exactly 8 years ago today my wonderful Happy baby was born!
Happy was my first dog that was mine(Shadow was a family dog) when I was 8 my parents said I could have my own dog was I was "older", at 13 I decided that I was in fact "older" and started begging for my own dog. I had wanted something small, a Cavie or a Skye Terrier were my picks, but my mom wanted to do dogsports so she convinced me to get a Border Collie..the search began! while I was at school one day my mom had gone to the local feed store and found an add for BC puppies and a website, my parents checked out the breeder and they fell in love with this puppy:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...y_7weeks-1.jpg
my parnets called the breeder and talked to her, and brought me out to see the puppies a few days later, at the breeder I was in love with 2 pups, a little blue merle who's name at the time was "pudge"(became "Punch") and Happy. my mom decided Happy would be a better fit for me because she was a lot more submissive then Punch and since I was only 13 and it was my first dog nevermind my first BC! that night I brought home 10 week old "Happy"
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...rst_home-1.jpg
Happy became my baby, she always came with me to parks and my friends houses, for walks and runs etc.. however growing up with Happy was not all fun and games..Happy had problems, terrable aggression issues, she was sick all the time and in and out of the vets, I remember sitting on the bathroom floor with her, eating my supper and feeding her water through a dropper. after a few months we discovered raw diets, figered instead of weaning her off the bland rice and broth back onto her kibble, we would give this raw thing a shot. the difference was almost immediate, she was never that sick again, even now when she goes to the vet, the vet always comments how Happy is one of the healthiest dogs she has ever seen..if only she knew Happy 8 years ago!!
Happys aggression problems however will still a problem, we started systmatic desensitization and took her to a private trainer, when my mom went grocery shopping I came along with happy and worked with her outside the store, everytime there was a parent teacher day at school I took her to the grounds and got people to play with her..all the staff at school knew Happy! then came the breakthrough, one day a solisiter came to the door, instead of attacking..Happy brought him a toy! my mom was so delighted she donated to the cause. ever since then Happy has been delightful with people, she adores children(she used to be the worst with kids) and has since becaome the naighborhood dog, the dog that everyone in the naighborhood knows and loves. Happy still has dog aggression issues, but they have improved a great deal, to the point that she was able to happily work in a crowded room with more then a dozen other strange dogs around her..and nobody ever had a clue that she had aggression issues.
Happy 8th birthday Happy!!!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...r/IMG_0247.jpg
