You Never Forget Your First Shy Dog

Casper, my 2nd foster dog but my first shy dog. He came from Alabama frighten to death with a brother who died from Parvo. It was also my first Wheaton terrier/lab mix. I know people love the wheatons, but Casper was the ULTIMATE mix. He didn't have the awkward look of a wheaton, but looked like a lab with the cotton soft wheaton fur. I admit it....he was a great pillow once we got to the point of our relationship where he allowed us to cuddle.

Casper was an all white good size pup. My first interaction was going to a farm where he was at the time and trying to drag him by leash into my car on a wet rainy night. My first night with him consisted of him finding every crevasse and corner he could hide from the world.  Any attempt to grab him made him burrow in deeper like a hermit crab.

One special place he learned  to burrow was underneath my low to the ground Ikea bed which our Sheltie loved laying because he fit just right. Casper though, was a tight squeeze, more like he didn't fit at all, but he sure darn tried. Eventually I bought 4x4s and boarded up all four sides of the bedframe so he had nowhere to go. I also bought doggy gates and gated him into the rooms we were in at all times. He was not allowed to be in the bedroom if we were in the living room. He was gated with all other doors shut if I was cooking dinner in the kitchen. It was the only way I could teach him relevance and understanding he had nothing to be scared about and it was okay to be in all spaces because it was just as much his space as ours. He may have been in the corner of the living room, or under he kitchen table, but he was in the same space. It was a start.

Step 2: Now that he knew the apartment, and couldn't get under the bed and hide for the rest of his life, it was time for Phase 2. I dug him out of corners and made him sit on the floor by us, or the couch next to us. I cuddle and pet him so he learned loving affection. That the hand is not a weapon. 

Casper's first night under the book shelf in our living room

Step 3: Just love him to death after he realizes he never wants to leave your side. Eventually he was even off leash. He'd go potty in one spot in our yard and run right back to the door. The next thing you know he was jumping into bed trying to cuddle. It was so nice cuddling with Casper with his ultra soft fur in the middle of winter.

 

FUREVER HOME: Casper was adopted by a wonderful lady who had and loved Wheaton Terriers growing up but couldn't find it in her heart to buy from a breeder or pet store (bless her heart)!!! So she adopted from a rescue! I told her all the good and the bad and how she'd have to work with him slowly and she was more than ever patient and excited. Then Casper graduated obedience school and ran a farm alongside horses and always rode in mom's truck everywhere she went. 

Now being that this was my first. It was heartbreaking when mom reached out to tell me Casper had passed of old age but how absolutely wonderful he was.

You never forget your first and I tell ya, when he left that night he kept tugging on that leash looking back at me....I just kept telling him "it's okay. You're going to be so loved." I held it altogether until I got upstairs and I just broke into tears "he must think I am mad, I hope he understands how much I love him." 

And so began my journey into working with more behaviorally stunted pups who just wants a chance to discover love!!