It's raining outside and as usual, Conker followed me into the garage. He didn't go outside though, because it's not lightly raining, it's actually raining, and he doesn't go out in actual rain.
Anyways, this is what I found.
The date stamp on the picture means I was eleven years old. I had gotten Jake 17 days before the picture was taken on my birthday. I had Jake for exactly two years and one day. He was a great dog, very smart, but developed food aggression towards my siblings and eventually began to bite with no provocation. He gave my brother a scar, and pinned my youngest sibling to the ground when they walked by a bone that was nearby him. We were not a dog savvy family and didn't know how to handle this and couldn't afford a trainer, so we had to give him up. I do not like talking about what happened with Jake in person.
I'm now twenty two years old and again have a dog with food aggression. But it is not directed at people, it's only towards other dogs. I now know how to work with this aggression aimed at dogs, and people, and wish we could have handled Jake's situation differently. If we had, I would probably still have him today, but I don't.
I do still have the tag Jake is wearing in this picture, it's sitting on my desk right now. I play with it all the time and sometimes carry it around with me.
I never really knew why I kept it, but now I use it as a reminder to always give my best and never give up on a dog.
I'll always have a deep respect for my mom, because even though she gave up a dog when I was born because it bit my foot (as a toddler, crawling over its toy)she was always remorseful. I understand why parents do that though, I really do. I can't imagine what its like to watch your child in danger.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in the 5th grade our neighbor's gave us their one year old rat terrier who was guarding its food from their new baby - I think my mom was trying to make amends for what happened to Pepsi. Honey was the best dog ever, even though she did guard her food, my mom taught us to never ever bother a dog thats eating.
I think that helped me realize that even if a dog has an issue like that, you can always work with it. I try so hard to be creative to problem solve and work with them.
My foster now, Kiba, has pretty intense food guarding tendencies towards dogs and people. He's willing to work with me though and I love learning from him.