Pets

At vet tech school. Every semester brought a new batch of animals from a dealer to train on. On the plus side, at the end of the semester, they always got adopted; sometimes from by the vet techs and sometimes by students from the other programs. By that time, they were spayed/neutered, had any other necessary medical work done and were fully vaccinated.

Anyway, I started to work with one dog per semester. My background was having adopted a neglected chow chow and having worked with her. (I give her all credit for working harder than I did - I asked for the moon, but I didn't actually expect it. She was amazing.)

It started with an adult puppy mill Shih Tzu who was terrified of all males. Naturally, the senior student assigned to be responsible for her was built like a linebacker. Assignments were by a drawing, and there were no trades. He was the gentlest of souls, but she nearly had cardiac arrest any time he came near her. He felt terrible for her and spared her as much as possible while keeping up his responsibilities. As far as we could tell, she was too scared to sleep much in the kennel. She wouldn't eliminate outside on leash because she was too nervous being that close to strange people. So she and I just hung out together when I had an hour to study, and she got some time to run around, sniff, pee and poop on the floor (which I cleaned up without any scolding) and slept soundly on my folded-up parka on top of a lab table. My arms wrapped around the coat to keep her from falling and I held the book beyond her. Out like a light; she didn't even wake when I turned the pages. However, if anybody came into the room, she woke instantly. One of the teachers adopted her and she had a good life after that.

So every semester after that, I started getting suggestions about which dog to work with. Eventually, there was Tyrus. The school pretended as hard as it could that Tyrus was an elkhound cross. Otherwise, it would have been illegal to treat him in any way; no vaccinations, no nothing. But all you had to do was look at the yellow eyes, the long nose, the really long toes...Yep. Wolf cross.

He was nice and affectionate, but boy, was he dominant. We did mostly basic obedience training, just to get him to learn to listen, and followed it up with playtime. Tuesday through Friday, he was a champ. After a weekend off, Monday always started with him testing to make sure the rules were still in place. He was the kind of dog who'd never stop checking to see if he could move up another notch. I was worried about who would adopt him.

One Monday I was working with Tyrus, asking him to heel instead of charging ahead. Instead, he fell behind a little and started nipping at my butt. Lightly, but unmistakably telling me where to go and possibly where to get off. I wheeled on him and snapped (verbally) "You can herd me the day I come in wearing fleece! Now Heel!!!" I was unaware that a teacher was watching us until I heard them laughing. Teach was from another program, but knowledgeable about dogs and comfortable living with another strong personality; Tyrus went to live with him at semester's end.

This is not a dog to have around children. This is not a dog to have in a household where only one of several persons is able to handle it. This is a dog who is hard-wired to rise as far in the pack as caninely possible. They are not and never will be completely tame. Some people enjoy the personality and, more importantly, are willing to make sure they're living in the right environment to keep the dog and others safe. Socialization is a big deal to help Wolfie deal with repair people, girl scout cookie vendors and all kinds of other stimuli. But nobody can watch a dog 24/7 and it's only responsible to let them live in a safe and secure space so everybody can relax. Irresponsible owners just end up with euthanised dogs, and it's not the dog's fault.