The first 6 months of living with Tuck was quite a lesson in perseverance and patience for both he and I...but mostly for me. I didn't notice at the time but his piece of paper on his kennel didn't not say that he was housebroken. Initially, his sweet little face must have made me skim all of that information. I read it later when he was urinating on the side of the couch. I did know that he came from a questionable life somewhere in Ohio (and probably most Ohioans have a questionable life...I keed, I keed...as a Michigander, it is mandatory to always talk poorly about Ohio). He was probably in a kennel the whole time. He had no hair on his 'elbows' which indicated to the humane society people that he slept on hard surfaces. He was saved via PetSmart's Rescue Waggin' which moves animals from shelters that have low adoption rates (which means the animals are more liable to be put down) to ones with a higher adoption rates such as my nearby humane society.
All of this was mostly my fault, I think. Besides not reading the information, I was still working on the assumption he was Hooch, basically. I still feel really bad for the occasions he would do things like urinate on the couch (thankfully poop was always outside) or chewing on the remote control when he just didn't know and I was in another room and not watching him. I'm sure he has forgotten those times but I haven't and I wish I could redo them. Luckily, he and I stuck it out along with Big A who offered to return him back to the humane society if necessary. It was talked about a couple of times but I couldn't do that to him after seeing how much he hated it there and I did not want to give up.
It has been about a year now since his last 'episode'. I went back and did what I thought one would do with a puppy - if you go into another room, he comes with you. When you come home, take him right outside. We still do the latter. The former Tuck now does on his own as he follows me around. I'm not sure if I trust him inside someone else's home though. That would be another test.
On his 3rd birthday, I look back at how much he has learned, especially learning to play. At the beginning, he didn't seem to know what to do with a ball. Now he loves to play with a tennis ball, especially if the ball is low to the ground in a more soccer-type of play. He still loves his rawhide which I learned at the humane society when I had taken him out for a walk prior to adoption and he 'carpe diem'ed a rawhide laying in the grass. I've taking him to a beginning obediance class last winter where he finetuned his sitting and laying down. He HATED all of the fireworks last June and July and hated thunder but at least with thunder, he has settled down a bit. This June and July will be an interesting test as well. He is a really, really smart dog. Big A says he is way smarter than we are and I have to agree. I feel like I'm doing him a disservice if I don't do things like maybe the agility class the humane society offers every so often.
When I see how much he has grown since we adopted him, it almost offsets the guilt I feel for that initial few months. It has been fun to watch him bloom and knowing that I had a hand in it. I'm glad he still has that same sweet face that drew me in on that fateful day in 2013.
 |
| Someone is getting sleepy |
No comments:
Post a Comment