What we have for you today is a special treat that we're really excited about!
We have a dear dear family that we've come to know and love through Instagram (No big surprise there is it?). We are going to take you on the journey of one of their dogs over the next couple of weeks.
So let's dive right in and meet Tucker.
The following was written by Diane (Tucker's girl human):
TUCKER’S JOURNEY
THE BEGINNING
I remember the day we brought Tucker home like it was
yesterday!
My husband and I went to the Mall to do some
shopping. I needed to go to the pet
store to buy doggie toothpaste. While I
was paying for my items, my hubby, Lee, walked up behind me with a rather large
4 month old puppy and said “I just bought him”.
On the way home, Lee asked me if I was mad at him? Of course, I wasn’t mad but I was thinking to
myself “Great! Now I have a sick dog,
Casey, and Sophie, Peppy and a 4 month old rambunctious puppy, Tucker.
During
this time Casey was very sick with Pancreatitis. Our Vet at the time did not
give us very good odds if he would survive. I think this is the reason Lee
bought this puppy. He thought a puppy
would distract me, if in fact we lost Casey. Within a few weeks Casey recovered and we
became a family of six.
Tucker was a very high energy dog and due to the weather
in Mass. (where we lived at the time) I decided to see if I could train him to
walk on the treadmill. I got his leash
and we went to the basement to see if this would work. I was praying this would help with his
anxiety issues. Every morning we went to
the basement to walk on the treadmill. I
turned on the TV and sat with him while he walked on the treadmill. It turned out that he loved it! And it turned out he loved watching TV. This was a win win situation!
One morning Tucker was walking on the treadmill and
everything seemed to be going well. When
all of a sudden Tucker moved all the back to the end of the treadmill and
decided to take a poo. At the moment I
think I was in shock and at the same time it was really funny. I immediately started training him so that he
could jump off and on the treadmill and go outside to do his business. On future treadmill walks he would jump off
and on the treadmill. Sometimes just for
fun and other times he just had to take care of business.
Tucker waited by the basement door every morning to walk
on the treadmill. As a puppy he walked
with Peppy but quickly outpaced him.
I walked with Tucker on the
treadmill at a slower pace but he always stayed with me. As Tucker got older he could go faster for
longer periods of time but he always wanted me to be with him.
EXERCISE AND TRAINING
I’m not sure when I
discovered or decided that Tucker was “Fear Aggressive” but I needed to help
him and myself because I was afraid to take him anywhere. He was out of control with barking, bearing
his teeth, jumping and it became a huge ordeal to take him anywhere. At the time I felt I should rename him
“Cujo” because I was afraid he would bite someone.
I was very fortunate to meet
a wonderful dog trainer, Shari-Ann Morin Murphy, The Paws Training Group in
Mass. I met with Shari and explained our
issues and just started crying because I knew Tucker could be a great dog but
his fear aggression was holding him back.
Time for Tucker to attend
Shari’s training classes. Tucker spent a
lot of time in training classes and in the “time out room” due to barking and
behavior issues. The “time out room” was
a quiet office where he was placed so he could calm down and stop barking. Going to the training classes with Shari gave
us both what we needed. Tucker became a
better behaved dog, we reached our goal and she used Tucker in some of her
Puppy training classes. However, he
still liked to bark! We never quite got
the command “Quiet” under control. But I
learned so much about Tucker and myself.
I had an awesome loving boy!
