Oh, That Smile… – Joanne Kennedy Books

WIN a copy of “How to Kiss a Cowboy” by commenting on the post below with a pet story of your own!

This little dog has the best, brightest smile around!

Every day, she reminds me to get outside and enjoy the simple pleasures, like watching the progress of the seasons, walking through sunny slopes dappled with wildflowers, and playing fetch with a good dog.

When we first got Chloe from Black Dog Animal Rescue, she was handful. She was afraid of strangers and would bark and growl at company. She was an embarrassment on walks, snarling and flying into a rage at the sight of other dogs.

I hired a trainer, but I couldn’t seem to implement the trainer’s instructions; Chloe just wouldn’t listen to me. But Scrape took what he’d learned from the trainer and what he’d learned from watching Chloe and made a concerted effort to train her.

Now, he takes her everywhere. At stores that allow dogs, she’ll follow him nicely, even off lead – even when other dogs are present. She’ll even listen to me!

She seemed to need someone with a level temperament (that’s not me!) who would give her consistent direction and the confidence she was doing the right thing. I think that’s why she loves playing fetch. She knows she’s good at it, and knows she’s pleasing us.

She’s turned into a truly great dog, thanks to his patience and love. Best of all, she’s still smiling!

Do you have a rescue dog, or a problem pet you love anyway? Tell me about your pet for a chance to win a free signed copy of “How to Kiss a Cowboy!”

(You must comment on the post to win. Winner will be chosen August 20th, 2015. Sorry, winners limited to US residents due to postage prices!)

2 Comments.

Jenn says:

August 1, 2015 at 6:55 pm

I’ve never owned a dog, only cats and rabbits (will reside in fancy little house, wearing shoes hats and trousers…. Sorry was channeling Alice from Disney’s Alice in Wonderland.). Anyway, all of mine have been rescues or foundlings.

When I worked as a vet tech, I was known as the cat whisper at the clinics. When cats are scared, they will back themselves in to a corner and hiss and spit. Vet clinics are stressful and scary, even though we try everything to keep it positive. Most people are afraid of a scared cat than a scared dog. I think it’s the claws but I really don’t know. Any clinic that works with cats have either thick welding gloves or thick hawking gloves for dealing with “aggressive” cats. I always refused to use them. Imagine being frightened and someone reaching for you wearing those.

When ever we had cats staying in the clinic, I would make the time to spend time with them. Taking to them. Petting them if they allowed it. Many wanted something to hide under, so I would make sure every cat had a towel. When they would be first placed in their kennel for the day, I would place a towel over them. Most stayed like that. Some would tunnel under the towel enough to see what was going on. Even fewer would crawl out from under (these ones fell in to two categories: extremely scared or not scared at all. I would use the towel to bring out the cats and would keep them covered for their comfort. Except for the ones who didn’t stay under the towel. But those babies are a story for another time.

I learned from growing up working for a horse trainer (Terry) to try to view the world like the animal to figure out why it reacts like it does. Also to look at things in the eyes of the animal to anticipate their reaction, positive or negative. It’s a very valuable lesson that I still practice today. As Terry would remind me, humans are animals and their initial reactions are very primal.
Joanne Kennedy says:

August 2, 2015 at 1:41 am

Don’t you want to live in Wyoming, Jenn? You should move here and be the tech for my veterinarian! Not that the ones we have aren’t good… but you really have a special empathy for animals. I’d love to have you meet my friend Ann Marie, who was my petsitter when I lived in Cheyenne (and the one thing that almost kept us from moving!). She has a similar bond with animals.
You’re so right about the gloves. I learned that the hard way, not with a cat but with my first parrot. He was afraid of women (his previous owner said he “hated” women, but it was obvious he was frightened). I worked hard at taming him, but I had to move him from one cage to another a couple of times, and I used gloves to do it. They scared him, of course. I think it set us back a long, long way, though we finally got him over most of his fears. I learned that if you can’t handle an animal with your bare hands, you shouldn’t handle him at all. Once I worked on easing myself closer and closer, very slowly and always with food rewards, he started to come out of his frightened little shell.
Obviously, as a vet tech you sometimes have to handle an animal for urgent medical reasons whether it’s amenable or not, and the towel is a great solution for that kind of situation.
All this becomes clear when you look through the eyes of the animal, as you said. I think reading massive numbers of anthropomorphic children’s books helped me see that animals have emotions. It took a while, though, for me to learn that their emotions aren’t necessarily the same ones people would have in a similar situation, and they express their emotions quite differently.
I know a lot about dog body language, thanks to a couple of excellent books, but I don’t know much about cat body language. For example, when I pet Earl, he often rolls over, stretches, and yawns. It’s easy to say, “Oh, he wants a belly rub,” but I wonder if it might be a reflexive way to show his claws and teeth to a being so much larger than him. What do you think?