So... those of you who know us....know that we have recently acquired (slash, purposely purchased) a dog.
Being our first pet.....she has come with a lot of interesting experiences. Which, I suddenly realized are pretty blog worthy.
I thought it might be entertaining to write 'the whole' story......and maybe a few more- of our dog, Gabi. The German Short-haired pointer.
So here it goes.
Gabi is a rescue dog.
She was passed around to about three different homes and two different shelters before we got her. She was supposedly found starving somewhere in the forest when she was first picked up. and probably was attacked by a dog somewhere along the line.
The family who gave her to us, was really nice and had two young kids. One was 6 and the other was a 6th grader. So clearly, they
wre already busy people. They were trying to find a home of 'dog parents' who could
"spend more time with Gabi"
and
"give her the exercise she needs"
(two phrases we later found out, should be red flags)
and we thought,
"well sure! we don't have any kids and we like to exercise, right?"
So we got really excited about the possibilities......
We were going to go hiking, running, play fetch at the park, go swimming. The possibilities were endless. We were sold before we even met the dog.
So the day came when they brought our new dog over to the house.
She was fun. we played fetch.We liked her, needless to say (cause she's adorable).
The family also liked us. So they just dropped her off and said “let’s just see how she does tonight. And we’ll bring over her stuff in the morning”
After a couple signatures, a check to the rescue shelter and some good-byes, the dog was ours. No trial period here.
The next couple weeks proved to be very stressful. She, (to our naive surprise) had pretty severe separation anxiety. She destroyed our blinds when I went out to get the mail. We locked her in the garage for an hour and she tore all the rubber from from the bottom of the garage door. We put her in the backyard (even in a dog run in the backyard) and she continued to jump both 6 foot fences and dig a couple holes.
I’ll never forget my phone call to the previous owners. Hoping and praying that the woman who had also been interested in Gabi would still be interested in Gabi.
Turns out, she just got another dog. We were too late.
A month went by and Gabi calmed down a little. We started crating her when we left (so we knew nothing would be destroyed when we came home). But- her anxiety and energy levels were so high that she was never satisfied with the tons of exercise we gave her (leaving us exhausted after a day at school)
I'd take her for a 5 mile run... 5 minutes later she was whining and barking at the door. then we'd go and play ball in the yard.....five minutes later, the whole she-bang all over again.
ON TOP OF THIS, we introduced her to both our parents dogs and she bit them both by the neck (apparently she had some dog- dog issues as well...surprise!)
Oh and did I forget to mention, that amidst all this chaos and stress and 'seeming nightmare'
......we fell in love with our dog. She had enough glimpses of sweet and good heartedness that we truly believe we can work through it.
My mother in-law said,
“She really wants to be a good dog, she just doesn't know how.” It was as as true a statement as any. And we really wanted to believe it.
So we are trying everything possible to make it work before we consider the alternative (getting rid of her).
I'm pretty sure we'd be very depressed if it came to that.
We enrolled her in obedience classes with other dogs- so we could become the 'alpha dog' and so she could get socialized (which has been pretty successful).
We also (this a rare case) got her some doggie riddalin. She is pretty badly OCD about a lot of things and this medicine has been helping. We are still on a trial though. We don't want our dog to be 'medicated'- but we do need her to be happy and satisfied.
Here's the upside- we have a friend to take to the park.
We have a friend to sit on the couch with (did I say, the couch? oh....I meant the floor....)
I have a running partner.
And we have a new member of the family.
She is honestly the most cuddly, athletic dog out there. And she is showing improvement every day. Almost.
So there it is. Our dog. Gabi. The German short-haired pointer.
