God bless everybody out there who does animal rescue! I’m sure anyone reading this blog has done more than their share and taken in many homeless animals who would have otherwise ended up . . . well, we won’t go there. So you all well know that it is impossible to take a rescue animal without the “baggage” that they bring with them. There is probably not a rescue animal alive that doesn’t have some trying habit (but then, don’t we all?!) that comes as a result of past abuse, trauma, or just plain neurosis from being on the streets, lost, abandoned, or whatever. If you take a rescue, you know you’ll be working through a few things. Period.
Meet Milagro. That means ‘Miracle,’ you know, and his current state of affairs and new home truly reflect the miraculous. Milagro is only about 1 year old and wound up, Lord knows how, in a kill shelter in rural Colorado. Through the “co-incidences” of life (NOT — remember? “Co-incidence” means things that happen together?), my dear friend Stephanie and her husband Alan saw him on the internet and knew immediately that they had to go get him just as soon as possible. Fortunately, a small-dog rescue organization had found him at the kill shelter, taken him out, and placed him in a foster home. The rest is history, if short, thus far. Milagro has been in his new home, with his almost identical Chihuahua sister Tiki, for about a month now.
So all is well, you might say. End of story. Well, yes, and Milagro definitely has his forever home and thinks Stephanie hung the moon and stars and is glued to her 24/7. All of that is true enough. But, as with any rescue, and as we have stated above, there are a few bumps to work through. Milagro poops on the carpet regularly. A problem. He knows he’s not supposed to. He’s taken out several times a day (and night), and is doing well with peeing out of doors. But he carefully waits until he is back inside and Stephanie has her back turned, for about 3 seconds, to poop.
Knowing I’ve had a similar situation with my newest rescue of six months, Tucker the Chiweenie, Stephanie called me this morning wringing her hands a bit over the whole affair and asking for advice. She said, “Well it doesn’t seem like it has upset YOU that much, so I thought maybe you could help me.” True, but Tucker’s rug-pooping has not been quite as consistent as Milagro’s, plus he is older and was never an inside dog (he told me), so he just needed some regular house-training and is improving by the week. His indoor poops are now few and far between and usually only in the middle of a night that he deems way to cold to step outside the dog door.
Anyway, back to Milagro. I gave Stephanie the few tips I could think of but told her I would check in with the little guy too, to see if I could glean any insight that might help the two of them work out a solution. After an appropriate introduction, etc.:
“Milagro, why do you poop in the house when you know you’re not supposed to?”
“Because it gets attention.”
“But you know you’re not supposed to and that it is upsetting to your people, so that kind of attention is not the most fun kind that you could be getting.”
(He shows me that it’s the only kind he ever got before. He conveys that he never got much of any kind of attention — or, horrors, even decent food — except for when he pooped in the house.)
“Oh, Milagro, I am SO sorry! You were not in a happy household, were you??
(He can’t even relate to what I mean by “happy,” so first I show him what that means, and that his new household is an example.)
“That will never happen here. You will always have the best loving attention and all the healthy food you want and need, and you will learn to poop outside and will get even MORE attention — and treats! — when you do that. Stephanie will help you learn about how to do that, and you will get even more wonderful attention than you ever dreamed of. What do you think?”
“She has me in a cage now.” (He must be referring to a child’s playpen Stephanie is setting him in, right next to her, when she knows a poop is due but he hasn’t done it yet. So I show him this, and what the intent is, and that he will be rewarded when he poops, whether in the playpen or the next time she takes him outside.)
“Oh.”
“Do you get it?”
(He seems to. But I also can tell that he is going to need to be re-patterned about this and to have time to absorb all the new nuances and meanings around pooping properly.)
“Thank you, Milagro, for talking to me about this. You are a particularly precious puppy, and you will be with Stephanie and Alan and Tiki and Luna (the cat) forever. You need have no worries. Stephanie will help you work through this, and there is time.”
Thus concludes our report. And, after all, Milagro has only been in his new home for one month, and he IS only 1 year old. Gheez, if he were a Golden Retriever we could bet on at least 3 more years of hysteria, complete with possible poopy problems as well!
So, all it’s going to take is careful vigilance on Stephanie’s part, along with her daily reminding him, mentally, of all the benefits of pooping outside (not to mention the special treats for when that happens). Milagro will do fine. And, Stephanie, if you are reading this, huge blessings and thanks to you and Alan for taking in this precious little guy and saving his life. As an elderly neighbor of mine used to say, “God will put a star in your crown for that!”
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