Foreword

Adopting a rescue dog is not always easy. When placing a dog with a new family we have expectations that the new family will work through the issues that come up. In some cases, like Ernie's, it's a lot to expect. Ernie's story was written by his new mom at our request for two reasons. First, we want to share it with potential adopters. Not many adoptions are as difficult as Ernie's but all require commitment. Secondly, we wanted to thank and acknowledge the amazing job done by his adoptive parents. You're an inspiration to us all.

Ernie's Story

After a year of serious thinking, in the summer of 2001 we decided that it was the right time to get a dog. For years we had admired the boxer's beautiful appearance and personality. We had researched everything we could about the breed and confirmed that it was the one for us. Although we had entertained the thought of going to a breeder, we'd always loved the idea of rescue.

We were looking for the "typical" boxer- one that was intelligent and brave, full of humour and enjoyed life to the fullest. We went through the screening process with Boxer Rescue and shortly after, the call came in that there was a 5-month-old fawn puppy by the name of Ernie at a foster home in Welland. Ernie's foster mom Jodie, sent pictures of an enormous looking puppy! We made the drive and arrived to find just a little boxer- big ears, big paws, gangly legs and a little body - much different than the full-grown giant who had appeared in the pictures. We were in love! He was so affectionate and loved to romp and play with his boxer friends. We spent a couple of hours with him, playing with him and learning about his past. We left Jodie's for a short time to pick up some doggy supplies, returning to fill out the paperwork and take him home. There was no question in our minds that this would be our newest family member. All the way home he snuggled in my lap, sleeping and snoring quietly.

Having Ernie home was a lot of work from the very first minutes, as a 5-month-old boxer seems to have much more energy than any normal human being (or superhero for that matter…), but we had so much fun. We enjoyed walking him every day and playing out in the yard; while we were at work he would happily go into his crate for a kong with a dog treat inside. I would come home at the end of the day to one happy puppy and one dry crate- he was so good at holding it all day. He wouldn't cry or whine when we left and seemed to feel pretty confident on his own. Things couldn't have been better.

2 weeks later we were getting ready to move. Whether it was the process of packing up, or whether Ernie was becoming more attached to us we'll never know, but that is where our problems began. Vets and any research I had read said that moving should not be a traumatic experience so long as a dog can rely on staying with its owners- we figured our move would be no cause for concern. Two nights before our move we noticed that Ernie began following us around everywhere, getting incredibly excited when we would leave and return, even if we were only to take out the garbage. It's only in retrospect that we realize these should have been our first warning signs. The day before our move, Ernie and I drove my husband to the GO station to go to work- once Jason had left the car and was out of sight, Ernie began to cry and defecated in the back seat of my car, creating an enormous mess all over himself, the inside of our vehicle and me. It was everywhere. I was in tears as I begged a detailing company to help me clean up the remnants of Ernie's panic.

Over the next few weeks his behaviour began to change rapidly. He began to fear his crate; no amount of treats or coaxing would make him go in, even though we had never used it for punishment. We literally had to pick him up, put him down in front of the door and give his bum a gentle push to go in. Once in his crate he would immediately pee, barking, crying and shaking like a leaf. He would save any treats we put in his crate until we got home, as if he were afraid he might need them if we didn't come back. We consulted Ernie's foster mom and others from Boxer Rescue who gave us suggestions for helping to Ernie relax, their support was invaluable but Ernie was just too anxious to work with. I researched separation anxiety on the web, I spoke to numerous vets, trainers from our obedience class, a behaviourist and read articles and books galore. Our problem kept getting worse. It seemed that there were no easy answers, as anything we tried seemed to fail. To outsiders- friends and family members- it seemed funny that our dog was somehow "depressed", it was a joke to them. To vets and trainers, our case was classified as "serious". In many ways we felt alone as if there were no light at the end of the tunnel.

Over a month or two things escalated to the point where any time one of us would pick up our keys, walk towards an outside door or put on our shoes Ernie would panic and pee on the floor. The stress was unbelievable. Here we were in a brand new house and almost every inch of our new carpet on the main floor was peed on. We were sick of cleaning up the mess and trying to fix the smell. We couldn't take him anywhere for fear he would panic in the car or at someone else's house. We felt confined to our home for fear we would cause Ernie anxiety if we went out; it was as if we were planning our whole lives around our pet. We began to argue a lot more over how to deal with the problem. As I was the one who researched this problem night and day it was much harder for my husband to understand how we could change Ernie's behaviour when I made suggestions. I felt like he was lazy and careless when it came to dealing with Ernie's problem; he probably felt like I was a know-it-all!

We tried desensitization exercises like turning locks or jiggling door handles every time we walked by them. We'd put on our coats and shoes and sit in the living room to watch television. We tried different types of crates, we left the radio on when we were gone, we bought every toy imaginable. We ignored him for 15 minutes before leaving and after coming home. We'd leave him for very short periods of time but he wouldn't even tolerate 2 seconds without panicking. We went to obedience classes and worked on exercises to increase his confidence. I'd spend 45 minutes training him every day but to no avail. After weeks and weeks, nothing had changed.

Things came to their worst in late January of 2002 when I came home to find Ernie in his crate full of vomit, urine and feces. The fur on his nose was rubbed raw from pushing his nose against the crate door; the bars were bent were he apparently tried to chew his way out and his claws were bloodied from the scratch marks on the bottom of the metal crate. We suspect he had tried to dig his way out. We were at a complete loss, both in tears we seriously considered surrendering him back to boxer rescue, but the thought of being without our little pumpkin was sickening. In all other respects he was the perfect boy- a wonderful companion and so affectionate. I tried and tried to rationalize that giving him back would be better, but in the back of my head I knew we had to stick it out a little while longer. The poor guy had been through a lot in his 8 months, shifted from the pet store to his first owner, to the Humane Society to Boxer Rescue and then to us. He needed us- giving him up again might send him into an even deeper spiral. We couldn't do it, and although things were at an all time low, we trudged on, determined to make things better.

Last March, after 6 months of suffering and in a last ditch effort we made the decision to put Ernie on Clomicalm, an OCD medication for humans and the drug of choice for pet separation anxiety. At first we were reluctant to use Clomicalm for fear of dampening Ernie's boisterous personality; I realize now, we should have done this sooner. After 3 weeks on the drug I noticed Ernie's anxiety start to lower, bringing him down to a level where he could start "relearning" calmer, more positive behaviours. Over time he stopped pacing when we would get ready to leave and the peeing on the carpet mostly subsided. With lots of practice (and 2 peanut butter kongs, some cheese and a lot of praise) he began to enjoy going into his crate, drooling and running right to the crate door when I pulled out the peanut butter. We began extensive densensitization exercises, obedience and confidence building, combined with short absences and very uneventful comings and going. Slowly he seemed to improve. By August of 2002, we tried taking him off his medication with success. Today, Ernie does not take medication although he gets "concerned" when either of us leaves, watching to see where we are going, he quickly settles down. What a relief!

Unfortunately, he still goes pee in his crate every day, not immediately upon going in, but after 3-4 hours. We figure that he's gotten so used to urinating in his crate that he goes anytime he feels the urge. We also continued to have housebreaking issues- it took until just recently to get Ernie to understand that it's not OK to urinate in the house. Again, this took dozens of accidents on the rug to correct, and probably stemmed from the one hundred times he had accidents in the house from anxiety.

Today we have to watch that we are VERY careful about maintaining a routine to prevent relapse of the separation anxiety - I can see now how easy it would be to revert back to another episode. It seems that we have gotten over the worst but we take each day as it comes, appreciating all the hard work we have put into getting Ernie where he is today- a more well behaved, confident dog. It's been a long road but deep down, we're all better for it- we've learned by trial and error and won't make the same mistakes again and Ernie is finally settled into a more stable routine. We think he understands this time, that we'll always be there, that no matter what we'll stay together- he's even venturing out on his own a little more (now sleeping on a futon at night in the spare bedroom!). We're convinced he needed us and that we were brought together for a reason. Because we were able to stick it out and were determined to do the best we could for him, he is rewarding us 100 fold today.