This is not the dog which took raw, shattered, fragments of my heart away over the last year and a half; he's not the one I still feel on beautiful days, when a soft breeze makes me remember a gentle velvet nose tapping on my arm. He's not the "heart dog" I've said goodbye to that returns in my dreams, or the rescue who's exit from earth felt like losing half of my soul.
He is the challenge dog; the one sent to teach me how to be a better human, advocate, rescuer, and person. He is a dog who was badly abused, coming to live here at six months old, the one I painfully described as "already ruined" as we struggled to learn together; reactive, fearful and often in a rage. Without a brilliant and empathetic trainer who saw the 5 hours a day we put into behavior modification, small actions repeated a thousand times, exercise critical for his mental state, and friends who knew and understood the difficult road of an abused pit bull.....we wouldn't be here together.
If you have such a dog, please keep searching for that exceptional trainer to help you understand and work through the issues. Talk to your vet to see if medication is right for certain situations. Keep learning, practicing, loving, and providing strong, fair, consistent leadership, because second chance dogs don't ask to be treated likd shit; they simply end up the product of crappy humans who let them down. Keep going, because the day you get it right it will all be WORTH IT.
#secondchances #abuseddogs
#rescueddogsofinstagram
#pitbull #abusedanimals
#rehabilitation #trainingiseverything
#challengingdog #rescuedpit
#patiencewins #lovewins
#difficultdogs #secondchancedogs
#pitbullsarelove #stickwithit
#secondchances #abuseddogs
#rescueddogsofinstagram
#pitbull #abusedanimals
#rehabilitation #trainingiseverything
#challengingdog #rescuedpit
#patiencewins #lovewins
#difficultdogs #secondchancedogs
#pitbullsarelove #stickwithit
