Old Friends Senior Dogs: Layla - Home

The next day, it was time to introduce Layla into the pack. The blue doughnut around her neck came off, but the familiar yellow bandage (no chew flavor) stayed on. It was a month more before the bandage came off - I was so afraid to let her at her tail again. We walked her with Toby, put everyone else in the house and brought her back into the yard with Toby. We then let the others out one or two at a time.....amazingly enough, it went perfectly. Within minutes, Layla was hanging with the pack, getting along well with everyone. Was this possible? Everything that we had read about GSDs said that we would have problems.
Layla got along well with everyone, especially Gracie and Ginger, our welcoming committee, but was still quite timid for a long time. For the first couple of weeks, she didn't trust Michael at all. When he came in the front, she went out the back. She would spend most of her time in the downstairs room that had become her safe place for 6 weeks. The only difference was, now she was there by choice. She was free to come and go as she pleased.
Gradually, Layla spent more time upstairs. She, Gracie and Ginger played with each other regularly and she gained confidence along with weight. She grew to love her schedule and accepted Michael as well as everyone else.
Gracie had her effect on Layla too. Goofy Gracie couldn't stand to have a stoic German Shepherd dog in the family, so she worked on Layla to give her the Goofy Golden personality. We now have a GSD who is as silly as the rest of the gang. She is healthy and happy and completely loved by all.
Later on, we found what may have been the reason for Layla to chew on her tail. She had problems with incontinence which kept her tail wet all of the time. The irritation may have made her chew at her tail. She is taking a supplement now to solve the incontinence and she has a beautiful, but short, tail.
Look at the pictures below..... it's hard to tell that this is the same dog who came here skinny and sick last Summer.