Ken Comments: My life as a dog trainer and behaviorist is NEVER boring. I have been very blessed to be able to do what I do and have the confidence and trust of some major institutions and organizations who have asked me for help when needed. This was one of these cases. What do you do when you are asked by the RNC to come help them in a case where there is an abandon home, an unknown number of pit bulls in the home with unknown temperaments in unknown shape? Well, you get your ass in gear and go help. If you want to read more about this story and these dogs click on the Story of the CBS Seven.
I will never forget seeing Willa in her pen. She was covered with feces, standing ankle deep in it but was so excited to see me. There was no door on the pen. In order to get her out, I had to jump in and lift her over the partition. I did so and the silly fool jumped right back in with me and up in my arms as soon as I got her to the other side. To say it was love at first sight was an understatement.
At times, our elected officials and governement departments get slammed with a lot of criticism. In the case of these guys, the town of CBS did so much right. They actively and intensely scrutinized potential new homes, and had them sign an agreement that they must do a one on one with me in order to set these dogs up for success. I am happy to report that the only one dog that was brought back was from an owner complaining about the issues that did not do the one on one. When the new owners of THAT dog did one, they reported progress and a year later, he is living a happy and healthy life.
Bill was one of the first to contact me. In this home, I saw loving owners who would be patient and understanding and would watch Willa grow and develop into the dog I knew she could be. I was also very proud to see Willa remember me. Willa is a regular on the group dog walk, has completed level one basic obedience training and is currently almost finished the advanced course. To see her physically now, you would never know she is the same dog. Oh, and she has some of the most unique ears EVER. So proud of this girl and how far she has come.
This is Bill’s and Willa’s Story
On a cold, December day in 2013, I first met Willa. Staring at me from inside a cage at CBS Humane Services was a skinny, rough looking little pitty girl, whose furiously wagging tail and “pitty smile” belied the obvious external appearances of having recently lived a very, very hard life. Backtrack a few days and I was one of the many who had witnessed the story of the “CBS 7” on local news broadcasts and been smitten by the plight of these seven poor dogs and the hardships they had suffered and barely survived. Scars, both physical and mental, would no doubt have to be healed and I felt I could not complain about what had happened to them if could I not also step up and try to help them. We were already in the process of looking for another, larger dog , at the time and never did we think that the “help” we could provide would be to offer one of them a permanent home.
So, back to that initial encounter with “Miss Happy Pants” as Ken had dubbed her the night of the rescue, and as I bent down to greet her, offering the back of my hand to her to scent through the wire – but out came her tongue about 6 inches instead trying to lick my hand, tail still furiously wagging and making these little whining noises. That did it, I was hooked, HAD to have her – that look of longing and just wanting to be wanted in her face and no way I could think of getting any other dog then than her. I guess we had picked each other at that point. Didin’t know much else about her just then, but was sure whatever we would have to work through to make it all work, could be done. Expressed my desire to adopt her to the wonderful folks at CBS Humane Services, only to be told they would develop a list for screening for potentional homes and I would have to wait until that process was settled. Well, talk about an anxious wait! And I would still have to explain to my wife that…umm… dear..umm…yea ok lets get a “pitbull”!
Well that last part went over well, she’s always been supportive of me in wild and crazy schemes so it was all “a go” to make a home for Willa. Went through the screening process, and no doubt probably drove HS nuts calling back asking “is it done yet” (like a kid, I have no patience LOL) and finally received a call “can you take her this evening?” on January 2nd, 2014. What a day! There are moments in life that you will always carry with you and take with you to your grave – picking up Willa from Humane Services was one of those moments. She had put on a few more pounds, but was still very skinny and her coat in particular was in really rough shape, with bald patches, scabs on her knees and elbows, and fur falling out all over. But her tail was still wagging and she was still smiling and spirit was obviously still unbroken.
Home she went with us, met our other 3 “small ones”, was completely unfazed about any of it, other than stairs – more on that later, and she settled into our routine and our hearts. OK, we have a rescue…a pitbull, now what? Onto Ken Reid, who I honestly had not heard of before. Living fairly sheltered "dog lives" with three small Shih Tzu mixes, who were more than happy to live their entire lives indoors and in our back yard, I hadn’t at that point heard anything of group walks, or training classes, or any of those things that are such large parts of our lives now. But we had committed to a one-on-one with HS with this “Ken Reid guy” so we followed through and set up our appointment. Ken showed up a few days later to a cacophony of small dogs going nuts, and a relatively (in comparison LOL) quiet Willa. She immediately recognized him and, as the night of the rescue, jumped into his arms and reaquainted herself. Ken then laid out a detailed plan of approach to properly integrating Willa into our extended family of people and pups, and told us about the group walks and formal training available. So sounding like a good overall approach, we followed his directions from tethering, to socializing, to feeding and training, and so the real work began. First, as mentioned earlier, was overcoming a roadblock Willa had with stairs – she just would not go up/down them for us, no matter what we had tried up to that point. Ken quickly fixed that and had us working with Willa through her food drive to conquer other unwanted behaviour. As friendly and non-aggressive as she was, Willa did need some work with socializing, as I’m sure many remember her turkey-talking and strange baby stroller fascination from the early days. The latter has been controlled, with the help of a lot of work put in by our daughter in de-sensitizing Willa to things-with-wheels-that-move, while the former has become much reduced, along with her overall excitement in the presence of other dogs. She is still a work in progress, is still in training, but she has come a long long way and has rewarded us in spades with her companionship and personality and joy to be around. She has recently helped welcome a new pup into our household, and is honestly being a great help with her in teaching her how a dog behaves within a household and around other people, and in normal dog-dog interactions from play to just sitting around and being relaxed. Willa: the rescue, the pitbull, the turkey-talker, she's had a lot of labels in her young life and she's all of those and more, but most importantly she’s simply my best bud!
Pic s: Very first few minutes at our home – you can see how small she was at the time, but you can also see how her tail was just a blur from wagging! And as she is now, a solid, strong, muscle-bound bundle of energy and love!
