![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
What led you to the dog world?
Feb. 19th, 2009 03:51 pmIdea from http://derbygoesfast.livejournal.com/
My family and I were really always "cat" people. For the first couple years of my life, we had an old, sweet Sheltie named Shelby, who I remember only vaguely. She was 18 when she died, and was truly just a pet. On the other hand, we had three cats and, later on, I got fancy rats (and still own rats today). Even then I enjoyed training. I tried to train my rats and cats all the time. One of my cats got as far as learning to come, sit, lay down and high five.
Of course like every other kid in the world my brother and I wanted a dog. When we moved spring of 2001, my mom soon got on board with the idea. We had our sights set on adopted a retired racing greyhound. Pretty much every waking moment of my life then was thinking about or researching these dogs. I was really enamored with the idea of owning one.
Unfortunately, my dad thought they were too big, and vetoed the idea. Instead, we ended up adopting Maggie a beagle, basset hound mix from the Shamrock foundation (they also adopt out retired racing greyhounds which is how we came across her). Maggie was found under a dumpster at a recycling center. She was incredibly shy and scared all the time, and enjoyed nothing more than to just lay around the house. She was happy, I was happy, we were just a happy little family. We weren't looking for another dog. But we found one anyway.
I don't have any idea why, but my mom and I were at the pet store one day and this little terrier "Sheeba" immediately caught our eye. Yeah, she was damn cute alright, and I guess that's what we were ultimately sold on. She came out of the crate, wagging her tail happily, and played with another dog up for adoption oh-so-nicely. Later that night she hopped eagerly in the car and rode home with us. Sheeba is an atrocious name, so we decided on Maxie.
She had just come into the shelter and hadn't been evaluated yet. Lucky, lucky her, since she would have been euthanized immediately. Our happy nice little dog turned into Cujo when we brought her home; resource guarding everything in sight, snapping at people, man we had gotten ourselves into something. We aren't and never were the kind of people to give up on something because it didn't turn out how we thought. Other than this, Maxie was an awesome, smart little dog. But we knew that we needed help or our little problem would become a giant one. My mom called every training center in town and explained our situation. She said we had an aggressive dog, and that a nine year old girl would be working with her. Every place we called denied us but one. We enrolled in obedience classes immediately, me as the handler.
It funny how a certain set of events can change the course of your life. I often wonder how different things would be now if we HAD gotten a greyhound. We wouldn't have gotten Maxie I bet, and so never would have had a reason to take classes. And what if I had gone to another training center? So much of who I am and what I do with my dogs I owe to the amazing people there. At nine years old, they really took me under their wing and helped me along. I have been at the same place with the same people for seven years of my life, and I can't imagine training with anyone else.
Needless to say, Maxie flourished in obedience class. We didn't address her aggression problem directly, but the outlet for her mental and physical energy really helped her and the issues were greatly reduced. Along our journey we also discovered agility, and I've never turned back from there.
The option of competition was never really brought to our attention. AKC is the only venue for hundreds of miles around, and Maxie is no where near a purebred. For years we took obedience and agility purely for fun and without a care in the world. Maxie is nine now, and still just as amazing (and growly) and when we brought her home. She's still only been to two competitions; a UKC obedience trial (she needs one more CD leg!) and a USDAA trial last spring. When things come about we will probably compete again, but it's always just for fun with her.
Man, that was a really long post, good for you if you got through even half of it. So, what is everyone else's story?
My family and I were really always "cat" people. For the first couple years of my life, we had an old, sweet Sheltie named Shelby, who I remember only vaguely. She was 18 when she died, and was truly just a pet. On the other hand, we had three cats and, later on, I got fancy rats (and still own rats today). Even then I enjoyed training. I tried to train my rats and cats all the time. One of my cats got as far as learning to come, sit, lay down and high five.
Of course like every other kid in the world my brother and I wanted a dog. When we moved spring of 2001, my mom soon got on board with the idea. We had our sights set on adopted a retired racing greyhound. Pretty much every waking moment of my life then was thinking about or researching these dogs. I was really enamored with the idea of owning one.
Unfortunately, my dad thought they were too big, and vetoed the idea. Instead, we ended up adopting Maggie a beagle, basset hound mix from the Shamrock foundation (they also adopt out retired racing greyhounds which is how we came across her). Maggie was found under a dumpster at a recycling center. She was incredibly shy and scared all the time, and enjoyed nothing more than to just lay around the house. She was happy, I was happy, we were just a happy little family. We weren't looking for another dog. But we found one anyway.
I don't have any idea why, but my mom and I were at the pet store one day and this little terrier "Sheeba" immediately caught our eye. Yeah, she was damn cute alright, and I guess that's what we were ultimately sold on. She came out of the crate, wagging her tail happily, and played with another dog up for adoption oh-so-nicely. Later that night she hopped eagerly in the car and rode home with us. Sheeba is an atrocious name, so we decided on Maxie.
She had just come into the shelter and hadn't been evaluated yet. Lucky, lucky her, since she would have been euthanized immediately. Our happy nice little dog turned into Cujo when we brought her home; resource guarding everything in sight, snapping at people, man we had gotten ourselves into something. We aren't and never were the kind of people to give up on something because it didn't turn out how we thought. Other than this, Maxie was an awesome, smart little dog. But we knew that we needed help or our little problem would become a giant one. My mom called every training center in town and explained our situation. She said we had an aggressive dog, and that a nine year old girl would be working with her. Every place we called denied us but one. We enrolled in obedience classes immediately, me as the handler.
It funny how a certain set of events can change the course of your life. I often wonder how different things would be now if we HAD gotten a greyhound. We wouldn't have gotten Maxie I bet, and so never would have had a reason to take classes. And what if I had gone to another training center? So much of who I am and what I do with my dogs I owe to the amazing people there. At nine years old, they really took me under their wing and helped me along. I have been at the same place with the same people for seven years of my life, and I can't imagine training with anyone else.
Needless to say, Maxie flourished in obedience class. We didn't address her aggression problem directly, but the outlet for her mental and physical energy really helped her and the issues were greatly reduced. Along our journey we also discovered agility, and I've never turned back from there.
The option of competition was never really brought to our attention. AKC is the only venue for hundreds of miles around, and Maxie is no where near a purebred. For years we took obedience and agility purely for fun and without a care in the world. Maxie is nine now, and still just as amazing (and growly) and when we brought her home. She's still only been to two competitions; a UKC obedience trial (she needs one more CD leg!) and a USDAA trial last spring. When things come about we will probably compete again, but it's always just for fun with her.
Man, that was a really long post, good for you if you got through even half of it. So, what is everyone else's story?