One Week With Taylor

 For the uninitiated on adopting from a shelter there are certain things you need to know. If the shelter will provide the history and their observations it is important. We have had Taylor for one week and fortunately the shelter did have his history and provided it to us. 

Taylor was a backyard dog with little human interaction and from what we can tell no basic obedience training. He does go potty outside but that is most likely because the shelter allowed him to have a small room to stay in. So knowing Taylors past we also knew what to expect. 

At 11 years old and having no parameters in his life we will start training from ground zero. So far we have noticed he likes to chew and eat parts of Lucy's bed, he has no dinner manners and tries to get our food. Also we are trying to get him into our routine and he has not fully adjusted to his name given by the shelter. 

We took him to the vet within three days of adoption and he is healthy.  We want to keep him that way and that includes keeping him from eating things that can harm him. Because he has arthritis in his rear legs he is not suitable for crate training. He needs an area to move around without being confined to a crate. 

He does not and probably has never heard the word 'no'. Training from ground zero is a challenge but we are up for it. He has a great disposition and needs to gently be brought into our family. We prefer bean bag training which is nothing more than when he does something wrong we toss the bean bag near but not on him to distract.  It is a non physical non threatening form of training. 

We can tell he is very intelligent and he should pick up on the don'ts pretty quickly. We also use his name often so he will learn his name. Some people would not adopt a senior dog with a disability like Taylor. I find this sad because he has a great personality and as soon as we are able to teach him basic manners and parameters he will find life is much better than anything he has ever experienced. He will be more content, and realize he is a valued member of the family and loved. 

I don't even think of how much he doesn't have but how much more he has in store for him. How much he can benefit from. We just need to keep him safe from things that could hurt him until he can be more trusted. Lucy is a good indicator as she tells us his needs. She is a vital key in understanding Taylor and his needs.