Sometimes all you need is a little time…
Linda Lapp starting looking New Years Day for her new pooch. She said she checked every dog adoption, starting at Much Love’s adoption on Main Street. She thought to herself, “Maybe I should adopt a pit bull because they are not getting adopted.” So she kept viewing large breed dog after dog.
Before she knew it, 2 months had past and it was already Valentine’s Day. It was a Sunday, so she thought she’d give the Much Love adoption day another shot. She describes, “As I entered the lot this little dog started walking right up to me…He was so friendly and cute that I thought maybe I should get a small dog?!” She was looking around the adoption, trying to say hello to another dog, a large breed dog, when Lalo (now Eddie) walked over and sat right in her lap. She fell in love instantly. She filled out an application only to find out, (Oh no!) someone else was also interested in him. She was told hang tight you never know what will happen. She held her breath and hoped for the best. All that finger crossing paid off, she got a call that night! Much Love called and wanting to come by and do a home check. She said, “Yes! Let’s do it!” Her home check was approved and it was happily ever after…or was it?
Linda previously had another dog. The dog that had passed on recently. The other dog was a sheltie and had him since a baby. He was easily trained, no big deal, as she describes it…There were no problems. Eddie, however, was not the same dog reincarnated. He wasn’t totally house trained, he’d pull books of her book case and start chewing them. He found many items to chew: eye glasses, shoes, brushes, he didn’t discriminate. He’d chew everything! “He was so full of anxiety”, she describes. “He was very loving, but so full of issues!” “Literally, he would pee when you look at him, because he was so scared.
She admits to experiencing momentary thoughts of “what did I get myself into??” However, she reports, “whenever she looked in his eyes, she knew she’d never give up on him.” Finally she said enough is enough; it’s time for some training!
She decided that for his safety, from all the chewing she needed a crate. She knew about crate training and how helpful it could be. So she went to the store like a dutiful mother and found her new pooch a crate.
With the first crate, he bent the bars trying to get out like superman. Metal filings around the cage. The crating was difficult, because he was crying and looking at me with sad brown eyes but she stuck with it. Linda says, “For 6-9 months faithfully, I came home for lunch every day from work to let him out. He’d walk 3-4 times per day to get out all that nervous energy and I had to be very patient.” He eventually got trained to not chew on certain pieces of furniture. She laughs while she says “Thankfully the furniture was not new and I wasn’t emotionally attached! Every month it would get better!” She was very pleased with the results!
Ultimately there came a day when Linda decided to spend more money, and got Eddie signed up for doggy day care. She felt he needed more socialization. She found a good place for small to med dogs…”It wasn’t huge, but it was supervised.” she reports…She started taking him a couple times a week…and that REALLY HELPED him progress. I started crating him less and less…after that there were no more accidents in the house.
“My advice to anyone adopting a dog is, “Give it some time. Let the dog have some time to adjust and develop a sense of trust. Also DON’T be afraid of crate training!”