I See You

To all the dog humans who are doing your best - I see you

To all the dog humans who are protecting their dogs - I see you

To all the dog humans who have behaviours you didn’t think you’d be having to work with - I see you

To all the dog humans who think you’ve got it sorted and then something happens - I see you

To the dog humans who are blessed with non challenging dogs - I see you

To the dog humans who have had and lost - I see you

To the dog humans who are fostering - I see you

To the dog humans who have a new puppy and are doing everything to ensure they are amazing - I see you

And to all the other situations I can think of and more … I see you

I started on this journey like all others, with a cute adorable puppy and thought I’d break him, trust me… I have our trainer who still has my email saying exactly that! Instead as he grew and changed I faced challenges I didn’t think I’d have to face and still am.

Being attacked at crucial times and now constantly having to be aware and looking out for triggers, potentially being a trigger myself when, mainly, boys come near me and I feel like Gordo feels he needs to protect me. Although, he has moments when he surprises me like just this week when an entire pitbull raced up to us and next minute they were zooming together on the track.

Having to be on edge around people who are either new or well known to Gordo, to watch out that they don’t get too in his face, try to kiss on the head or make the ‘mwah’ sound, or simply do things they can do with their dogs as he isn’t a dog that wants this even from those he knows and trusts.

When you have those moments and something happens, it breaks a part inside you that is so hard to describe, to feel the judgement, to feel you’ve let down your dog, yourself and those it’s happened to. To feel that you should just stay solo and not be around others for fear of it happening again, to wishing you could turn back time to when he was around 6 months and stop the attacks, to have a better vet and nurses who respected him and handled him properly, and for myself to go back and learn how to advocate for him better, especially as he is my first dog and wow I know I’ve made some mistakes.

But in the end, who really knows what might have happened if you could turn back the clock, it could all be exactly the same.

Going forward, I have to advocate better for him, hope that those around him understand and respect not to try to make him be the dog they think he should be, and respect that he is him and we are both doing the best as at right now to try to continue growing and developing him into the dog I know he can be.

I know he’ll never be a dog that wants people in his face, he’ll never want hugs, but instead if he likes you he’ll lean on you, ask for butt scratches or to throw a ball.

So to all those out there going through either end of the spectrum from amazing to insanely challenging and everything in between.

I see you and I applaud you.