Rainey, a female Weimaraner, possibly about 1-2 years old, came to Freddy on 28 October 2002, the next day after the previous foster Weim, Josie, had gone to her new home.

First impressions: I have my hands full with this new rescue, Rainey. I'm not sure what can be done with her - this new one is going to be a challenge for sure. I'm not sure things can all be fixed with her. She is terrified of people--looks like she's had no human bonding at all; not house broken; she destroyed the screen door last night. She looks like a text book picture for breeders of all the things you want to avoid. My guess is she escaped or was dumped from a puppymill type situation or some sort of very neglectful situation - we don't know anything about her--she was picked up as a stray in St. Louis area, is all - probably dumped. She is more open toward the dogs, that is why I'm thinking puppy mill type situation maybe - we'll never know for sure. If you call her--she runs and hides; trying to put her in a crate, may just make it worse. I'll give it a try and see if I can get her out of her fear stage. Conformation wise--she's as ugly as a mud fence - LOL--she's so ugly, she is kind of appealing in a way. Tall and scrawny-bones sticking out-very cow hocked, thin chested - weak front, out at the elbows(pidgeon toed), splayed feet, bow legged in front - so many things it makes me think very poor diet during formative stages rather than all genetic. I had to drive about 80 mi. to get her - some other club members(Steve and Jaime Seiveking) from Booneville brought her to Concordia--they had picked her up in Columbia from some people that brought her from St. Louis. We met at Biffle's BBQ and had something to eat before I brought Rainey on home; we named her that because it was raining - I kind of like the name though. We really don't know anything at all about her. She still has stitches from a spaying but that is from the rescue in St. Louis. She has lots of fear problems and 0 training.

As days went by: I'm making progress, but now she's like a little puppy--I have to watch her every minute; at first she didn't have any idea what the toys were - NOW, she not only is playing with the toys, and destroying them, LOL - she is destroying everything she can get her mouth on: gloves, stuff on counters and tables, furniture, EVERYTHING. It is like a six week old puppy--you are yelling NO every 30 seconds. She jumped on the door and broke the frame, then ripped it up. It is like a 50 lb little puppy, hasn't learned anything about how to behave--but big enough to really do damage. .. I don't have crate over here--Matt has mine, and I cann't get ahold of them to get it back. .. She's so timid and afraid of everything I have to get that fixed before I can even start correcting her for everything else - she cann't learn till I can give her corrections. Rainey is going to take some time and lots of work.

Rainey is being a pest outside, barking at the door. Before I could even get that typed she just walked in and carried out a book to chew up - I had to stop and go get it from her. You cann't let her out of sight for 5 min - LOL-just like a little puppy; at least have to pay attention to where she's and and what she's doing all the time.

It is not so much a huge problem as it is not being prepared - if I had known I needed to handle her like a puppy I would have had a crate on hand---puppy proofed the house, stuff like that; I just was not set up/prepared for what I'm having to do. I'll put her in the garage or laundry room when I go, but I need to see if she is going to have seperation anxiety before I go - don't want her destroying the laundry room. I don't want her destroying doors walls etc.

Rainey just threw up a rubber band--guess I'll have to get out the carpet cleaner - sheesh---LOL. I have NO idea where she found the rubber band to eat. .. Well, nobody knew when I picked her up what I'd be getting.

Rainey is really destructive - she pulled down the entire bag of rawhide chew chips - bag shredded all over the place, not a single chew chip anywhere(all eaten).

She is turning out OK, I was not sure at all she'd turn out so well when I started. WHEW, she's made good progress, and in what is really a fairly short period of time.

sooner than I thought actually. Hopefully we'll find her a home, and I'll tell them to watch her every minute - that is what she needs. If I don't [give her the run of the house], I cann't get her trained either, you have to train under the conditions she'll be under. Catching her in the act is the only problem - I need more mirrors so I can see what she is doing when she cann't see me. They have to know that you can know what they are doing even if you aren't right there - otherwise, they just get sneaky.

No accidents, for about the 3-4th day from Rainey, so maybe she's getting the hang of housebreaking - I hope.

Rainey chewed up a bunch of stuff yesterday while I was out. Tried crating, and she's trying to destroy the crate half the night. She chewed up a tv remote control, and a bunch of stuff yesterday while I was out - that was my fault, I should have put her in the crate before I left, so I'm as much mad at myself as anything else. She chewed up the curtains at the kitchen door; .. this dog has probably cost me $500 on stuff I have to replace. .. When I went to the garage to cut some wire to put over the holes in the fence, she got into a trash bag and strewed it all over. .. Enka and Dixie are being good, Dixie especially.

I have to keep checking on Rainey, I just cann't leave her unsupervised. She has been crated at night now and is not too bad with that so I'm getting the housetraining under control - and haven't had any chewing. When I go out, she'll need to be crated, so some of that was my own fault---I was pretty upset, but I'm over it now.

Rainey is laying in here watching every single move I make - she follows me everywhere now - me and my shadow, LOL. She is getting pretty much over that [the fears], she is even going up to strangers now - not in a bad way, but to be friendly. She goes right along with Enka and Dixie, so we've made amazing progress, I never thought we'd have come this far in this amount of time. [But] I cann't take all the credit--having Enka and Dixie here for her to take cues from and imitate has helped immensely I think.

I have to keep checking on Rainey to make sure she isn't up to no good, although she is getting better slowly. She's doing pretty well, finally. Actually she's made really fast progress. .. She just went and got in her crate to take a nap, just in there with the door open.