Owning a Rescue Dog

Today is a great day to get this published because it is our dog’s third birthday/first ‘gotcha’ day!

So let’s start with some background information. Vince (my boyfriend and I) had been flirting with the idea of getting a dog. As you know, we are long distance, so it would be a bit more of ‘his’ dog than mine, but we split the costs and give him just as much love as a couple that live together would. We had frequently visited humane societies before even thinking about the idea of a dog. We mostly would go to get some stress relief in. We started visiting a humane society in LaCrosse, Wi, Coulee Region Humane Society. They always had 3 or more dogs at a time, mostly pitbulls. Beyond the societal view of pitbulls, there were so many that were loving and gentle. We had fallen in love with this 2 year old pitbull named Phoenix. She was a golden tan color and absolutely loved us. When we inquired with Vince’s landlord, that unfortunately wasn’t going to work out, because of her breed. We were pretty bummed and honestly stopped searching for a dog. Then, one week when I wasn’t visiting Vince, he told me about a dog he met at the humane society and how cute he was. He was a 1(ish) year old cattle dog mix.  I didn’t think much of it until one Monday Vince told me he would be bringing this dog home. Wow!!! 

So, when we first got Brumby, there were a lot of unknowns. He had been found as a stray in Sioux County, Wi. He was very underweight and very shy. He had just been neutered and his stitches kept ripping open because he had been eating away at them. We tried everything with him- cones, pool noodles around his neck to keep it from moving, hot and cold compresses and even medication. The only thing that really healed him was time. He had finally healed up and was showing his true sides. He was energetic, silly and cuddly. Brumby finally started gaining weight and was becoming a full grown 70 pound dog!

Our next task was to find out what kind of dog Brumby was. The humane society took a guess, but by looking at him, it’s hard to tell what breed he is. One day, when we were at the dog park, a woman mentioned to us that he looked a lot like a Catahoula Leopard Dog. Vince nor I had never heard of such a thing. After a few months of research, we came to the conclusion that Brumby was more than likely a Catahoula and Blue Heeler mix. We also didn’t know for sure how old he was, but we guessed somewhere between 1 and 2, so we just celebrated his ‘third’ birthday!

While Brumby is lovable and so much fun, he has also been quite the struggle. Brumby started to show signs of separation anxiety early on. Whenever Vince and I would leave, he would eat up Vince’s bed sheets or even cry all day when we were gone. That quickly subsided and we didn’t have to kennel him!! (yay us!) But one problem leads to another; Brumby started being a bit ‘mouthy’, so to say, to other dogs. He would bark at other dogs pretty vigorously and lunge at them when we were walking near other dogs. He even got to be a bit aggressive towards taller people, especially men. He also started to lunge at trucks or bigger cars while in the car. We didn’t know what was causing all of this. We tried taking him to training courses through the humane society, practicing with research of our own and even asking friends and family for help. After a long journey, we finally resorted to asking his vet. His vet had mentioned that he may be very anxious all the time, which could cause him to be the way he was. She recommended anti-anxiety medication in which he takes daily. To be completely honest, I was very worried about starting our dog on medication. Vince and I had many conversations about it and how we know what the downsides could be. We finally came to the conclusion of at least trying it out and let me tell you, it was the best decision we could have made for his situation. Brumby became a bit more calm and much more mutual to adults. Now, he’s still not perfect. He does have his days of jumping at people or cars or barking at passing dogs. We still treat him often as a distraction and work on his skills daily. 

After a few training courses, plenty of practice at home and experience, Brumby is becoming a well behaved puppy. He does not ever (knock on wood) have accidents at home and is much more mellow with other dogs. Owning a rescue dog has really opened my eyes to how difficult it can be to train a dog from the beginning. Brumby has been such a struggle at times and has even caused stress on both Vince and I. But, at the end of the day, We love him so much and we are so grateful to be able to raise him to be our own dog! He’s always a puppy in my eyes.