PawsNWags Blog Talk: Celebrating Gotcha Day!

One year later on 4 March 2019, we celebrated Dusty's "Gotcha Day"!

I vividly remember the struggles I had to face dealing with the food aggression, toilet-training and the destruction of home furniture 😡. In particular, the sofa . The once scrawny little devil would used to growl and snap at my husband and I whenever we went near her food. Since I spent the most time with Dusty, I decided to seriously do some research on home training methods for food aggression. I ordered books such as "Siberian Huskies for Dummies" and watched religiously watched Youtube videos of "Cesar Millan". This dog is gonna receive some bad-ass military style training!

In between the training to stop her food aggression, I thought maybe I could challenge the ever so famous obstinate nature of a husky by seeing how many tricks she can pick up and how fast. Most husky owners and books says it takes alot of effort to get a husky to do tricks #challengeaccepted. Of course I started with the basic "SIT" which was pretty easy - I mean all dogs must know that command. "I'm going to teach Dusty how to "Pawshake" and "High-five", I told my husband one day. "She is too young, she will not get it", he said nonchalantly. Dusty was almost 5 months. "Well, easier to teach a child than an old fart I guess!" I replied giving the husband a side-glare 👀.

With patience and repetitive practice, I was able to finally toilet train my feral pupper 💀 within a month and tame the food aggressor in 2 months. GOD, that was some intense training. She really wasn't happy about it. BUT! I managed it like how any Alpha would 😅.

Alas! The chewing persist especially when we leave her at home on her own. Well, I guess that's at least 2 down and only 1 bad habit to conquer. We sent Dusty for Basic Obedience training when she was about 5.5 months. It was more about having her properly socializing with other dogs than anything else. By then, Dusty had already understood most of the basic commands that included "Pawshake" and "high-five" #proudmom. Basic Obedience class did help us teach Dusty to walk properly on leash and reinforcing commands she already knew in an environment that had distraction. We loved it 💓!

Anyway, fast forward one year, Dusty still occasionally chews on the sofa. We are now so immune to it we just let her instead of giving her the pleasure of getting the attention from us whenever she does it. Our sofa is so far from "gone" at this point we just worry it might break while we sat on it 🙍.

Dusty coped with her food aggression really well and now humans can basically go near her food or while she eats and she has no problem with that. We felt it was important to curb this bad behaviour as we were worried if we were to have kids over or even our own children in future, this bad behaviour may escalate and caused unnecessary injuries. The downside of overcoming her food aggression was she becoming a super slow, chilledout, picky A-hole eater. So much so, now she doesn't want to finish her meals. Pretty weird because we do not over treat her nor do we give her table scraps. She would vomit bile from starving herself #stubbornhusky. Well, we think she is just weight conscious and have an undying ambition to become a VS model. So we just let her be since she is growing well and not undernourished in anyway according to the vet. That's a story for another day.

Despite her occasional b**chy attitude, we are so blessed to have Dusty in our lives. The only thing left to train her on now is how to bark when strangers enter our home and not sprawl on the floor and ask for belly rubs 🙄. Even though it brings me great joy each morning when I get out of bed, to see Dusty waiting for me downstairs with her legs spread wide open waiting for a belly rub 😂. It sometimes amazes me how smart Dusty is (sorry bias dogmom here) and how well-natured she has grown up to be. So sweet nature that sometimes I can't help but wonder if I were to be attacked by another dog or human will she protect me😓? She occasionally still gets bitten by small dogs although she just minds her own business. How and why, I am unsure.

Anyway, 4 March every year will forever be etched in my mind as the day Dusty came into our lives and sparked so much joy and we will never be KonMari (ing) her. EVER.