So no more towel. She whined a bit at first because she was found out and didn’t want to soil her bed but she’s realized she has to hold it now.
Friends came over Sunday so Waffle stayed in her crate. I brought her out to see how she would react. Just shook in my arms. She’ll let anyone pet her but she doesn’t care for them yet (probably thinks they’ll take her to another new home). She did let Sky feed her and ate out of her hand.

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7/21/08: I think she’s getting use to our routines. I am the first one downstairs so I take her with me to get her breakfast and hang out. She can hear Evan upstairs in the shower and runs back n forth from the living room to the stairs. All of a sudden she started galloping from room to room! then would run back to her bed. It was pretty cute. She often comes up to me with her tail wagging, but runs away afterwards.
I’ve learned to pick up after myself again. I had a knitting project on the couch while i was in the kitchen getting b-fast. I came back to find her and the ball of yarn from the project in a tangled heap at her feet. *sigh*. I think the yarn itself was a lost cause. I kept finding breaks in it that weren’t doggy made.
Today we took the towels out of her crate to see how she’d do and came home to find that she’d peed in her crate. Evan hosed it out and i gave her another bath (which she didn’t care for). I’m hoping she’ll see the correlation of peeing on herself and bathtime and want to hold it more. We’ll see how she does on Tuesday.

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7/27/08: What progress! Waffle has figured out that she needs to go to the sliding door for us to let her outside. AND she can even go out with out her leash on! She’ll stand on the deck and wait for you to follow her so she can go out on the grass. but she does her business quickly then comes back to the deck to go inside. I’m so proud of her.
Even in the mornings when you open her crate she knows to step out of it and head downstairs. She’ll immediately go to her bed but once you tell her it’s potty time she heads for the door.
She likes to get in the play stance at the bottom of the stairs as you walking down them then runs to the living room wagging her tail and hops in her bed. But then she won’t play anymore. We’ll figure out how to get her to play some how.
She didn’t care to meet new family members this weekend though. She tolerates new people but doesn’t know if they will 1) take her away or 2) eat her.
Dad clipped her toenails for me and she did just fine.
We were given 2 baby gates to keep her in the kitchen from now on and didn’t think she would make it over them. We left for the mall Sunday afternoon and came home to find her walking around the living room wagging her tail. She had peed near the garage door   We fixed the gate problem by putting dining chairs in front of it to block her way out.  You can’t raise them up high either because she’s like a fricken houdini and will slide underneath them in her little army man crawl stance.
We picked up a pet tag for her too. It has the Batman logo on it! She doesn’t seem to care for it and tries to chew on it, which is really funny to watch. Just wait til her pet license shows up. She’ll jingle all the way, lol.
Some updated pictures of Waffle can be found here (thanks to mom)

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8/18/08: It has been a month since we got Waffle. She has made alot of improvment. She gets excited when we come home and let her out. She loves to play outside and will run to the door when we whistle or call for her. She’s still wary to come back inside but we’re working on it. As soon as I get home she loves to run around the backyard. She gets low into the play stance and jumps back and forth or tears tracks around the yard.
She got to play with my dad’s toy poodles. She likes dogs that are her size for now.
She plays with toys A LOT more now. There are tons lying around the house to entice her to play with them and to stop stealing my socks. She can’t be left alone with a stuffed toy though. She’ll gut them in a few hours.
She still gets car sick. We try not to feed her if we know we’re going on a long ride.
She likes to follow me around the house to see what I’m doing. If I sit for too long she’ll poke me with her nose to get some attention.

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10/9/08: My apologies. I should have included a september progress report. Waffle is becoming more of a normal dog each week. She out grew her first puppy bed so I found a very nice one at Costco. It’s in the corner of the living room since it’s so big and Waffle doesn’t like to have her back to the room. She didn’t know if it was safe to sit on at first so we kept throwing her toys on it while she played so she had to jump on it. I’d also pick her up from time to time and place her on it and pet her. She soon got the idea that it was hers and now likes to curl up on it (so cute!).
We started puppy classes a few weeks ago and things seem to be going ok. She has a bit of a learning curve since all the other dogs don’t have trust issues like she does. But she can sit on command now! We’ve been bad parents by not continuing with the training at home. We need to get into the habit.  We need to teach Waffle that her leash is an ok thing. If you let go of the leash she doesn’t know what to do. She stands or sits and looks very sad. She’s afraid to move with it following her.  This will just take practice.
She is also becoming much better at socializing with visitors. The other day someone rang the door bell and she woofed and got excited just like a regular dog!
We also arranged a doggy play date with a coworker and his dog. It went well. I’m always happy to see waffle getting to play with other dogs.

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12/3/08: Waffle is 9 months old now and doing very well.  In the middle of October our lives were turned upside down and we had to move suddenly. I am now in a 700 sqft apt. in stead of a 1200 sqft house (with backyard). I felt so bad about taking Waffle away from the freedom of the outdoors but it was out of my hands. She seems to be adjusting well though.

We’ve been in the apt. for 2 months now and (knock on something) there have been NO potty accidents!! The first day back to work I decided to fence waffle in the kitchen area so she would have some more room but when i got home i found that she had popped one of the gates out of the wall and had run around the apt. all day. Nothing was chewed or messed on so i let her run free for the rest of the week. It has gone fairly well so far.
There have been a few casualties: the toggles and strings on my snowboard coat, the clips on one dog harness, the tips of my running shoe laces, and (most recently) the foam on my ikea couch (underneath the couch covers for some reason). I believe she is getting too anxious when i go out for too long with out her so i need to find a way to curb this chewing. Thankfully nothing so far has been irreplaceable.

One hassle I’ve found is that to go out for pottys i have to get dressed, put her harness on and take her outside EVERYTIME. I have no yard i can just unleash her into   But with enough word training she know that “potty time” is strictly for pottying, not playing and sniffing.

My apt is also right across the street from a nice trail so I take her for walks as much as i can, which is getting harder to do since it’s getting so cold and crappy out!

I think Waffle is also getting over her car sickness. The weekend before thanksgiving we had to head up to Camano for a few hours for a family lunch. She didn’t barf the WHOLE trip! That’s 2 hours driving total. There was a lot of drool but no barf! It was amazing. Also, I have been taking her in the car with me quite a bit to my BF’s place and to work so i think she is getting use to the motion of the car.

Waffle is getting so much closer to me now. I can ask her to come to me and she does! I think the stress of the move has made her trust me more.