Appreciation of a loving home – RED after 3 months.
Our new family member Red is still adapting to all the new things in his teenager life. He had a lot of “first-time” moments and has done, mostly, a great job. I’m very glad that we could give him the chance to show what a great dog he is. Red (short for “Ready”) is just a cute goof ball with a medium energy level, and his friendly, eager-to-please and calm personality makes it very easy to work with him and to meet new people. Since he is an American Staffordshire Terrier Mix, I’ve heard a lot of weird comments like: “You don’t look like a typical Pit Bull owner” or “He seems to be nice” or “Does he fight?” or “Do you keep him in the backyard? He is big I’m sure he eats a lot” or “I heard Pit Bulls turn vicious after 3 years of age”… I’m collecting the best ones and will publish a Best Of Pit Bull Comments of Smart:) People List in a couple of months. I generally let these people know to check out PackPeople’s blog posts and interviews about Pit Bulls to get a truer idea of the breed and to have a better understanding for these excellent family companions – even if I want to give them a long speech, I just leave with a smile and my PackPeople suggestion. Please send me the weird comments you have ever heard about Pit Bulls – and be a part of my upcoming e-book!
Lilly and Red became best friends in just a couple days and they get along very well. Every day they chase each other in the backyard and play gently (Samson just ignores him and is not very interested). The only issue we are working with Red is his over-excitement with other dogs and new animal species like mean squirrels. After one month of Red’s adoption, we took him to our first walk in a public park with other on-leash dogs and realized that he is not ready to meet other new dogs up close. I had known Red from the shelter where I used to work – and I never realized that he got anxious around other dogs. He was living next door with other male/female dogs and never had problems or any signs of anxiety. Our walk was filled with shaking and screaming (Red can scream like a pig). I decided to work on the issue and we never leave the house without our pouch of treats. With the method of distracting him early enough before he even sees the object of excitement, and catching his attention with fun things to do, like playing ball and working on his obedience skills, he is getting much better and has stopped jumping, pulling and screaming. He is not yet ready to attend the agility and good citizen certification classes I want him to join with Lilly in the future, but he will I’m sure.
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