Pictures from a new member

[Ruth Licht]

Hi all --

My husband and I just joined your great site and wanted to share some pictures of our new dog, Rusty. We adopted him from the San Diego County Shelter about a month ago and he's the most wonderful dog we've ever seen! He's definitely a Corgi mix (he's got the shorter legs and cropped tail) but people can't seem to figure out if the rest of him is Red Golden Retriever or Brittany Spaniel. Anyway, I saw all the fabulous pictures of everyone's dogs in this section and wanted to include Rusty as well! These are pics we took of him playing in our backyard about 10 days after we brought him home. I hope you enjoy them and I can't wait to get more involved in all the discussions.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/rdlicht/Rusty-down_1.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/rdlicht/Rusty-down_5.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/rdlicht/Rusty-back_1.jpg

Take care,
Ruth

[Ruth Licht]

Here's just a couple more pics of Rusty (I can't help it -- I'm a first time mommy totally over the moon!).

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/rdlicht/Rusty-close_1.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/rdlicht/Rusty-side.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y236/rdlicht/Rusty-sitting.jpg

Have a good day,
Ruth

[Sarah Moore]

Welcome Ruth! Rusty is beautiful. I definitely see some type of spaniel like Brittany... He is gorgeous though. I am in So Cal too... just north of San Diego... I work in North County though :) Glad to have you here!!!

[Justine Archuleta]

Welcome to Doggie Door. Rusty is so cute! I have a Black lab, Blackie, as the name fits. I hope to see you around.

[Luciann]

Ruth and Rusty

Welcome to Doggie bag, your own little family of animal lovers. Rusty is adorable. I have two chihuahuas, frodo and tika.

[Mario Niepel]

Welcome to the Doggie Bag. Rusty is such a beautiful dog. Great that you decided to adopt a grown up dog. :) How old is the little fellow?

[Jaime Cress]

Rusty is adorable! He has a very friendly and happy face! Glad that you found the board, and hope to see lots more of little Rusty...hes a cutie.

Nice grass by the way, I only wish my lawn looked as good!!

[Ruth Licht]

Hi all --

Thanks for the warm welcomes! Mario, Rusty is 2 years old. We really thought he was older because of the white fur on his muzzle, but the vets said that coloring was just his marking and his teeth clearly put him in the 2 y.o. range. So we have lots more years of fun to look forward to!!

[Rebecca Skelhon]

What a cute dog. My sister loves her corgi mixes so much she has two. She also rescued hers from a shelter in Denver. Welcome to the forum!
Rebecca

[Rowena Fry]

Welcome Ruth and Rusty! I LOVE that first pic of Rusty, he's so flirting with the camera! What a cheeky chappie!

[Mario Niepel]

Hi all --

Thanks for the warm welcomes! Mario, Rusty is 2 years old. We really thought he was older because of the white fur on his muzzle, but the vets said that coloring was just his marking and his teeth clearly put him in the 2 y.o. range. So we have lots more years of fun to look forward to!!

The markings were exactly the reason why I was asking. Overall Rusty looks really young, by the white nose gives him the appearance of an older dog.

[Andre Mendizabal]

Welcome Ruth, Rusty and hubby!!!!! wow, he is so gorgeous, I love that look in his face, he sure is a poster-boy!!!!!, did you notices he couldn't get his eye from the camera? I also loved your grass, how can you keep it so goregous, I still have little spots of grass in my yard (3 dogs :mad: ) and they are just awful...!!!!
See ya' around and enjoy Rusty as much as you can!!!! :p

[Chris Smith]

Welcome!! Rusty is absolutely adorable!!! Extremely handsome! I see a lot of retriever in him and maybe some Spaniel too. Nalu, my 9 month old male, is supposedly a Retriever/Spaniel mix but he's got some small breed mixed in too!! Who knows what!! Great combo though!

What a cutey you have!

[babyblue]

Wow absolutely gorgous. Your pup look a lot like the two dogs my neighbor is taking care of. Your guys is adorable! Looks like a sweety!

[Grace Erick]

Ruth, your dog is a real beauty with that gorgeous red hair and pure white underneath. Good luck with him. That's great that you rescued him!

Bye, Grace

[Ruth Licht]

Hi all --

You all are so kind with your sentiments to me and Rusty! I wanted to get back to those of you who are shocked by our lawn's lush looks, though. You see, we moved into this house only 2 months ago and right before the previous owners left they put new sod in! So what you see is brand-spankin'-new grass that hadn't been touched by a dog yet. Granted, we're lucky that Rusty seems to prefer "doing his thing" in the dirt areas of the yard, but there are a couple of spots where it's turned yellow already. I read on one post about using a baking soda solution on the lawn, and I think I'll try that so I keep the lawn as nice as possible. But now you know -- brand new sod is a wonderful thing... :)

[Mario Niepel]

Granted, we're lucky that Rusty seems to prefer "doing his thing" in the dirt areas of the yard, but there are a couple of spots where it's turned yellow already. I read on one post about using a baking soda solution on the lawn, and I think I'll try that so I keep the lawn as nice as possible. But now you know -- brand new sod is a wonderful thing... :)

Ruth, if Rusty already prefers to go into the 'dirt areas' of the yard and if you like this behavior, it should be quite easy to train Rusty to only go there.

Here is what you do. Take Rusty out and whenever he goes in the 'dirt area' praise him, treat him and throw him a big old party. Yummy liver treats, dancing, singing, throwing a frisbee ... or any combination thereof. If Rusty goes on the gras, do nothing. No scolding, no disaproving look, just nothing. Rusty should figure out fairly quickly that going in the dirt area means party, while going on the grass means nothing. Why wouldn't he chose to go in the dirt. Since he already seems to prefer that area, half the work is done already. :) And you only need to keep the parties up for a short while. Then you can reduce the reward and put it on an intermittent schedule (Rusty only sometimes gets a reward for going in the dirt, but never for going on the gras).

There you go. The unsolicited advice of the evening. :) Hope it is useful.