Today, Saturday, Charlie has been with us 7 days.  In that time, we’ve figure out a few things about him:

-He has separation anxiety, very common in dogs coming from shelters, and he is improving little by little.

-He loves food, therefore we are teaching him that when a person/dog approaches he has to ignore it.

-Toys, he took a pair of my socks as a toy, and I asked him to leave it.  He did.

-He doesn’t know how to walk properly, but he is improving.

Charlie is very smart and we are surprised at how fast he is adapting to our schedule, food, and way of life, but one thing is for sure, our boy has no manners and this is something we are working very hard on from day one.

If you are able to foster or adopt a shelter dog, please do so.  Understand that many of them will be a handful at the beginning-their caretakers do the best that they can, but a shelter/kennel environment will always be stressful for a dog-but if you are committed to his rehabilitation, you will have a dog that will be a pleasure to have in the future. 

Regardless of whether you adopt, foster, or buy a dog, it is paramount that you get your canine companion rehabilitated by making sure that he gets behavior and training under his belt.  With behavior being the one that takes more time to accomplish, but we’ll get there.

We have a long road to go with our Charlie, but he’s worth it.  Stay safe!