You always hear about people saving dogs from horrible environments. There are some horrific stories of dogs being kept in a cage all their lives as breeding dogs in Puppy Mills, or dogs in hoarding situations chained outside and never allowed to roam free or sleep on a comfortable bed indoors.
This was not the plight of Hunter, now renamed and re-homed as Lucky. He really didn’t have it too bad; he spent his first year about 8 miles from my home in a lovely suburban area. Lucky was just a pain in the ass, as most labrador puppies can be. Lucky chewed up toys, and I learned later, the toilet hose between toilet and the wall, and caused a major flood in the bathroom. When he got a chance, he would jump up on the picnic table, steal pizza out of people’s hands, and knock over the three and seven-year old girls playing rough in the back yard.
The dog mom was exhausted and didn’t have a lot of time for training Lucky. She felt bad and decided to try and find a better home for Lucky who needed someone’s full attention. They happened to be neighbors and good friends with my vet, who knew I had to put Rose down due to bladder cancer in March and was devastated, yet looking for a new dog to keep me company. My vet knew I was looking at Ragom.org, a wonderful rescue that places Golden Retrievers and labs in the Midwest, that I wanted a dog that I could run with and be active again and that my husband didn’t want a dog that shed (we failed on this one.)
Honestly, I was the only one ready to adopt another dog. Ballet Boy grew up with Rose at his side, and was not ready to move on. My husband knew we were crazy busy, but gradually was convinced that the house was too empty and that we could use a new friend. We talked to Ballet Boy and explained that we could never replace fuzzy mutt Rose. This would be a new chapter in our book of dog friends, and it would bring me immense happiness when Ballet Boy left for college to become Musical Theater Boy at Texas State.
Enter Hunter, now Lucky. I was smitten the first visit when he laid down for belly rubs. His owner told me he never retrieved balls for them, but I got him to sit and drop it over and over again. Her jaw dropped and she exclaimed that I would be the perfect owner for him. (Really, it isn’t rocket science to get a lab to play ball! That is all they want to do.)
Then I convinced the Brewmaster and Ballet Boy to meet him. They both fell in love. The owner was kind enough to keep him three more weeks until our crazy orchestra schedules died down. We re-homed him one week before he turned 1 years old.
We learned that they had been crating him in a transportation crate in the garage, and we suspected that he spent a lot of time in there when naughty. He couldn’t really stretch his legs out in that crate, so we dug out the XL crate that I had bought for Rose when the vet thought she was going to be over 100 pounds. He was crate-trained, potty-trained and knew sit and shake at almost 1 months old when we got him.
We are not into hunting, so we renamed him Lucky. We felt lucky to have found him (and he was free!) at a time when we could spend lots of time training and bonding with him, and he was pretty lucky to have a new family devoted to making his quality of life better.
Since I have lots of students coming to my house and my mom is frail from Parkinson’s, the first skill I worked with him on was NOT jumping up. After a week of having him sit on leash at the door, he got much better! He now jumps up so rarely that it is a surprise. Lucky hardly barked at first, which was quite a change from Rose’s incessant guarding bark. We believe they may have used a shock collar, as the owner tried to give me one (with a dead battery) and I declined as I am a firm believer in positive reinforcement training. His bark is really reserved to when he is truly scared of something, and even the mailman marvels at how he never sounds the alarm.
Lucky needs LOTS of energy in the morning. He needs to play fetch with a ball or frisbee, have the zoomies (run non-stop in circles) in the back yard, and we have a dailyritual of going over to the neighbors’ to play with their six year-old Golden Retriever. Even today, with negative wind chills, we went over for a quick visit or he goes bonkers.
Every morning we work on training. Currently we are doing a lot of sit or down stays, as we are hoping to pass Good Canine Citizen and possibly become a therapy dog to go into hospitals and schools when he settles down. Through Lucky and a wonderful local training school called Best Friends Dog Academy, I have learned a lot about training and we have started using a clicker. Instead of praise, right away I click and give him a treat. Lucky knows how to put one or two paws on something (stool, small box or in a large box), get in the box and sit, put his back paws only in a box (work in progress), go to mat or to his place when we are eating, off, down, etc. It takes constant work, but that “work” is fun for him because he gets lots of treats and my attention. We do nose work; mainly “find it” where I hide treats and he runs around like a scavenger hunt. I’ve done a little of that with my smelly sock, and he also found that in a box. We play hide and seek and other recall games.
Here is a video of us working while I cook breakfast! Sometimes I click too soon, but I am learning with him. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4CfhOBTDvE
In return, Lucky has joined us on the couch and in bed in spite of our resolution to NOT allow him on furniture. He loves cuddling up to people and often ends up lying on his back, paws up in the air. We crate him any time we leave the house and hire the Iowa City Pet Sitters (amazing people!) to come in and let him out if we are crating him more than 3 hours straight, which has meant we have had almost no destruction.
This all sounds like we “saved” Lucky. But really, Lucky has saved me. I’ve started running again and lost 25 pounds from being so active with him. I’ve felt so good on the AIP diet and being more active that I bravely signed up for the Pleasant Prairie all Women Irongirl Sprint tri in August. I hope to do a few more triathlons along the way. Lucky and I ran all fall into the cold temps and I even did my first Turkey Trot. Recent frigid temps mean I am running at the gym without Lucky, which isn’t as fun for him, but I promise him that when the sidewalks aren’t as icy, we will go back out. I feel guilty going to the pool without him, but I have roped the Brewmaster into coming along for the hot tub and pool walking.
Lucky makes me laugh, smile and keeps me company while my guys are gone or working. He certainly keeps me on a schedule, although he often lets me sleep until 8:30. Today I baked homemade dog treats for him, and it felt a bit like making cookies for the guys. Lucky enjoyed the whole process.
My vet worries that Lucky is a dangerous name as she has seen him for digestive issues, a ripped off toe nail (which happened at a fundraiser dog swim at the City Pool and sent us back to ground zero on training because he couldn’t run for at least a month), an ear infection and other small issues. A free dog is never a free dog. But really, every day I feel like the luckiest person to have him in my life!
What will this next decade bring? Hopefully an active, happy future for my whole family, including Lucky Dog!
cellistwhotris 