Rescue

When we first got our dog we had issues to say the least.  After trying to train her we came to realize she was a bit, well, different.  She wasn't motivated by food when there was ANYTHING that could distract her.  Our training method was a positive reinforcer, you do what we tell you to do, you get a treat.  Guess what, she didn't do so well.  We also never were able to solve our dominance issues.  We finally had a sit down meeting with one of the "behavior specialists" and were told that we were going to have to choose between our new dog or children because she would never be good with kids.  This caused a huge fight between BJ and I.  He refused to give up on the poor puppy, and I couldn't imagin putting our children in danger with a dog that could possibly bite them.  We then found a negative reinforcement training program, you do what I say or you get a pinch on your collar.  It took a while and we still do have minimal issues but nothing to big.  

That leads us to the present.  Lately, we have been having a harder and harder time finding Rescue at the end of the day.  Typically she is laying on my pillow in the middle of our bed, but the last few nights, Elijah's bed.  Last night was one of those nights.  So much so, I didn't even see her in there at first glance. 

Keep in mind my son is laying under his pillows at the top of his bed so that might have slightly distracted me.  We ended up fixing Elijah, tucking him in, and leaving him there.  Most nights, Rescue I will leave and come into our room within a couple of minutes.  This morning when we were awoken by our 7am alarm "MOMMY, THE SUN IS UP!" Which is actually translated to, Mom I'm awake can I get up, Rescue was still in his bed.  He came into our room, crawled in bed and we started talking about the dog spending the night with him.  His response, "yeah, I covered her with blue blankie." So BJ got up to go check on her...

Yup, I'm glad BJ convinced me to keep her.  Elijah loves her so much and she knows that he is her human.

On a side note, our whole story with Rescue reminds me so much of kids with behaviors or special needs.  Lots of times they just get a generic, "you should do this" without being fully understood.  Most of the kids I work with are driven my anxiety and live most of their life in a fight or flight state of mind.  Without understanding what is the cause of the anxiety to help decrease it, they look naughty.  I don't know how many kids are just given up on instead of really understood.  Just goes to show you even though she is a dog, she has taught me a ton about life.