As you can well imagine I have my hands full with the baby Nutella, and getting Smokey ready for adoption (yay!). But when Julia asked us to watch her boy, Dante so she could run errands, we were happy to help.
Errands took about an hour... and that is 60 minutes longer than Dante can stay alone. We are talking code red separation anxiety. He must have a person with him at all times. Barking, destruction, sheer panic ensues. Attempts at crate training ended with a broken tooth. This registered therapy dog, ball obsessive, mohawk sporting, rescued bichon has a lot of love and a very large problem.
Despite the 20 some odd dogs that have come through our doors this last year, I seem to be forever surprised. Relay came to us aged three months from the pound. He chewed inappropriately once, had an accident twice, and after that was perfectly behaved. Potty trained, crate trained, no aggression issues, and can be left alone to wander from comfy spot to comfy spot around the house until we get home. And I take that for granted every day.
To the best pup in the world: Thank you, love Mom.
Errands took about an hour... and that is 60 minutes longer than Dante can stay alone. We are talking code red separation anxiety. He must have a person with him at all times. Barking, destruction, sheer panic ensues. Attempts at crate training ended with a broken tooth. This registered therapy dog, ball obsessive, mohawk sporting, rescued bichon has a lot of love and a very large problem.
Despite the 20 some odd dogs that have come through our doors this last year, I seem to be forever surprised. Relay came to us aged three months from the pound. He chewed inappropriately once, had an accident twice, and after that was perfectly behaved. Potty trained, crate trained, no aggression issues, and can be left alone to wander from comfy spot to comfy spot around the house until we get home. And I take that for granted every day.
To the best pup in the world: Thank you, love Mom.
10 comments:
Hmmm, Relay and I sound like two peas in a pod. I was trained pretty quick too. Interestingly, my grandma has a Bichon and he has separation anxiety (and storm anxiety, and I'm in a new place anxiety) for what seems no apparent reason. Even the thundershirt doesn't help. What to do?!?
Awww - so glad Relay is well-adjusted! Blueberry is the same - well except she was 5 years old when I adopted her and didn't have any accidents. Honestly, it was like I brought home a dog-in-a-box and just added water and presto!
I guess it really makes you appreciate Relay when you come across dogs like Dante with severe issues. So glad you could watch him though! To his pet parent - that must be a Godsend to be able to rest easy knowing he won't flip out and will be just fine as long as someone is willing to dog sit him!
Dante is adorable though! We have been very lucky that we have not encountered severe separation anxiety in our foster dogs as we would be in deep trouble. Glad that Relay is a well behaved boy!
What a great post ;) It's nice to be given some perspective occasionally, isn't it??
What a great post! It's easy to focus on the behaviors that we think need work, so it's great to be able to put things in perspective once in a while and remember we have a lot to be grateful for.
That sounds like a toughie. Wonder if it's a breed thing?
I think it is very important to have friends with dogs just to have sitters handy. ;-)
I love it when Dante has a good mohawk going. I'm not sure that I could handle a foster with separation problems. Maybe with some more time and training experience.
It's never a bad thing to be reminded how lucky you are. Thanks for visiting!
Why thank you! I'm just shouting to the roof tops that I love my pups.
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