Welcome to my first guest written post ever! This post is courtesy of Holly Jackson who runs the Cottage Copy blog. I was first introduced to Holly when she did a guest post on another blog and I’ve been a follower of hers ever since. If you need a professional copywriter to write  for you or to help you with marketing ideas, check her out. Book time with her now before she gets super famous and raises her prices

 
When I first met Didy, he looked awful. There wasn’t a cute thing about
him: I remember him standing on the lawn outside the shelter looking sick
and thin, while being aggressively standoffish. He was two years old, and
my friend who worked at the shelter told me that he had been really
difficult to handle. He couldn’t eat with all the noise, and he’d come in
with a history of abuse and wasn’t very friendly. I’m not sure, even now,
what possessed me to adopt him. I had a dog, a big friendly outgoing
puppy, and I didn’t really need another one. But something about him stood
out; in retrospect, maybe it was the fact that he had survived all that
and was still in one piece. He commanded respect, I suppose. That was the
day that Didy’s and my training really began.

 
The first night I brought him home, I did all the by the book things. I
bought him a nice crate, and introduced him to it slowly. Everything was
fine until I put him in it for the night. Once I’d closed the door, his
shelter induced crate fear kicked in, causing him to slam his body
headfirst into the side in a desperate attempt to escape. I couldn’t stand
to hear him, so I let him out and let him sleep with me. He hasn’t slept
in a crate since.

Adopting an older abused dog isn’t all of the fun of having a puppy.
Puppies in some senses are easy: you can mold them into the right kind of
dog for you. Didy already knew what kind of dog he was, and made it known
that the changes were only going to go so far. At some point, I would have
to change with him. I’d never seen pet raising as a partnership activity,
but suddenly it became one. I love the park, but Didy didn’t like the dog
park. We started compromising on long walks together instead, which seemed
to work for both of us. He gradually seemed to accept a relationship of
mutual control: he did exactly what I asked every time, as long as I
didn’t try and push his boundaries. I understood that perfectly; honestly,
on some levels I think I’m the same way.

I’ve had Didy for six months now, and at this point we’re functionally one
unit. I’m constantly teased about how attached we are to each other, but I
don’t really mind. The healing process for him has been gradual. He’s
amazingly attached to me, and I to him. He’s a big enough part of my life
that he’s even part of my new website design. The rest of it is still a
work in progress. I’ve learned to push him in small ways: a trip to the
farm store at off hours to learn to deal with strangers, or ten minutes at
the dog park to learn how to play well with other dogs. I volunteer with a
youth program, and I’ve even gotten him to the point where he can go and
play with the kids for an hour or so without having a meltdown. It isn’t
all better, of course. Taking a dog with a fear of bikes to the park in
the summer is difficult, and taking a dog with a fear of people anywhere
is even more so. The process has been incredible though. I’ve learned more
about understanding, listening, and patience in the last six month than in
most of my life, and I’m appreciating every bit.

Next time you go to the shelter, try looking for the difficult dog hiding
in the back. I can promise they’ll show you more love and loyalty than you
can ever imagine, and that you’ll end up loving them just as much back.

Holly Jackson is the owner of Cottage Copy, which she
runs with the help of her loyal dog secretary. She can be reached at holly
[at] cottagecopy.com.

Tags: Cottage Copy, Dog Adoption, Holly Jackson

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 18th, 2010 at 7:13 pm by Karen Friesecke and is filed under Guest Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.