As is the case with most
teenagers, Target’s hormones during this time were through the roof. He had been fairly aggressive about “taking
advantage” of things at a very young age so as he matured it wasn’t surprising
that this behaviour continued to escalate. His favorite toy to show affection
for was his blue dragon toy, Dudley (or Dudley the Dominated as he came to be
known as). When I broached the subject with the vet, she told me quite simply
to show him that it wasn’t something that mommy and daddy approved of and he
would eventually take the hint and stop.
While I was very aware that my
dog was, in fact, a dog and not a person, I still had to question how many
teenage boys would just “stop” because of parental disapproval. I would quite often catch Target being
promiscuous when he thought I wasn’t looking.
Our couch cushions took a beating.
So did the Incredible Hulk Stuffed animal I kept in the reading chair in
the bedroom as well as, poor Dudley.
Meanwhile, the most common piece
of advice we received about curbing, both this unwanted behaviour as well as
his other teenage afflictions was that the easiest place to start was to get
him neutered. We hadn’t planned to breed
dogs even before we found out Target was deaf, but like most things puppy or
baby related, the reviews on this were mixed.
Wait until growth plates closed?
Neuter early in case all of this out of control humping eventually, accidentally
led to me being a fur-grandma at 28?
One day, while we were still trying
to make the decision, I came home from work exhausted. I flopped down on the couch and decided to
rest my eyes, just for 5 minutes. I woke
10 minutes later with a jolt, only to find Target going to town on my arm!
He was his dad’s dog that
night, too.
After that it was an unspoken
agreement in our house that Target would be neutered as soon as possible and I
made the appointment.
There was no issue with the
procedure. My mom and I dropped Target
off in the morning and picked him up in the afternoon. The vet told me he had been his usual happy
go lucky self the whole time, and he was when I picked him up. The only difference was how ridiculously
doped up he was. Despite my best efforts
to heed the vet’s advice and keep him quiet, he didn’t want to wait for me to
lift him into the car and bounced into the backseat. As always mom was a little too slow for him.
That night, drugged up and
feeling a little gross, he sat next to my dad in the living room. The women in his life couldn’t be trusted and
he watched us suspiciously Grandpa
understood, he had lived with us a long time.
It was a difficult two weeks
waiting for him to heal. He chewed his
way out of his e-collar, but didn’t disturb his stitches. To this day, I’m positive that he did that
just to prove to us that he could.
After that, the sage advice
was accurate and he calmed right down.
He put on a few pounds that we had to work to take off, but for the most
part, for a few months he was a calm, gentle obedient dog.
This was when I taught Target
most of his signs. We learned words that
weren’t common tricks or dog language. It
would be an ongoing process, I would start writing down words I wanted to teach
him as they came to me and we’d go to work every evening and weekend.
At the pet store one day, the
pet store associate was signing to Target and making him crawl across the floor
for his treat. She asked me if I had
seen the girl who dances with her dogs.
I didn’t know her at the time (this was before her stint on America’s
Got Talent so I don’t know if anybody else really did at the time either), but
this girl was Sara Carson and the dog was Hero.
My mission to further the
cause of deaf dogs had been put on hold while I dealt with Target’s behavioural
issues. The last thing I wanted to do
was present a deaf border collie to the world, with a flourish, a glowing
example of why everybody should want a deaf dog… only to have him go running
past towing a dead Rosemary tree and barking at his mom while she tries to get
it back. Now though, I could get back to
that dream. I decided that there
wouldn’t be limitations to what I taught Target and I started researching all
of the different and complex tricks that people were teaching their dogs.
I was determined that
I would show the world that a deaf dog was just as capable as a hearing
dog. Little did I know, that I wasn’t at
the end of the issues I was having with Target.
Little did I know, that the future of Target’s issues would stand to
prove a much bigger point about deaf dogs than just the types of tricks I could
teach him.
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