First of all, I’d like to apologize, but this is going to be VERY long. I have a lot to say about this dog! I’d like to give a thank you in advance to those who plan to read this whole thing, and plead with those who don’t think they will – I promise you won’t be disappointed!
I work at the Copper Country Humane Society, so all of the staff there know how Terra is doing – however, I feel like her story is a good example of how amazing a shelter dog can be, so I wanted to submit a happy tail anyway! I’ll be referring to her as Tessa through most of the story.
Some of you may recognize this beautiful girl from the second annual cutest pet contest, where she won sponsor’s choice. We are able to give a small description of our pet, but I felt like that wasn’t nearly enough.
Tessa came to the shelter around mid December with five other dogs – Juno, Newton, Cricket, Bunny, and her kennel mate, Oscar. They were rescued from a hoarding situation with 80 other dogs, where they were living in small wire crates and were, for the most part, ignored and unloved. The person that had them had good intentions, but unfortunately, the situation got to be too much and the dogs were seized.
Other than that, I don’t know much about Tessa’s past, but it’s not often I meet dogs who are so fearful. When new dogs arrive, they’re often scared and confused, but will come out of their shells in less than a week or two with a little TLC. Not these dogs, however. Most of them wouldn’t even leave their crates when they arrived, forcing us to just leave the crates in their designated kennels so they could come out on their own time. They were next to impossible to call out of their kennels for walks and socialization unless we locked them in the back (for those that don’t know, dog kennels have two parts divided by a small dog door so they can hide if they’re uncomfortable).
One by one I watched them leave. Tessa went to a home with someone, which I didn’t think anything of. I wasn’t watching for a dog at the time and I didn’t plan on it any time soon. I was happy where I was and while the topic of moving had come up, it wasn’t anything serious.
When the thought of moving started to get more serious, I knew I had to get a dog. I’ve been a dog lover my entire life and have had at least one since I was five or six, so it just wouldn’t feel right not having one around. I didn’t want to rush into it, but there were a few I had in mind – one older dog, one with a couple medical problems (bad hips and epilepsy), and one that was very shy and had been there for a while. I’m sure that says a lot about the type of dogs that I fall for! I especially have a soft spot for the ones that are shy.
The shelter manager was well aware that I was looking for a dog and unfortunately, all the dogs I wanted had fallen through. I didn’t want to give up, though. I didn’t want to admit it, but my heart jumped a little when I got a message from the manager saying that Tessa was coming back, and that she would be the perfect dog for me! My concerns were if the dog was potty trained and if it got along with cats, and she excelled in both! I never expected a dog that lived outside in a wire crate to be house trained, but she was! She hasn’t had an accident yet.
Now keep in mind that even if I was excited, I was still a little hesitant. When she came back, she wanted nothing more than to just hide and get away from me. She did NOT like me. However, being the stubborn kid I am, I wanted to change that so I decided to just bite the bullet and take her home, but ended up returning her the same day as she absolutely refused to go to the bathroom and she seemed so uncomfortable. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was devastated. I nearly cried, even.
At that point I was almost positive I wanted the shy dog I mentioned earlier – she didn’t like my cats, but I was confident that I could work with her on that. But I couldn’t do it. After taking Tessa home temporarily, she always waited for me at the front of her kennel when I worked. She came out for me readily and would just generally be happy to see me. I don’t know what changed, but she got very attached to me very quickly, and that was it. There was no way I could leave her there. I filled out the paperwork and she was mine as of February 28th. I wasn’t a huge fan of the name Tessa, so Terra it was. Her name is Latin for Earth. It was a bit of a difficult transition since the two names were so similar, but everyone got used to it after a while.
As you can tell, she’s a silly dog – loves to cuddle her toys and stick her tongue out. She reminds me of a cat! She’s constantly sticking her tongue about it and I’m very certain that she tends to just forget it’s there. I’m surprised she hasn’t bitten it yet as she’s VERY excitable.
Now, Terra was never one I expected to know much as far as training goes, but like I said, I don’t know anything about her past beyond her being in the hoarding situation. I thought she might just be a quick learner, but eventually came to the conclusion that she must have been a house pet before then, possibly surrendered because her person was moving and couldn’t take her with or because there was a new baby in the house and a dog was just too much work. She seems to know a few tricks (she loves to give paw) and potty training wasn’t a huge issue, as I mentioned before. She’s never had an accident in the house, but absolutely REFUSED to go to the bathroom for the first two or three days that we had her. She must have been in a lot of pain! She’s still a little bit stubborn about where she goes to bathroom, but she’s learning. I just have to out-stubborn her!
Eventually with all that was going on, the idea of a service dog came up. I won’t say what for, but it was a recent thought of mine to have a psychiatric service dog for myself and I thought, why not her? I wasn’t sure how she would be as she wasn’t very confident around strangers, but she seemed to learn fast. Not to mention her and I have THE most special bond I can ever think of. Growing up there were a couple dogs around that I had a connection with, but I have never had such a bond with an animal before. She’s my best friend, and she’s always absolutely ecstatic to see me, whether I was gone for two minutes or two weeks. To those that know her, it’s quite obvious that she’s very much MY dog. You’ll just have to take my word for it!
I started up my research again and began buying her supplies – a vest, some patches, training treats; the regular things you’d need for a service dog in training. I have a good friend that trains service dogs down in New York so of course she’s there to help me out as well, and help me she has!
I’ve began training Terra to do specific tasks (currently, we’re working on finger picking alert) and even in the course of just three days of training a new task, she has learned incredibly fast. As long as there’s no huge distractions she’s very focused and eager to learn. I find it a bit funny however that she’s extremely food motivated, however she refuses to take treats from strangers. She needs a little work with public behavior since she’s easily distracted when there’s people around, but luckily I can take her to the shelter with me when I work office and work with her there, where it’s not odd to see a dog around the office and people are often interested in what she’s doing there, but aren’t pushy about it. Some people do get confused when they see her in the cat room though. I suppose it looks odd! She loves to hang out in there, and the cats sure don’t mind! We’ve even had a few come up and rub against her.
Terra has a long way to go, but she’s doing extremely well. Not many shelter dogs can make it as a service dog and I’m proud of both myself and her. This is the first time I’ve ever trained a service dog and we’ve both learned a lot!
Thank you again to those who read this all the way through. I’m not sure if I can link things here, but if anyone’s interested in Terra’s progress as a service dog, you’re more than welcome to visit my Youtube page dedicated to her:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvAdufEv36YzGi1x02gKjkg
Thank you for reading and just remember – no dog is untrainable!