Housebroken

Ashby was housebroken before she came to us. But the system was different: All the dogs were in one room, and the room was next to a patio. There was a door separating the two, and it was always open. So the dogs could go to the patio to do their business any time. The big question was: How quickly would she figure out how things are going in our house?


When we picked up Ashby from the airport, she was exhausted, overwhelmed, and nervous.
So even though she had always been the leader of the two siblings, she was hiding in the crate. It didn't help that we HAD to get her out, because her brother Banksy was going home in his crate, whereas she had to be transferred to the crate we had brought.

At the airport:
"We had to wait FOREVER!!" -->>

When we came home, Ashby continued to be nervous, and between midnight (when we got home) and an hour later, she must have pooped and peed in the house about 4 times. Luckily, we have hardwood floors!

In the night, she whined a little, but the only time she completely panicked was when we locked the wire crate door, and I left the room to brush my teeth. That must have brought back memories of her and her brother being left behind in the mountains.
After some hand-holding, and with one person in the room at all times, she finally fell asleep:

We had to take her outside a two more times during the night, though. Baby times all over again! I felt like a zombie..I have never been good with sleep deprivation. 

The very next morning, she was curious and very calm. It turns out she is a very relaxed - and smart! - dog.

We watched her like hawks for signs of needing to go, and shooed her out for it every time. Big applause when she got it on her own for the first time!
She must have thought "have they gone crazy? But whatever, they feed me, and seem to be really excited about me".

And, knock on wood, no more accidents after the first day.
Now on to the next tasks...

Today's the day!

After months of searching, and weeks of looking at her pictures, Ashby is on the plane now.
After 'dog-sitting' a Lab for 6 months, we decided to get a dog of our own, and in the process of searching on Petfinders, came across ahan.org, an organization that mainly rescues pets from Asia (Taiwan), and has placed many of them in the San Francisco Bay Area.

So while there are plenty of dogs out here in the US, the problem is much worse in other places of the world, and there are so many unwanted dogs that the rescuers can hardly keep up.
Take a look at the heartbreaking stories on ahan.org.

Ashby was rescued together with her brother Banksy in a remote mountain, where they were left alone in a cage with little food. Luckily they were found, picked up and have now both found a new home.

From the moment they were rescued until we got her was a little over a month. On August 16, the wait was finally over!
Mary, her foster Mom, sent us some pictures of her, her brother, and an older rescued dog, from the airport, and then it was off on a roughly 12 hour flight to San Francisco.

I, meanwhile spent my day staring at this:

As if time would go faster that way!

She had been announced a week earlier, but her arrival was postponed by a week because of diarrhea. So we all had really waited a month, then a week, and now 12 more hours. It seemed more like 12 weeks, though.

Ashby was advertised as a "Lab mix', but she really is a Formosan Mountain Dog (or 'Taiwan Dog') mix, and I'm trying to learn all about it, in addition to becoming a puppy expert, at least on paper.

Formosan Mountain dogs are almost exclusively mixes, although there has been an effort to breed pure-breeds yet again. 

Ashby certainly doesn't fall into that category, but she has some traits of the Formosan: The smaller build (compared to a Lab, which she may have some in her), the triangular-shaped head, the bare belly (no hair) and, above all, the giant ears. We joke that she'll start to fly with them one day. 

All in all, probably 70% Formosan and certainly 100% cuteness!

Here she is on her first full day with us: