Saturday, January 8, 2011

Progress and Potential

What kind of progress have you made in the last 5 weeks?  Have you finished a semester at school or a project at work? Have you made and stuck to a New Year’s resolution?

Unless you’ve accomplished a herculean feat, it’s safe to say Jack has put us all to shame…collectively.

Five weeks ago, he came to us matted and shy. He cowered in a corner as we brushed out clumps and clumps of dead hair. He scampered away from doors and froze and whimpered at the sights of stairs. He didn’t know where to do his business and wanted nothing to do with a crate. He didn’t even know how to eat a bone—only how to hide it for future use. He neither knew commands nor understood the concept of walking on a leash.  

But boy, he had a willingness to learn and please.

And so he has.

Today, Jack has a beautiful and healthy coat. He’s gregarious and loving with every person he meets. He pushes his way through doors  and sprints up and down the stairs just for the hell of it. He’s both house trained and crate trained.  He chews on bones instead of hiding them. He knows sit, stay, down, and shake and walks politely on a leash. At adoption day this afternoon, a five-year-old boy had Jack responding to commands, and two third-grade girls walked him around the store.

He’s a dog that’s just brimming with trainability potential. In fact, he vaguely reminds me of a border-collie mix named Ollie from this episode of DogTown. Sherry, the trainer, proves that it’s possible to train homeless mutts, such as Ollie, in important service capacities like search and rescue.

We've taken Jack this far; it’s only a matter of time before his forever family comes along and helps him fulfill that potential.




Okay, so we still need to work on some eye-mouth coordination.

5 comments:

  1. That's the beauty of it, isn't it? That dogs are so versatile and awesome at LIFE, they are just alive and want you to know it. I love watching a sad sack in the corner bust out at say hello to life.

    Great job with Jack - his future family owes you a big one!

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  2. Like you said about Lexi's future family..."They have no idea how lucky they are about to become." (That post made me tear up. :)

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  3. Hallo! We are two dogs and a cat who have our own blog. We are so happy to hear that Jack is making so much improvement! You do great things to help dogs! Trixie started out as a foster dog, but she was lucky because we think she was treated pretty well by whoever "owned" her before. Although they eventually dumped her (and her puppies... she was only 9 months old and had puppies) in the woods somewhere, at least they trained her a little, fed her, etc! Keep up the good work!

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  4. Hi there! We are so excited that you joined Pet Blogs United. We have just started a new feature called Foster Fridays so feel free to send in information about a foster that we could feature.

    Nubbin wiggles,
    Oskar

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