So, you want to adopt a dog?
Are you committed to making it work?
Some of our updates might give the illusion that it's easy to just adopt your new pet. They will move in with you and ye will all live happily ever after but this is rarely the case.
All our dogs struggle to some degree when they are adopted. Remember their world is already upside down and now they have more changes to deal with. Most do settle in fairly quickly with a little patience and a few tweaks here and there.
However, some really struggle and that is where we need their new owner to be understanding, compassionate, patient and kind. Above all, we ask you to please don't give up on them without giving it your best effort, your 110% effort. We would also like to point out that there are lots of good reputable Dog Behaviourists out there who really do help in situations like this.
This is an honest and unedited summary from Janine and her husband who recently adopted Shasta from us, we would like to thank them for taking the time to write this for us but more importantly for not giving up on Shasta. Thank you.
"The Shasta struggles. My husband and I are proud husky parents of a 6 year old laid back boy Tizer. We had another husky boy (Dave) who my husband had from a pup, who passed away last year. So for a while we thought let’s get another so Tizer has a companion again.
We explored and came across Shasta. We didn’t have a ton of info to go on other than she was an owner surrender and wasn’t currently at the centre. They got her to the rescue and we went to meet her.
Tizer paid no attention to her snarls, growls and jealous behaviour (he's the goodest boy). We went for a long walk together. Although we saw those issues we knew she needed a good home and we could give her unconditional love.
The drive home was just the start of the tireless dog we would have ahead of us. 3 hours in the car and she never once relaxed. Near home we picked up her brother and her dominance and jealousy began.
Upon arrival home she instantly took to the house as it was hers and he was not welcome. She was constantly pacing him, eyeballing him, blocking him, growling and snarling. She goes into fits if you give Tizer attention.
She had been here 4 days when the first big fight happened while I was making their food. They went at it and I was caught in the middle with no way out. I was bit 3 times with blood running down my leg. Did I mention she also has some food aggression happening as well
After the fight, I went into a full blown panic attack and wondered if we could handle her and was our love enough. There were moments we thought this isn’t going to work but neither one of us wanted to make the call to give up on her. She deserves love.
Several big fights later, lots of walks together, runs, water bottles all through the house to try to shock her and stop her behaviours we are slowly getting somewhere. She has trouble on the leash at times when passing other dogs that bark at her.
We realise that she is just not a confident girl and it’s not her fault. We keep trying and loving her. So now we are a little over a month in and there’s some wonderful things to be said for this challenging girl.
She sleeps well at night, we can leave her for short periods of time to go to the shop and she's perfectly fine not wrecking the house.
She's learned to use the doggy door. She has a great appetite and is gaining weight. She's going to doggy day care (school) once a week and learning to be nice to other dogs. She gives sweet cuddles. She's got tons of love in her with plenty to spare.
We recently trained her to get on the treadmill and now loves to run on the treadmill in addition to her outside walks and runs.
She’s learning to be around our cat as well without always chasing him. So our hands continue to be full with Shasta but it is getting better.
We are committed to her and feel in time the good will definitely out weigh the Shasta struggles. When we look past her issues, we see a typical husky. She's a total whack job with playtime always on her mind. She is also such a conversationalist never shuts up.
Our entire household has made major sacrifices for Shasta and we already see small glimpses of her becoming a confident girl. We will get there. We love her and it’s not easy but she deserves us to not give up on her.
My husband always tells anyone looking for advice on getting a husky, "don't get one if you're not going to change your life for it." That is so true. Huskies aren't a fashion accessory. They're much more than that, and they need a lot of work ".