Lessons from a Rescue: Blondie
Part One
What happens when you fall in love with a dog whose less than perfect start has left her perfectly flawed in every way? Well, you get me... A girl working her human tail off to learn all there is about rehabbing a reactive dog. This is the story of how my rescue dog journey came to be.
Let me first say this: I highly advise staying OFF Petfinder with your children close to Christmas when emotions are high if you are NOT SERIOUS about adopting a pet. This was my first error of the heart. That being said, from the moment I saw her face, I just felt like she needed our family. It was the day before Christmas Eve when I filled out an application to adopt her. Just a few hours later I found out she was pending adoption with another family. After having a good cry about it, my 9 year old convinced me that, "if it was meant to be, it would be." The next morning I received another text from the rescue, "the couple who was scheduled to adopt Blondie decided not to after meeting her." This is when I first found out about her struggle. "She has not been socialized properly and they were afraid she may never grow out of her 'stranger danger'" is what the first family said. "She'll need someone willing to be patient enough to show her how to be a dog."
Now, I will not pretend that patient is my middle name. With 3 kids, a career, a big house and a husband, my patience is stretched more often than not. I knew that if I was going to be willing to take on this dog, she wasn't the only one who was going to have to grow. Even though, something in me felt like we needed to go and meet her. Blondie was a stray from Texas. She was dumped at the beginning of a bike trail in Dallas with a bucket of water and a pile of dry food. After nearly 6 months of not being adopted, she was transferred to a rescue in Wisconsin almost 5 hours away from our home. My husband, the good man that he is, agreed to load up in the car the day after Christmas and go to meet her. The kids stayed with my parents because the foster family felt it would be too much having all 5 of us show up to meet her at once. Blondie is still learning that not every human is a scary a**hole who wants to hurt her. She uses her bark, which trust me, is more than warning enough to make anyone think twice about approaching. Having experience with her breed, a mix between a Rhodesian Ridgeback and German Shepard, Torrey and I felt like we knew enough about what we were getting into to at least go meet her. Our beloved dog of 14 years who had just passed 6 months prior was also a rescued Rhodesian Shepard. Cash came to us with all kinds of issues, but, in time we worked through all of them for him to become the best family dog. Blondie reminded us so much of Cash and that absolutely played into our decision to meet her. I'd be lying if I said it didn't.
On the trip down we stopped for a quick Jimmy John's sandwich. I took half the bacon off my BLT and folded it in my pocket. Everyone should know bacon is the way to any woman's heart... I was sure it would work for Blondie too. The directions to the foster's home took us through the middle of nowhere farm fields of WI. When we arrived the foster mom Abby met us at the door. We could hear Blondie barking and growling behind the door. When we first met her, she wanted nothing but for us to go away. They weren't kidding, this dog really was scared. I was shocked to see that she was actually 25% bigger than I had expected. Her shoulder standing almost 26'' high. This girl was a tall drink of water. I offered my hand with some bacon. She slowly approached, gently taking the treat and then quickly retreating back. We played this game for several minutes before she would allow me to pet her. Any quick movements and she scurried away barking and growling. Within 15 minutes she had settled enough to allow me to take her to the yard on a lead. I spent a minute watching her explore outside. It was obvious this girl was going to take a LOT of work, and to be honest, I initially wasn't 100% sure if I had what it would take. Torrey on the other hand had a good feeling about her right away. "This dog isn't agressive, she's just scared" Torrey noted. But that still didn't change the fact that she was going to take time to come around.
My husband and I agreed we would spend the night in the nearby town of Delafield and return in the morning to bring her home. We went to Petstop and dropped over $500 just to get the bare minimum of what we would need. She was crate trained and used to spending her nights there. We wanted to make the transition as smooth as possible. We bought the XXL crate, a bed, leash, collar, some treats and one big bag of food. The evening was spent discussing what it was that we were getting into. We game planed as much as possible and started to look up training resources in our area. I messaged TacoMo training in Marquette and got her scheduled for a private evaluation. That evening I was a ball of nerves. Excited, scared, hopeful, vacillating between joy and fear. This was a big decision and I definitely didn't take it lightly. When it came down to it, I felt like I had what it was going to take, but I had no doubt of just how hard it would be.
We returned the following morning to the foster's home. Blondie was all packed and ready to go. Her foster mom Abby was holding back tears. We went over the formalities of her adoption with the rescue. It really sunk in that we were actually adopting another dog! After goodbyes and a quick pic, we loaded up and headed off for the long trip home. Luckily Blondie loves car rides and had no apprehension about coming with us.
The first 3 days back at home were kind of a blur. It was so much of an adjustment for all of us. Blondie took a bit to warm up to the kids and periodically those first few days seemed to forget us and regress back into the state of fear, barking and growling only to snap back out of it when she remembered who we were. After the first week, she started to settle in and slowly show us more of her personality. She's definitely got a stubborn streak but she's also eager to please! This girl will do ANYTHING for a treat. Walks have been interesting. It was obvious she didn't have much experience walking on a leash in a busy neighborhood. Everything caused her to be reactive. We switched between a harness and a gentle leader until we found what worked best for her. She still is struggling with her reactiveness but starting to make progress. It's been hard not to feel overwhelmed at times. Will she ever overcome this fear? Is this destined to be my new life of never having guests over again? Always having to take the side streets to avoid her triggers?
We are now 3 weeks into our journey and have started implementing a professional training strategy.
Follow for part 2 later this week where I give you an update of how it's going!
xoxo- Michele and Blondie
Comments