Hello I'm obsessed with my handsome, spastic, over-protective, cuddly, wonderful, goofy little man. But you probably already knew that.
5 years ago, I saw a picture of Dex on a shelter's facebook page and instantly fell in love. This dude has given me so much joy ever since so I decided that he deserved an entire blog post. You ready for this cuteness? I'm not sure you're heart can handle the cuteness but we'll try...
There it is. The picture that started it all. I mean, come on, look at that face! Can you blame me for instantly falling in love? I literally saw this picture at 3am (after a bartending shift), jumped out of bed, wiped tears from my eyes and filled out an adoption form without a second thought. The shelter invited me to their adoption event the next day so that I could meet Dex and I was so excited that I barely slept.
I woke up super early the next day out of sheer giddy-ness. When I walked into the adoption event, my boy sprinted across the store and greeted me at the door. He was whining, his tail was wagging a million miles a minute and he kissed my chin like crazy. A shelter employee came over and said, "I'm so sorry! He's just very excited to meet a potential adopter" I was thrilled to tell her that I was the potential adopter. I knew in that moment that he was going to be mine. To this day, that's the closest I've come to love at first sight.
I played with Dex as much as I could before heading home. At one point, another man expressed interest and I gave him the dirtiest look in the world. I guess that's when the shelter figured out that I'd be taking him home because they immediately brought me adoption paperwork. I signed and handed over my tips from the night before. Just like that, the boy was MINE!
The first few months were so stinking cute, I can't even tell you. Little man was confused about popcorn in the microwave, he chased every squirrel in sight and he could not stop spooning me. I was in puppy heaven.
Most days were adorable and cuddly and goofy. But over the years, I realized that some of Dexter's behaviors were a little aggressive. I know now that he has resource guarding tendencies and some sensitivity to touch. Basically, he thinks that people are going to take his favorite things away from him or they are out to hurt us (me and him). At first, I didn't think much of it because my childhood dog, Dew, was a rescue pup too and he was exactly the same way. Misunderstood, overprotective and, sometimes, not very friendly. But I know that Dew and Dex are just looking out for their own safety as well as the safety of their humans.
When he was about 5 years old, I got Dexter into more training to fix some of these behaviors. It was difficult to see the trainer, Dan, confused by Dexter's behavior and it was even harder for me to see Dexter mildly lash out at him for trying to help. Luckily, our trainer was incredibly patient with us and gave us a lot of helpful information to make life a little bit easier. But ultimately, this is just the way Dex is. He's not perfect, but is anyone really?
I should note that Dexter's behavior has gotten better since training. He has even bonded with his new puppy brother, Bailey! Never thought I'd see the day that Dexter willingly let a puppy nip at his face or run zoomies around him, but here we are! They're really the cutest weenie roommates you could ask for.
No exaggeration, I could talk about my love for Dexter for days. Instead, I'll just leave you with a few lessons that he has taught me over the years:
Do NOT adopt/get a dog until you're absolutely ready. Of course the timing will never be completely perfect, but building a bond and training a dog takes a lot of time so you need to make sure that you can commit to it. Getting a new pup is a time consuming process between potty training, basic obedience, snuggling, leash training, socializing and just basic scheduling. It may be exhausting at times, but the more time you put in, the better your lives will be in the long run.
To piggy back off of that, be patient with your dog AND yourself. No one is an expert dog-trainer. Even professional dog trainers have their off-moments. Your dog may have little quirks that take time to work out. Believe me, you will get frustrated and cry about it. Honestly, I cried a lot. But take a deep breath, ask for help, do a million google searches and you'll be okay in no time!
Take a million pictures. I already know that you will, but trust me, you could always use more. Side note, adding pictures to this post was nearly impossible because Dex is a model and doesn't take a bad picture.
Hug your pup as much as you can. My childhood dog, Dew, was roughly 17 years old by the time we had to put him down. The end of his life was not great but I was still absolutely heartbroken when my dad called to tell me that he had passed. However, each time I saw Dew leading up to that day, I took 20 minutes to hug his head and tell him how much I adored him because I knew it might be the last time. I promise, your dog will never get tired of getting love from you. I'm going to grab Dexter's face and tell him I love him right now (it's basically our nightly routine).
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