And so why I didn’t carry this theory over into dog rescue, I don’t know. I guess when it comes to canines, I am ever hopeful. I don’t have expectations, but I certainly never give up hope. I truly believe it will all work out, I do, but I never should bank on things. And I did with Lulu.
(Could she possibly take up any more space on the bed?)
We had met a potential adopting family about a month ago out on our late night walks. They had rescued and rehabilitated a pit/border collie mix and was looking for a friend for her. However, since starting doggy daycare only a few weeks earlier, she had developed some bad leash habits.
I saw it happen. Lulu went to greet Evee, and she got overly excited, lunged forward, and her person tensed up, yanking her back, making her lunge harder and freak out. She just wanted to play. But her person wanted everyone to be safe, so he tightened her hold on her. He also stood over her, holding her between his legs. Lulu, nor I, could see Evee's tail to gage her emotions. It seemed more of a human needing training than a dog.
They were in the process of finding a trainer and wanted to wait until after they met for Lulu and Evee to really get to know one another. The first step of introducing dogs is to have them on leash, so if this couldn’t be done, we were dead in the water.
There was another option though: meet at daycare. Evee was fine with any dog from daycare that she met in the outside world. It was just new dogs that caused this reaction. So, to trick her, we wanted Lulu to go to daycare.
By the time we met again along the path and the daycare had agreed to do the introduction, I was leaving town. I said it could happen while I was away, but we all sort of dropped the ball. I guess we all banked on it, but didn’t put forth any forward momentum to getting the ball rolling.
When I returned, I had two weeks before leaving town again. I wanted Lulu in that home before then. The trainer that was helping Evee instructed her people to no longer take her out for walks. She was to be sequestered to the yard and house until she was 100% perfect (hmmm.. Sounds like what I was told with Missy.) And, on top of it, the training involved feeding Evee one piece of kibble for every good deed—and that was how she was to be fed ALL of her food in a day. Have I mentioned that she’s a 40 pound pit mix? Um, that’s a lot of good deeds, and a lot of time. It was crazy. Being super smart, Evee started doing bad things, just to correct herself so she could get a morsel of food.
At least the trainer re-affirmed what Evee’s people and I knew: that Evee wasn’t aggressive; she was frustrated by not being able to play on her leash and then confused by her human’s reaction to her frustration. It would take time to correct, but in the meantime, we set up Lulu going to daycare for an afternoon to meet Evee. The staff there even did the introduction. It went perfectly.
(This is what a dog looks like after 7 hours of doggy daycare.)
And so, Saturday, two days before I was supposed to leave, we were going to have Lulu and Evee meet at daycare again, hang out for a few hours, and then head back to Evee’s house where she would do an overnight. If all went well, a trial adoption would begin on Sunday. If not, Laurie, Lulu’s fabulous vacation foster mom, would be glad to take her while I was away.
I hadn’t been promoting Lulu anywhere as being adoptable. Honestly, I didn’t have the time, but also I was really banking on this working. But at 1pm on Saturday afternoon, Evee’s person called to tell me that she received a call from her trainer, and her trainer convinced her that having Lulu would be too daunting.
Now, of course I want to smack the shit out of a trainer who has never met my foster that has just destroyed an adoption. I get that it would be tough to train two dogs at once. But here’s the thing: she never met Lulu. A responsible trainer, in my opinion, would have said, “That might be a lot to handle. But why don’t we set a time for all of us to get together. Maybe Lulu will teach Evee.”
Instead, she claimed that both dogs had to be trained in the same manner (which wouldn’t work because Lulu isn’t treat-driven while Evee is—not that she knows this.) And therefore, Evee should be the only dog for a long long time.
I’m upset at the trainer. Not at Evee’s person. I know Evee’s person has lost her confidence. She had trained her previous dog herself. But she sought professional help this time, and got conflicting theories. She doesn’t know who to trust now, but she’s also not trusting her own instincts. So, she took the trainer’s advice.
I can’t say, “That wouldn’t be a good home for Lulu anyway.” It would have been an AWESOME HOME. Had the trainer not been involved, Lulu would be in that house right now.
But maybe it all does happen for a reason. As someone said to me just today, “There are no mistakes.” Indeed, every step takes us to where we are on the path now. And for Lulu that means at Laurie’s house, playing with Summer, running around a yard, and having fun. And it leaves me with my bags packed, a sudden change in my passenger list, and an adventure with no expectations or plans, just hope and preparation about to begin.
But before I leave, one last promotion for kooky Lulu. Please pass her link along. I was wrong about who her soulmate was. She is still available, and is looking for that special someone. I can only hope that all this time wasn’t wasted; maybe, just maybe, although she was ready to find her person, her person wasn’t ready for her… until now.
No comments:
Post a Comment