I figured Mina gets one more update post, since she’s been here for I think 6 weeks now (?) and has settled in to farm dog life a bit.

Now that we know each other and she’s gotten used to the farm, things have come along pretty well. I know going from being an apartment dog to a farm dog was a big change for her, but for the most part she’s acclimated just fine. When she first came home I was fairly sure she hadn’t really spent much if any time off leash, she was very confused by the concept of freedom. Bit by bit she started earning more and more though, as she worked on paying attention to me and coming when she was called. Her recall is very good now, I never have to have her leashed or worry about her running off at all, she comes running just from a whistle and tends to not really want to lose me from her sight anyway. She’s definitely figured out that I’m her person.

As for the horses, she’s not really scared of them anymore, which is a good thing and a bad thing. She’s not as careful about staying out of their path or away from their feet so I have to watch her pretty closely when she’s near them. Quinnie and Henry really don’t pay her any mind but JB is deathly curious about her and really wants to chase her, which Mina has yet to realize.

We haven’t had too many encounters with wildlife or other animals, aside from bugs (this dog will run up to a spiderweb and shove her whole face in it to sniff the spider). She loves to chase birds but I don’t think she’d know what to do if she ever actually caught one. What does seem to concern her is if any of the livestock start singing the songs of their various people – like if the cows start mooing or the donkeys start heehawing or the horses start neighing. Mina goes on high alert, or if it’s the horses she wants to go running over to them. I dunno if she thinks there’s something going down or if she’s still just not figured out what the heck noise they’re making.

For the most part Mina only has two modes – 100% balls to the wall, or asleep. Like… there’s very little in between. She’s quite high-energy, I bet she wasn’t that great as an apartment dog honestly. Stewie was a JRT mix and even in his heyday he wasn’t as high energy as she is. She’s got that vibrating, ADHD quality to her sometimes. There are lots of zoomies. Lots.

To her credit though, she’s not destructive AT ALL. She doesn’t chew or dig or bark or anything like that. Her only real bad habit that I’m still trying to deal with is that she jumps up on people. She kind of gets overwhelmed with excitement because FRANDS and then just starts leaping like crazy. I’ve gotten her to stop doing it to me 95% of the time but all bets are off for new people. That’s a work in progress.

The other thing she really seems to hate is… leaving. She doesn’t want to get in the car AT ALL, and she’s high anxiety the whole time she’s in there and when she goes anywhere new. We’ve done about 5 little trips now, thinking she’d get better over time once she figured out she definitely wasn’t going back to the shelter. Not so much… if anything she’s gotten worse. If you go to the car she runs the other way and lays down in a ball, you basically have to drag her in. Not really worth it, IMO. I guess she’s happy enough here?

I’m glad that she likes the farm and isn’t overwhelmed by it, nor is she a flight risk. You just never know how they’ll handle it sometimes. For a shelter dog that came from who knows where, she’s a really good dog overall.