Loving a Difficult Dog: The Story of Gus pt.1
Yup, it’s true. Dogs can be difficult. And I don’t mean difficult like they won’t come in the house when you call them or they keep jumping on you. Difficult like you have to be one step ahead of them at all times. Difficult like you can’t travel unless you bring them with you. Difficult like you have to warn people not to use paper towels when they’re at your house. Difficult like you can’t even have guests over. Difficult like your life looks completely different now. And if you have ever owned a dog like this, you understand exactly what I mean. How does one deal with a difficult dog? How does one love a difficult dog? Let’s talk about Gus.
Gus was my French Bulldog who I recently said goodbye to this summer at the age of 8 years old. I got Gus when he was just about a year old. He was a client’s dog and what I would classify as a dominant and difficult dog. In his first home, he was a sweet and social dog… until he wasn’t. He was brought home by a couple who wanted to start their family with a puppy, as most people do. Unbeknownst to them, they would not have the typical puppy experience that most of us get. Gus was challenging. He was not afraid to assert his opinion on things through aggression. During his time with his original owners, he was loved and cared for and provided with everything a little French Bulldog could ever want. And yet, he was still difficult for them. Because the reality is love doesn’t fix these things. If it did, these owners would have been able to keep their first dog.
His previous owners worked really hard and for a long time trying to curb his aggression and make things work. Unfortunately, dealing with a difficult dog takes a lot of experience, a lot of patience, and a lot of time to obtain the skills necessary to manage the dog. And often times, a lot of mistakes which in this case means being able to take a bite. With a new baby in the house, it just was not a safe situation for the family to continue trying to work through things and so they made the very difficult decision of loving him enough to rehome him to me.
As a new trainer, a rehab project dog that I could train and rehome was a challenge I was up for! At the time, I didn’t want to add another dog to my pack, so the plan was to get these issues under control and find someone who could manage Gus and his quirks while loving him. I was humbled so quickly by this little, difficult dog. I obviously had more experience than his original owners, but man was he ready to challenge me and give me a run for my money.
I integrated Gus into my pack rather smoothly, which consisted of my pitbull mix Ransom, a Belgian Malinois named Outlaw, and our family dog Ace who was a vizsla mix. Admittedly, this was the easiest portion of his integration for two reasons. One, a dog like Gus thrives when communication is clear and when his communication is clearly understood and respected— and dogs are generally very good communicators with eachother. And two, I happened to have a pack of rather submissive, go with the flow type dogs so this Napoleon Complexed little foster easily made himself king amongst the big dogs. He was very much a “as long as things go my way, we’re good” kinda guy. Respect. He didn’t mind challenging others whereas my pack was very conflict avoidant which allowed him to to easily get along with them.
Gus and I had a rough start. The first few months were filled with blood, sweat, tears, and frustraion. He bit me. A lot. He challenged me constantly. He lived with his ecollar and leash on at all times for awhile because he was so quick to get triggered and would go from 0-100 real quick. But over time, I began to learn his triggers better:
if he vomits, which as a frenchie was not uncommon, either let him eat it or get him away from it quickly and don’t let him watch you clean it up
don’t use scissors in front of him
don’t walk into the house if he’s standing by the door. Get him to move away from the door first.
Don’t pick up dropped food on the ground
Don’t zip up your jacket in front of him
don’t let him see you put your shoes on
don’t leave the house in a way that draws attention to you leaving
don’t put him in the crate without a reward, and don’t shut that door unless he is distracted by the food he’s eating
I mean seriously, it was ridiculous. I and my family walked on eggshells for months with him in the beginning. But I was committed to my goal of training him and finding him the perfect home. So over the course of many months, I finally reached a point where I felt like his behaviors were managed enough where he was safe, his offleash obedience was on point, he was completely neutral to everything and anything in public. I mean, aside from his issues he was really a cool ass dog! Atleast he was for me….