“The first few weeks will probably be rough.”

Barely three months ago I said this to my wife as she, my two daughters and I discussed coming home from Illinois Cocker Rescue with Fudgie and Tommy, both of them puppy mill rescues several years old.

I could not have been more wrong. Or more pleased. Though puppy mill rescues can be much more challenging than other dogs, ours have been almost no trouble. Of all the dogs in our neighborhood, none are better behaved or more loved by neighbors than ours.

We’re no experts, but here are some reasons we think Fudgie and Tommy have done so well in our home and become such popular figures in our neighborhood. Maybe these thoughts will help others who are contemplating adopting two or more puppy mill rescues:

1) Two are better than one. Aly’s Web site article on puppy mill rescues says they usually do better in the company of other dogs, and judging from what we’ve seen with Fudgie and Tommy, we’d say that’s right. Fudgie is calmer than Tommy, and that calmness rubs off. Often when we give commands, Fudgie obeys first. A second later Tommy follows Fudgie’s lead. They often lie next to each other during the day, and at night they snuggle together on one doggie bed even though we bought a bed for each of them.

2) A quiet start. They were trembling in our car on the ride home. Tommy was so afraid he peed as Aly handed him to us. We put them in the back seat and they huddled together, Fudgie on top of Tommy, all the way home. We also leashed them as we put them in the car and left the leashes on, so they could have some time to see nothing bad would happen with those scary things hanging from their collars. We kept the car radio off, cell phones off, and spoke softly.

We arrived home in late afternoon and brought the dogs into our house and left them to roam (supervised) with their leashes on. They spent most of the first evening huddled in one corner of the living room. We kept the house quiet and did not overwhelm them with petting, talking, loud television, etc. We let them just look and sniff and listen.

3) Gentle instruction. After they had been home about two hours I took them out, one at a time, for their first potty walk and to begin leash training. The walk went from our front door to the back of the house and then back to the front door. Already they were much calmer on the leash. When they pulled I softly said “No,” then stepped in front of the dog and stood motionless and silent. After a minute or so, with no command, I started walking. The dog would follow behind or beside me a few steps and then trot ahead. I would again softly say “No,” step in front, and then stand motionless and silent before resuming the walk. After just a few minutes each dog began to understand that I was supposed to lead.

4) Daily exercise and training. I work from home and am able to take the dogs outside several times a day, which I am sure has helped speed their adjustment. Every day since bringing them home we train on the leash and do our sit, stay and come commands. As we walk, if they’re being good (as they almost always are), every so often I’ll tell them they are good dogs and pet them and sometimes give a treat. My wife and daughters do the same.

We try to make training fun. For sit/stay, for instance, I’ll take the dogs into the living room and give them the sit command (by voice and visually by pointing to the ground). Then I’ll give them the stay command (also by voice and holding up a hand like a traffic cop giving a stop command). Then I’ll walk into another room so they cannot see me. After 30 seconds or so I’ll step out of the room and walk back to them. If they stay the whole time, they’ll get a little treat and lots of praise.

For come, I’ll disappear into a room and then step back around the corner so they can see me. If they stay, I’ll then call “Come!” and motion with my arms for them to come to me. They’ll get praise and treats for that, too. We do this only a few minutes at a time so they don’t get bored. They do the commands perfectly almost every time.

5) Maintaining pack leadership. Fudgie immediately asserted his dominance of Tommy by lying atop him on the ride home. After getting home Fudgie sometimes walked around Tommy and pushed against him, again asserting dominance. So we go with this. Fudgie gets the leash hooked up first to go on a walk and unhooked first after a walk. They have separate food and water bowls, to avoid possible conflicts at feeding time. As long as Fudgie gets his food a fraction of a second before Tommy, he’s fine. If we’re petting the dogs, as long as Fudgie is an inch or two closer to us, he’s fine. If we were to feel sorry for Tommy for being low man on the totem pole and try to favor him to make up for it, that could lead to a fight.

Meanwhile, we assert our leadership of both dogs by always trying to be calm around them and doing the little things that dogs recognize as leadership. When we leave the house for a walk or enter it after a walk, we cross the threshold before the dogs. We do the same thing when moving from room to room within the house. We give them food at a regular time each day and make them wait while we ready their bowls. They get their food only when they are calmly sitting. Regular feeding leads to a regular potty routine, too. Simple things like these help the dogs understand we are their leaders and give them structure to their day.

6) Affection at the right time. When the dogs are calm, they get tummy rubs and pats on the head and all the signs of affection they love. That first night, when they huddled in a corner of the living room, we sat quietly and let them venture out on their own. We spoke softly to them and gently petted them when they came near us. We did not force ourselves on them.

When something startles or bothers them, we do not soothe them. This may sound counterintuitive, but this can reinforce the frightened behavior. If they bark in alarm – for instance, at someone coming to the door – a quick “Sshhh!” is usually enough to stop them. Sometimes a quick touch on the neck, a shoulder or hind quarter does the trick. It’s always just enough to snap them out of the alarmed behavior, never enough to intimidate or hurt them. Giving the dog a command, such as “Sit!”, also helps stop the alarmed behavior, because it takes their attention away from the thing that is bothering them. When they are calm again, they get gentle praise and petting.

We did not know these things intuitively. Before adopting Fudgie and Tommy we had Buster, a cocker spaniel stray who literally showed up on our doorstep one cold January morning with no collar or identification of any kind. It was plain to see he had been neglected: horribly matted and burr-filled fur, terrible ear infections, and sores on his paws. It was also plain to see he was a very affectionate and friendly dog, so we took him in. Some big vet bills and lots of patience to clean ears and administer medicine helped clear up the infections. We also fed him premium dog food and lots of raw food to supplement it, and that diet also may have helped clear the infections.

But Buster had a strong fear-aggression response to larger dogs that we had no idea how to correct. And he often pulled on leas during our walks.

Then we began watching “The Dog Whisperer” show on the National Geographic channel and purchased books by that show’s host, Cesar Millan, and books by other dog behavior experts (the monks of New Skete have some excellent ones) and started following their recommendations. Buster immediately began to improve and also became a popular figure in our neighborhood until his death in December 2007.

There’s no doubt our research into dog behavior and our experience with Buster helped prepare us for Fudgie and Tommy.

Originally, we had planned on adopting just one dog from ICR. Several weeks after we’d had to put down our beloved Buster, we decided we wanted another dog, one from a shelter. I had come across the ICR Web site a couple of years earlier while looking up information on cocker spaniels to help us with Buster, and, unbeknownst to me, so had my wife. I saw a picture and description of Fudgie, a six-year-old Chocolate cocker, and thought he could be a good fit for our family. Other dogs on the site interested us as well. My wife had a feeling that we’d be coming home with more than one dog. When she went shopping for “dog stuff” the day before our visit to meet Aly and Fudgie, she came home with two of everything, “just in case”. 

Aly had Fudgie prepared for us to meet and we were impressed by him. Then Aly suggested that we meet other dogs, and she brought out Tommy. He was covered with his shaggy winter coat, and he was slow to get near us, but when he sat down leg to leg next to my wife on the snow, I knew we were going to bring home two dogs.  

Neither of these little cockers had ever lived in a home or been on a leash. Nor were they bonded to each other at the shelter, as other dogs sometimes are. We knew from the ICR Web site that puppy mill rescues can be more difficult to live with than other dogs: skittish with their new owners; fearful near strangers; liable to bolt because of an unexpected noise or movement; no house training; no understanding of how to walk on a leash. Fudgie and Tommy were all these things. But not for long.

They soon warmed to us. The house training I expected to take weeks took days (though there is still an occasional accident as we try to stretch out the time between potty breaks.) Panic at being leashed was gone by the time we got home from Aly’s, and within one day they were walking at our side or a step behind and have been doing it ever since. No dog in our neighborhood comes close to being as good on a leash as Fudgie and Tommy. They readily obey sit, stay and come commands. If we’re walking the dogs and stop to speak with a neighbor, they patiently sit, often without being told. Neighbors praise the dogs’ behavior.

They still are fearful near strangers (but not so much); still jumpy at unexpected sounds and movements.

All in all, though, my family and I (and our neighbors) have been amazed at the progress these little guys have made.

We know some dogs adjust more easily than others. Many of our neighbors have told us how lucky we are to have gotten such great rescue dogs, and we agree, but we believe there’s another factor at work: Aly’s great care. Fudgie and Tommy spent a long time with her and were ready for someone who wanted to give them a new home.

Her Illinois Cocker Rescue Web site is loaded with great information anyone interested in adopting puppy mill dogs should read. And, of course, Aly herself is a great resource for anyone with questions.

I would like to say we made Fudgie and Tommy into great dogs in a short a time, but I can’t. They already were great dogs. It was a matter of bringing their greatness out.

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