It all started with the thought to do some good for a friend. A girlfriend of mine recently decided to foster a little yorkie but has never owned a dog in her life and was starting to have some problems. The dog had started to bite her and her family and also basically anyone who went to touch him and she didn't know what to do. As a dog lover and an avid fan/student of Cesar Milan's I wanted to help. I figured she was doing her part by giving a homeless dog a home, it was up to me to help her with how to provide a happy home for the dog.
You'd think this is the face of an angel? Sweet little yorkie can do no wrong. Right? Um, no. From what my friend had told me, Leo was found on the streets and it seems he's had no "formal" training in his life and has just been able to run wild and take over whatever he wants. Well, I show up and basically tell him that things are going to change. After 40 minutes of trying to get the dog to submit to me I finally am able to get the leash on him. The whole time I have to control my emotions and stay calm while this dog is trying to attack my feet, the broom I am holding and whatever else he can get his teeth on him. Needless to say I was emotionally spent but had only just begun. One good thing is that Leo is wonderful on a leash and is taken on walks daily by the family which is the best thing they were doing for him so when we went out for a quick walk to re-balance ourselves I didn't have to fight him or show him how to walk properly because they were already doing it all correctly. Yay!
Getting back into the house we decided the first thing to work on was his biting. (Oh joy!) I went to sit on the couch and brought Leo with me and let the fun begin. Once again, he did not want to submit and knew that he had all this power by being able to bite and snap at people, but I was determined not to let him win. Needless to say, after several frustration fits that made it sound like he was being murdered, laying him down to submit and several small bites to my left hand, he finally began to calm down and realize I wasn't there to kill him. The poor pup had even peed and pooped himself because he had so much pent up frustration and just released everything he had on me, but we had success! This whole time my wonderful husband was with me and he knew exactly what I was doing so he could talk to the family and let them know what was going on, what I'm trying to accomplish and answer their questions leaving me to purely focus on the dog, and trust me, I needed it. After the fit-o-rama that Leo put on, their next big request was to get him to go into his crate because that's where they want him to sleep at night. Phew... no problem! It took a bit to show Leo what I wanted and for him to trust me enough to move forward, but in the end it was only about 30-40 seconds of me giving him a gentle tug of the leash into the crate until he moved forward, then he was in with no problem. We did it several times with the mom, kids and me and each time was easier and easier, just like I knew it was going to be. There were a couple other small issues and lots of questions, but by the end of the evening, Leo was going into his crate all by himself and the family was very grateful to have had us come over. Myself; I was emotionally exhausted from staying calm with a temper tantrum dog biting my hand over and over again and also fairly proud of myself for what I had accomplished. I had never done anything like this before, but kept my head and knew I was doing what was right for the dog and the family.
That was Friday, this is Saturday or Day of the Dead as I call it. All started well with thoughts of going to the farmer's market for whatever goodies we could find, a quick stop at the grocery store was all that stood in our way. We stopped at the store for the much needed cat food, got our cash for the market and were back in the car when... click, click, click... dead battery. CRAP! How could it be dead? We've had no problems!?! So I go to call roadside assistance and notice 1 bar left on my phone. Double crap! Well, here's to hoping that the battery will hold for my rescue call, which it did, then once I received the confirmation text, it went ahead and died it's battery death. There we sat with 2 dead batteries and waiting for a jump. Luckily there was shade and it was a pleasant morning, so other than being pissed that this was happening and frustrated that I hadn't charged my phone, all was well. Except... husband decides to play music from his phone to make the time go faster and his phone which has been having issues lately decides to lock up and we can't get it to turn back on. WTH??? Well, within the described time the guy shows up to jump our car and I guess our battery was extra dead because he had to use his car plus the portable jump compressor. Just as he is driving away and we are going to pull out, the car dies again! TRIPLE CRAP!!!
There we sat, no car battery, no cell phone and no idea what we were going to do. Luckily the kind people at the bank inside the grocery store were wonderful enough to let me use their phone to call, once again, for a jump, which turned into a tow. After more frustration and waiting and not knowing what we're going to do with this stinking car because now we don't know if it's the battery or the alternator, hoping for the best, preparing for the worst, the tow truck shows up to take us home. At this point all we want to do is go back to bed and start the day over, but we know there are problems that need fixing and batteries that need to be attended to so we got to work. Husband got his tools and dealt with the car battery while I put my phone on the charger and went on the hunt for my old phone to transfer to the husband. Much later with more frustrations and hard work we both finished. A day that started around 10:30am with a "quick trip to the store" ended at 4pm exhausted and all we had to show for it was a bag of catfood and a lighter wallet. We were glad we survived however husband did say "no good deed goes unpunished." Meaning the good we did the night before helping a friend in need was punished with what we went through that day. I'm not sure if I agree, but it certainly had great timing if it's true.
Luckily, Sunday was capped off with an evening of fun having Mark, Selina and their boys over for pizza and a movie. Laughter and fun was all we had to deal with and we survived that with flying colors!
You'd think this is the face of an angel? Sweet little yorkie can do no wrong. Right? Um, no. From what my friend had told me, Leo was found on the streets and it seems he's had no "formal" training in his life and has just been able to run wild and take over whatever he wants. Well, I show up and basically tell him that things are going to change. After 40 minutes of trying to get the dog to submit to me I finally am able to get the leash on him. The whole time I have to control my emotions and stay calm while this dog is trying to attack my feet, the broom I am holding and whatever else he can get his teeth on him. Needless to say I was emotionally spent but had only just begun. One good thing is that Leo is wonderful on a leash and is taken on walks daily by the family which is the best thing they were doing for him so when we went out for a quick walk to re-balance ourselves I didn't have to fight him or show him how to walk properly because they were already doing it all correctly. Yay!
Getting back into the house we decided the first thing to work on was his biting. (Oh joy!) I went to sit on the couch and brought Leo with me and let the fun begin. Once again, he did not want to submit and knew that he had all this power by being able to bite and snap at people, but I was determined not to let him win. Needless to say, after several frustration fits that made it sound like he was being murdered, laying him down to submit and several small bites to my left hand, he finally began to calm down and realize I wasn't there to kill him. The poor pup had even peed and pooped himself because he had so much pent up frustration and just released everything he had on me, but we had success! This whole time my wonderful husband was with me and he knew exactly what I was doing so he could talk to the family and let them know what was going on, what I'm trying to accomplish and answer their questions leaving me to purely focus on the dog, and trust me, I needed it. After the fit-o-rama that Leo put on, their next big request was to get him to go into his crate because that's where they want him to sleep at night. Phew... no problem! It took a bit to show Leo what I wanted and for him to trust me enough to move forward, but in the end it was only about 30-40 seconds of me giving him a gentle tug of the leash into the crate until he moved forward, then he was in with no problem. We did it several times with the mom, kids and me and each time was easier and easier, just like I knew it was going to be. There were a couple other small issues and lots of questions, but by the end of the evening, Leo was going into his crate all by himself and the family was very grateful to have had us come over. Myself; I was emotionally exhausted from staying calm with a temper tantrum dog biting my hand over and over again and also fairly proud of myself for what I had accomplished. I had never done anything like this before, but kept my head and knew I was doing what was right for the dog and the family.
That was Friday, this is Saturday or Day of the Dead as I call it. All started well with thoughts of going to the farmer's market for whatever goodies we could find, a quick stop at the grocery store was all that stood in our way. We stopped at the store for the much needed cat food, got our cash for the market and were back in the car when... click, click, click... dead battery. CRAP! How could it be dead? We've had no problems!?! So I go to call roadside assistance and notice 1 bar left on my phone. Double crap! Well, here's to hoping that the battery will hold for my rescue call, which it did, then once I received the confirmation text, it went ahead and died it's battery death. There we sat with 2 dead batteries and waiting for a jump. Luckily there was shade and it was a pleasant morning, so other than being pissed that this was happening and frustrated that I hadn't charged my phone, all was well. Except... husband decides to play music from his phone to make the time go faster and his phone which has been having issues lately decides to lock up and we can't get it to turn back on. WTH??? Well, within the described time the guy shows up to jump our car and I guess our battery was extra dead because he had to use his car plus the portable jump compressor. Just as he is driving away and we are going to pull out, the car dies again! TRIPLE CRAP!!!
There we sat, no car battery, no cell phone and no idea what we were going to do. Luckily the kind people at the bank inside the grocery store were wonderful enough to let me use their phone to call, once again, for a jump, which turned into a tow. After more frustration and waiting and not knowing what we're going to do with this stinking car because now we don't know if it's the battery or the alternator, hoping for the best, preparing for the worst, the tow truck shows up to take us home. At this point all we want to do is go back to bed and start the day over, but we know there are problems that need fixing and batteries that need to be attended to so we got to work. Husband got his tools and dealt with the car battery while I put my phone on the charger and went on the hunt for my old phone to transfer to the husband. Much later with more frustrations and hard work we both finished. A day that started around 10:30am with a "quick trip to the store" ended at 4pm exhausted and all we had to show for it was a bag of catfood and a lighter wallet. We were glad we survived however husband did say "no good deed goes unpunished." Meaning the good we did the night before helping a friend in need was punished with what we went through that day. I'm not sure if I agree, but it certainly had great timing if it's true.
Luckily, Sunday was capped off with an evening of fun having Mark, Selina and their boys over for pizza and a movie. Laughter and fun was all we had to deal with and we survived that with flying colors!
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