I started volunteering at PAWS as a dog walker, but felt I wasn’t making as much positive change in the lives of these dogs just by walking, feeding, and spending time with them on a weekly basis, so I joined the Pet Partner program. By choosing one dog to work with weekly on discipline and training, I could see even more positive change happening. I chose Pretty Mae as my first Pet Partner because she promised to be a challenge. She’s a beautiful little pit bull with all the strength and determination that comes with that breed. Pretty Mae was originally a stray from Huntingdon County, and while very sweet and loving, she had no manners or training. She’s easily excited, and when highly excited, tends to forget there is a human on the end of the leash and totally ignores spoken commands. Luckily, Pretty Mae loves cheese so I quickly learned to have a cheese stick at every training session. She picked up on what I wanted her to do fairly quickly but, true to her breed, would at times look at me as if to say “Nope, I know a better way to do this!” That’s when I had to call upon the patience I have learned when working with elders with dementia! Repetition, patience, and positive reinforcement are what are needed at all times with these dogs. She has become an excellent jogging partner with me and will “heel” better when I jog with her than when we are walking. She loves to play and goes crazy over squeaky toys, so I did not use them for at least the first month of her training. I knew I had to get her excitement under control before we could return to playing with squeaky toys. Once she consistently obeyed the “drop it” command, I was able to reintroduce the squeaky toys and she would then drop them on command as well. That was real progress in her case.
I felt it was important for her to learn to sit before entering/exiting any doors just to keep her excitement level down. She very quickly learned that. I then learned that she REALLY hates to sit on the cold, concrete floor, even for a few seconds. We compromised on a “hover sit” at those doors.
I decided that the most important commands to teach her would be “sit,” “stay,” “drop it,” “leave it,” “down,” “heel,” and “come.” Surprisingly to me, the one that she has had the most difficulty with is the “come” command. I believe that when she is adopted, her bond with her person will make that command much easier for her.
Pretty Mae is much loved by all the workers at PAWS especially since she now has learned some more manners. I knew it would be a big challenge for her to find a loving home without some of those basic commands under her collar. She’s currently being fostered by a couple who are fairly certain they will adopt her and I’m hoping that’s the way it will work out. I have met with them and demonstrated all of the training I have done with her, so they know exactly what to expect from her. It’s pretty bittersweet, though, because I know I will lose a piece of my heart once she’s with her new forever family, and I know that I’m not the only person at PAWS who feels that way about her. I know that without the training we Pet Partners do for our beloved charges their potential adopters would face many more challenges and some of them would likely not be up for those challenges. This program makes a huge, positive difference in helping more dogs get loving forever homes. It gives the adopters a head start on training and it gives the Pet Partner trainers some wonderful new memories to cherish.