A Dog’s Rehoming Story

Listen, dogs are a lot of work! They require time, effort, money, resources, education about your dog’s breed, characteristics and maintenance. Lately I had a client who was in her late 60’s got a dog that looks like an Eskimo dog or some similar breed, maybe even some border collie, who knows?! She got him at about 6 weeks old and at 4 months she called me frantic that he wasn’t listening, barking constantly, pottying in the house even after taking him out, and just being severely rambunctious. I took him in for a 2-week board and train session. She wasn’t kidding by no means; this dog was highly spirited and a full-blooded unneutered boy. He barked like crazy and was definitely a hardheaded one. After one week, he began progressing and by the end of week 2, he was a different boy. After all Board & Training sessions, I always do a 3 hour in home session with the dog parents. When I walked in with her boy and he laid down on the floor, she said she thought I had returned a different dog to her! Awesome, right? Well, yes it was awesome for a while at least. I continued to mentor her for that period of time after the drop off and each time I would offer encouragement reminding her to continue following the Dog Calming Code. She assured me she was, “doing her best.” After a couple of months, I received a call from her that she could no longer keep the dog, that he was just too much for her and had begun pottying in the house again, barking constantly along with all the other issues I had worked out through the B&T. She was taking him to the local shelter in which I advised against due to the overcrowding in those facilities not to mention he would do a completely 180 degrees turn from the training and lose everything. Well, I accepted responsibility to find him a home. Unfortunately, that did not happen and guess what? Yep, he came home with me in hopes to find him a new home. The first two weeks were pretty rough because he was back to his old ways of “ruling the roost,” if you will. Now, I would like to point out this is a very different situation than most. This lady just turned 70, her 89-year-old husband had a stroke, and she was dealing with family issues as well, so having a young rambunctious male dog under foot was not optimal for her. That was in March, and we are now in June. I have attempted throughout these few months to find him a home, but everyone wants a small dog or a sweet cute little puppy. Now the good news is, after a couple of weeks back in training and working that magical “Dog Calming Code” on this boy, he was back to being a sweet, calm, loving and obedient dog without any issue. I just got a call last night from someone who wants him, so I am ecstatic yet a little sad because I really and truly would love for him to stay because he is such a wonderful boy, but there-again, you have to take into account your own life’s situation; and for me, that isn’t to have 3 dogs in my care at all time, especially with me taking in boarders all the time. The moral of this entire story is to say that when you get a dog, make sure you train it right from the moment you pick that dog up for its journey home until the day it dies! It is truly that simple. If you have questions about the Dog Calming Code, send me a message and I’ll be glad to chat with you about it! cherisdogtraining@gmail.com