Originally we took Stryker (4 year old Grate Dane/Mastiff Mix) in at our training facility; our goal was to socialize him (although he was already very social with other dogs! Just needed a little tweaking), put him through some rigorous training (he was not a fan of strangers, for instance), and then we would find him a new home.
Then – the world shut down. March of 2020 hit and of course, all operations at OTBT came to a grinding halt. The normal hustle and bustle we were so used to at the facility evaporated overnight, and Stryker became the only dog standing. We decided it wasn’t fair for Stryker to be in the kennel by himself, and we thought he could stay in our home for a few weeks until things “got back to normal”🤦♀️. So, we brought our kids up to the kennel to meet him and he immediately melted. His excitement to see them was palpable! His ears went back, his body got looser, and he almost started prancing around! We introduced them in our large daycare room and Stryker would walk back and forth wagging his tail, giving each one a quick lick, and then came over to greet Jeff and I. We felt very comfortable that he would do well in our home for a few weeks.
Since we have a lot of structure in our household, we knew that Stryker would be able to peacefully coexist with our two dogs Ellie (10) and Lexi (7) for the short amount of time he was with us. So – we brought him home!
He was very uncertain for quite awhile in the beginning – not knowing where his place was and not knowing what the rules were. The first night he was with us, he had fallen asleep on Ellie’s bed, and Ellie had decided that there was plenty of room for her to snuggle up on the bed too, so she started climbing in and Stryker woke up out of a sound sleep and scrambled to get out of that bed as fast as he could! I wish I had it on camera, he was a real-life Scooby Doo for a few seconds! I felt so bad for him that he was that scared. But that’s how it went for several weeks – he didn’t settle much, he was on guard and hypervigilant, and he didn’t understand our rules and was always surprised that we had them.
The third day he was staying with us, he came in from outside, walked right up to our youngest son and took his sandwich right out of his hand and ate it in one gulp. It became clear that Stryker didn’t understand our rules because he may have never had any rules enforced in his first home. He’s a BIG boy (150 pounds at the time), and it could be very easy to lose control of a dog that size if you aren’t consistently working to control his mind.
So we added more and more structure: We had to pull the water bowl in the evening because he would drink so much that he would wake us up in the middle of the night or worse, go in the house. He counter surfed even if we were right there next to him so we had to be extra careful about what food was left out and had to keep things spic and span day in and day out. He would eat paper towels and get into the garbage can and we even found him munching on a steel scrubber that he pulled from the sink! So we bought a new trash can with a lock, bought a very large crate that now lives in our dining room (ahem, takes up our dining room!), and we started to be extra cautious of what he was and wasn’t allowed to do.
After that, even more structure was needed when we found him being possessive over a bone with our other dogs. He wasn’t given any more chances and bones and toys were now only allowed in his crate, never out in the open. This also meant that we needed to heavily monitor when our other dogs were given bones, and take them away before we let Stryker out of his crate.
Remember how he didn’t like strangers? Well anytime we got a delivery, he would go berserk! His bark is deep and he is a very big dog that can easily seem intimidating. So, I needed to get even more strategic and change up that routine. Essentially – I needed to be on guard at all times to make sure Stryker had the opportunity to make better and better decisions. Left to his own devices he would easily revert back to his old ways, and any time he practiced an old, unwanted behavior, I knew it would become even harder and harder to change over time. He needed very strong guidance immediately.
While Stryker obviously came with quite a bit of work right off the bat, he also had this soft, goofy side. As a Dane, he was SO animated any time he would try and play with the dogs! He would throw his giant paws up at them and then quickly jump around and show them his back side (really good play!). He would do play bows and get running around outside with so much joy that we couldn't help but laugh at how quirky and cute he was! Even if he was like having a giant, overgrown, drooly puppy!
When the reality of the situation with Covid set in and we realized that our kids wouldn’t be going back to school that year and life wouldn't be normal for quite some time, I knew that not only was I going to need to wear the hat of business owner and teacher, but I would also need to take on the majority of the training with Stryker, since Jeff would be working at the kennel once we opened back up for daycare/boarding for essential employees. But I was ready – I knew we had to be there for him and that our lives would never be the same, but we made a commitment and we were going to honor that. We decided to officially adopt him!
There will be many, many "Stryker Stories" coming up in the next several blog posts, but for now I’ll just say this. Perhaps you’ve seen this meme floating around Facebook:
Let me tell you that while I do love this sentiment – it’s not entirely accurate. How much time it takes for an adopted dog to settle into your home and your routine is entirely dependent on the dog. Stryker was 4 when he came to live with us, and being that he’s a dane/mastiff mix means he was middleaged at that point. He’s now lived with us for 18 months and we are STILL consistently working with him to change behavior. Of course we saw improvements early on, but they came with the price of being consistent, rewarding good behavior, and working to give constant guidance so that he didn’t have the opportunity to practice anything unwanted (like barking at the mailman). I would say that for him, it took a full year to really settle in and follow our rules and realize that he didn’t have to be so scared and intimidating (one in the same!), because we were always there to take care of things.
I’m not telling you this to discourage you, but to bring some truth to light when it comes to adopting older dogs with behavior issues. NOTHING will happen overnight. It likely won’t even be months. You’ll be in it for the long haul. But what I can tell you unequivocally, without a doubt, is that when you do see a glimmer of change, when you see your dog almost revert to old ways and then make a conscious decision to choose a better option, when he comes and sits next to you for his treat when the mailman pulls in instead of barking uncontrollably, you’ll know that all your hard work was totally worth it, you’ll feel such a sense of pride and accomplishment, and you’ll feel more capable than you’ve ever felt in your life. Oh, and you’ll gain a deeper understanding of your dog and who he has the potential to be, too, which will only make you want to do better and work harder 😊
It's all worth it in the end, especially when you know you've saved a life.
