Raider’s path to my family is definitely not as tough as a lot of other dog’s lives, but it is more difficult than it needed to be. His only 8 month journey in life so far could have been easier if people would’ve done just a little more, whether physically or just pausing to think a little more. This isn’t to say the intentions weren’t good, we just fell a little short in execution.
I met Raider when I was called to help the family with potty & crate training problems. After my visit the family seemed optimistic they could put in the work. Sounds like a good start, but…
Raider had been in the home for just one week, and he was six months old at this point. If a pup stays with the breeder longer than than ten weeks, the breeder then should do what the pup needs to make a good transition to a home. By this I mean at least minimal exercise, socializing, and training – basically just letting the pups have time out of their crates to walk around, go potty & some human interaction. Unfortunately this means giving of time, and there are some people who see that the “extra work” just cuts into their profit.
Well, when this family picked out Raider he was in the same crate as his other not yet adopted brother (which I’m not saying is a problem as long as crate size is appropriate), but it was soiled which means they weren’t being watched as well as they should’ve been. You would think with someone coming to look at the dogs the breeder would’ve made sure crate was clean, huh?
The practicing of pottying where he lives, combined with lack of socialization – in his case, the exposure to different sounds in the environment – makes his potty training a steep uphill battle. Every sound distracts him and if so much as the wind blows, he forgets to go.
It’s a hard habit to break once a dog learns to go potty where he lives, but we’ll get there. A lot of patience & observing, paper towels & “Nature’s Miracle”. I’m even considering using pee pads – I hate them, but they might help in this situation.
The next misstep by a human in this l’il guys life is a major reason of dogs being surrendered to shelters or abondoned: an emotionally made decision. I think usually people are trying to do good, but sometimes we make an emotional, instead of rational, decision – it’s human nature really.
“He’s so cute”, without thinking of the dog’s energy, might be the most common emotional decision mistake with dogs.
In this case, it was a more personal mistake.
The reason they wanted a Bichon, is because they had one before. No big deal, stick with what you know and are comfortable with but, “…he was perfect”. That’s a huge expectation to put on a dog. They’re all individuals.
They told me their dog had passed about a year and half ago and that they felt they were ready for another dog. Now that part of this decision was well thought out. However…
About a month later, I watched Raider for a week while they were out of town. “And can you do some training, he needs it.” All I could get from this conversation was him still having potty problems and that he’s fearful of everything.
You can’t “fix” behavior issues in one week. He’s pretty fearful of a lot of things – that’s the socialization issues. You have to go slow, and not push them through situations. Well, you can but that increases the risk of greater fearfulness which could turn into aggressiveness, and it’s not very helpful in getting your pup to trust you.
The second emotional hurdle is they had just lost a family member one month earlier, and were trying to fill that hole with this pup. Man, that’s especially unrealistic expectations, and not fair to even a pup who started off right!
Eventually, the lady just couldn’t handle how much work it was taking to help this little guy. She called in tears because two small dog rescues wouldn’t take him. Apparently he “bit” the vet they took him to the day they took him home, and he told them “he needs aggressive rehab training”. Everything I’ve seen from this l’il guy, I think the vet just went a little too fast with a scared dog.
I decided to take the little fella in and try to help him out with these issues. He wouldn’t have had a long stay in the shelter, but now he’ll have no stay, and that spot is there for a little buddy in not such a lucky spot.
