Dante's Story
In one minute your life can change forever.
In May of 2005 my life changed completely after walking into our local Animal
Shelter. We were there "just to look"- both of us knowing we were actually there to help ease the pain we both felt
after losing a dog to cancer a few months prior.
The
shelter serves all of our county and is always full. It is a kill-shelter as there are simply too many animals to place and
serves a high population of people who either do not believe in spaying or neutering or just don't have the inclination
or funds to do so. There are dogs, cats, rabbits, and an inexplicable number of livestock and poultry.
He was a painfully thin black and white husky. The shelter thought he was
two years old, but he seemed much younger. He was almost skeletal with his ribs visible under his black fur. The shelter employee
took us to a small fenced area so we could visit. He was quiet and seemed calm, ignoring the dogs being walked by.
"We'll take him" I said.
After arriving home, I took my new guy (still unnamed) and my two huskies,
Stoli and Mishka, and we all took a long walk together that first afternoon.
I brought home three very tired dogs and by then it was bed time. They all went to sleep in their own comfy crates.
The next morning I awoke to howls. What had happened to my sweet, quiet dog
during the night? This skinny husky exploded with furious barking the second
he saw Mishka and Stoli-the same dogs he had spent two hours walking calmly with the night before! Then things got worse-his
nose began to drip with a thick green mucous as he coughed in painful hacking spasms.
For the next two weeks I was not sure if he would live. He would not eat on his own, so I boiled chicken and rice
and fed him bits of both with my fingers and sips of broth with a teaspoon. I slept on the sofa, he on the floor next to me
so I could feed him his medicine during the night.
Little by little, he recovered.
Slowly, he had come to accept my two dogs, but when I walked him on leash, if there was a dog anywhere
in his line of sight he would begin to howl and bark, panting so hard his ribs heaved while rearing up and clawing at the
air. His pupils would dilate, causing his eyes to glow red as lowered himself to the ground, nails digging into the concrete
in a desperate attempt to drag me nearer to the dog as flecks of foam flew from his open mouth. Despite his rage I could
manage him- he was still weak from his illness- but I worried how I would handle him as he grew stronger!
Walks became a negotiation of space. I dreaded running into a leashed (unleashed was unthinkable) dog when going
around blind corners...and the reactions I received...people would pull their dog close to them or turn in the other direction
when they saw/heard us.
I consulted with three trainers-
all but one insisted I "show the dog that I was in charge" (how?). One suggested (rightly so!) that I was in over
my head and should just return him to the shelter. Over and over I was advised that he was being 'dominant' and 'stubborn'
and only when I showed him that I "the pack leader" would my problems be over.
This just felt wrong to me, although I did try... I tried the leash pops,
the choke chain, and attempted to muster up buckets of "calm assertive energy". With the exception of the new age-y
sounding "calm assertive energy", which I was never able to quite define, these methods had one thing in common-they made his behavior worse.
Maybe
it is because I have a son who is autistic that I know that conventional wisdom is often wrong. So, on my own, I began seeking
alternative methods to help my dog.
