If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?

Ohhhhh… today’s subject is something I can get behind. For those who are new, ⬆️ that is our dog Luna. Her story is kinda one of my things!

Cliff notes, Luna has been with us for a little over a year. She is an Australian Kelpie/ Doberman who came to me through a shelter program after an extremely rough start to life. Long story short, she was found on tied to a rope in the Mohave Desert outside of Rocky Point, Mexico.

Emaciated and infested with brown ticks, she had been left for dead. ☠️

Somehow, the shear resiliency of this scrawny, nearly dead puppy managed to cause enough chaos for the owner of a local rescue to take notice.

It took them 6 weeks to bring this ball of anxiety back to health, but the dog once known as Pepsi would not be rehabbed there. Instead she was about to get spayed and become an immigrant to the United States.

Now this is the part where I get to talk about the privatized shelter system in the United States.

This is the first picture I had ever taken of my dog. It was to be sent to the other family members for all parties input on the household decision.

Of course, it only took her a few minutes before she warmed up enough to me to steal my heart. The immediately stood up, made direct eye contact and began lightly licking the lock on the cage.

I looked at my significant other and said, “She’s coming home.” I didn’t realize that would involve him basically carrying her out of the door while the shelter worker attempted to use a support dog just to get her through the front door.

At this point, I had no idea the extent of ‘Jolly Glitters’ damage.

Of course the shelter tried to tell us that they didn’t know what was wrong with her. They gave us what little medical information that she had, and her US Naturalization Papers.

Getting little to no information from the shelter, I started to dig.

Short of learning fluent Latin American Spanish, drive 2.5 hour, to physically cross the boarder and put myself in a more sketchy situation that I’d normally prefer to be in…

Everything above is what I know.

Now, let’s get to the actual question shall we.

I’m going to piggyback this answer off another blog I read this morning. The writer is a Kenyan National. They explained the “dog culture” in their corner of the world. Yet they posed an extremely important question.

Quoting directly from the article linked by ManingWrites

And now here is where the curiosity kicks in. For those who have dogs as pets ( I know it’s most of you) where do they pee? Or where do they deposit their stool? Is it inside the house? On your bed, kitchen, on your clothes, or even inside your car? What if your dog has some sort of diarrhoea or constipation, what happens. Or you mistakenly lock them inside the house then come back later to find the mess all over the house? How do you deal with that?

To answer your question, treat them like children.

Yes, some people do allow their animals to defecate all over their home. Usually, that is something more commonly seen on an episode of Hoarders, or if you live in the land of the lost that is the Midwest.

However, most non-yard owning Americans go to their local retail store and buy a baby pool and a disposable sanitary product called puppy pads. They are the less expensive version of Granny’s “I had an accident” bed pads.

Then we start a process of retraining the animal to potty – this is key- ONLY in the designated potty area.

To be completely honest, it’s no different that training young children.

It’s a process and, accidents do happen. This is where the temperament of the owner really comes into play. It takes just shy of everything in me not to discipline just based on the smell. But, I cannot yell.

Unless your dog is a straight up asshole, they will shame or even try to hide it themselves. They do not need the added confusion of you barking orders at them for something they legitimately could not control.

Not sorry to break it to all of you, but we’ve all shit our pants in public. Then we grew the fuck up. Yet, even at that some of us have IBS and are still blowing it the fuck up. Better out than in.

But usually if you keep the animal contained in an approved crate while you’re away, they will naturally not go in the places they eat nor lay.

Crate training also provides the dog an enclosed “safe space”. The dog naturally wants to burrow in order to rest with safety. In wild dogs the natural burrows will generally burrow deep in bushes, dug down into the earth. For smaller breeds such as the Chihuahua, they are native to the high caves canyons Central and South America. So these dogs will thrive with a burrow high on the back of the couch!

Once your dog has fully adjusted to you, has a safe burrow and the consistency to alert you when they need to go outside- you’re golden.

If you start with a puppy who has been properly weened and healthy, you can start this process as early as 8 weeks. The puppy will already be fully already and probably covered in their own dedication from being confined with their litter mates with only occasional access to their mother. They will be eating independently and requiring minimal life support from their mother.

If you start with an extremely unsocialized fully developed sheep dog with an anxiety disorder, you very well be looking at programmed retraining for many years to come.

The bottom line, and overall answer to this entire daily prompt is and always should be-

🐾 MY PET SHOULD UNDERSTAND THAT THEIR IS A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART FOR THEM. ♥️

I complain about her constantly to anyone that will listen. But honestly, I don’t know what I would do without my best friend.

Hope this answers all your questions, and as usual try to have a bearable Monday! 🍋💋