Nina and Rio updates

Nina and Rio are doing wonderful!  I couldn't be more proud of both of them as foster mom.  Socially, they have grown by leaps and bounds, especially Rio. Both enjoy regular trips to the leash free dog park and learning that people are good.  Nina really likes meeting people and prefers to socialize with them, while Rio enjoys meeting and playing with other dogs. Nina is the one most likely to want to snuggle up and warm your lap.  Rio is a goofy clown who will keep trying to get other dogs to play. They  keep all of us entertained daily with their antics.  No one can  believe that these two have not been snapped up yet; neither can we!  Everyone who meets them finds them irresistible.  They are such fun pups, well behaved and so happy!  Oh, did I mention very smart too!  They are definitely food motivated and love to please you.  They sit immediately and wait patiently at dinner time and are very attentive to me; good on recall (at the leash free park only) as I never allow a dog off leash in unsecured areas because even the best trained dogs can be unpredictable, easily distracted, especially if they are prey driven.  Speaking of prey driven, Nina and Rio are very good with our cat; curious, will smell, but mostly just ignore her, so they would be okay in a home with cat(s) too.  House training is going well and both have indicated to us that they need to 'go', although not consistently, but they do get it.  Accidents are rare.

I've noticed recently a few times (with no consistency) that Nina has been sick in the car. It's not clear at this time if this will be ongoing or long term as this does not happen every time we travel in a car. No consistency with how soon after we feed her to when she goes in the car either.  I'm confident this is most likely temporary as some dogs do outgrow this and Nina just might too as she grows and changes.  Stay tuned for updates on this as we go along.  If this does not change, not to worry, there are all natural products on the market that can be given, or your vet would be able to suggest something to help this.  Rio loves car rides and happily jumps in the car; he's always the first one in and the first one out! No hesitation, you don't have to ask  him twice.  It was recently discovered, after a long process of elimination, trial and error, and time, we began to suspect that Rio may have allergies, so over the past few months we've had him on vet prescribed, low allergen dog food  to test this, and I'm happy to report... success!!   We have recently started to slowly change his food over time to regular store bought, high grade, (wheat free, corn free, soy free) food,  and again...success!  I'm very happy and confident that we are now on the right path and can put this behind us.  We suspect that as Rio's immune system has changed, strengthened and he has outgrown this.  So glad to have that behind us.  Rio's pretty happy too. : )

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