When God tugs on your heart, you'll sure know it!

I was gifted the chance to pull this pup from her lonely young life of living in a garage and sometimes got to go outside on a lead. She had no interaction with other dogs and next to none with humans, except for the kind hearted neighbor who would take her for walks occasionally, but he couldn’t do that forever.

At first meet, she was “viciously” barking and sort of lunging at me. This was not aggression, she had become reactive due to her very sheltered life; Waiting until she calmed down a little, I bent down to her level and let her sniff me when she was ready. She’s a 6-month-old Belgian Malinois that has had very little interaction and physical activity. Belgian Malinois’s are one of the highest energy dogs out there that NEED a lot more mental and physical activity than your average house dog. Copping a dog up or keeping it out on a short lead, away from interaction or any structure, is one way to create a reactive dog.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE:

A reactive dog is usually a fearful dog.

An aggressive dog is determined to cause harm.

This pup went from barking and lunging at me and trying to kill my dogs to holding her head in my chest for 5+ minutes and able to walk around the house and yard with my dogs under supervision in one day. I fostered her for a total of only 2 days before she found the most perfect home. Come time to handing her over to her forever owner was hard! But I knew in my heart that she was right where she was suppose to be.

I was so very proud of this girl! Meeting two rescue volunteers and her new owner, that neither of us have ever met, went perfect; no barking nor lunging!! From lunging at strangers to not even barking in just two days. She confidently wondered around, and even walked between these new people! I held back tears, though I was obviously choked up when I spoke. She had come so, so far in just two days! I made sure to bend down, and while rubbing her from her nose to the top of her head, tell her what she LOVED hearing in a soft gentle voice, “Good job!”

That Sunday, during church, God tugged HARD on my heart, to get involved with dogs. I started focusing on learning better dog training skills and techniques and aimed to start volunteering at our local animal shelter as a Dog Caretaker. My goal was to cater to dog’s individual training styles/needs to help them get best homes and not get returned to the shelter after adoption.