Our family had to do something that was painfully difficult this past weekend – heartbreaking, really. As much as we had grown to love (and she us) our adorable Wheaten terrier/poodle mix puppy Win-Win, we had to return her to the rescue group we adopted her from.
It’s very complicated, but as hard as we had tried to work with Win since she joined us a little over 4 months ago, her often uncontrollable behavior had been causing unending stress for Kay, me, our two young adult children and our 12-year-old cat Teena. We absolutely hated to do this to Win and wanted so badly for this to work out. We miss her terribly (Kay and I can’t stop bringing her up), but she just wasn’t a good fit for our family.
The stress started a week after we adopted Win, when I was carrying her outside in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, tripped over a chair and broke my right femur. That was entirely my fault, of course. But as Kay and I have been saying, it’s just been a really stressful year for us all between my health issues and dealing with poor little Win.
Here’s what we are certain of, and what we told the rescue group folks: Win needs another dog to play with – something we can’t provide. I think that would help resolve some of her issues. She has boundless energy, and as much time as we tried to spend playing with Win (she loves chasing tennis balls and playing in water), she needs constant attention. A canine companion would help provide that for her.
We know she’s a puppy (8 months old now), but we’re dog people and have had them forever, including puppies, and we’ve never had one as mischievous and all-out wild as Win was most of the time. Poor Kay was covered in Band-Aids and bruises because no matter what we said or did, Win would not stop biting all of us. She wasn’t trying to hurt us, of course, but she would bite (or try to) any body part she could reach, even when we were just trying to pet her. If my face was close to hers and she felt the urge, she’d bite my face. Fortunately, my reactions were usually quick enough.
Win also constantly jumped up on us as we were standing or walking (often biting us along the way), jumped up to reach cabinets, countertops, sinks, beds – and whatever clothing, food, papers and other items she could pull down. She made a game of pilfering Kay’s shoes, socks and headbands, towels, rags, placemats off the kitchen table, anything she could reach, and running around the house with them. We spent months chasing her to get them back and finally realized we had fallen into her game trap and didn’t do it as much anymore – unless it was something we didn’t want damaged.
The words “no” (said loudly and forcefully) and “Win, down” were heard hundreds of times in our home over the past 4 months. Occasionally, she complied. Much of the time, she didn’t.
As I’ve written before, one of Win’s favorite activities was going into the backyard (through her “doggie window”), picking up sticks, grass, bugs, rocks, tomatoes, even a jalapeno – again, anything she could find – then dashing through the window into the house with her treasure and making a mess with it. Our floors have been littered with nature since we adopted Win on April 20.
Another unwanted “toy” Win often brought into the house: her poop. Unfortunately, she also had the disgusting habit, fairly common among dogs, of eating hers. She didn’t do it all the time, and we did our best to quickly pick up after she did her business. We also tried a couple of the food additives that are supposed to address this problem, but they didn’t work.
In recent weeks, we tried putting cayenne pepper on one of her droppings but it happened to be one she didn’t pay attention to. But it was those times when she brought her poop into the house and ate it there – often with me chasing her on my bum right leg to try to take it away – that it was increasingly difficult to be patient. But she was just so doggone precious.
Yes, we could’ve given Win more time to grow out of some of these behaviors, especially her biting, but who knows how long that might have taken? Yes, we could’ve paid a professional trainer hundreds of dollars (which we don’t have) to work with Win and us. But everyone’s stress level had gone through the roof.
Kay and I have said repeatedly that we feel we let Win-Win down. We were her fourth home since she was born Jan. 1, but the first to adopt her. She was born in the Rio Grande Valley, where the rescue group in North Texas got her from. We hope with all our hearts that the group will find a great family for Win to join – one with another dog (or dogs) she can play with to her little heart’s content.
And like I said, we’re dog people. We will be getting another dog sometime. I keep telling Kay that like our last sweet pup, Maisy, whom we adopted when she was 3 and who lived to be almost 18 before we lost her earlier this year, we should adopt an adult dog. Kay doesn’t seem to want to limit our choices.
We love you, Win-Win. Thank you for bringing us 4 months of joy, cuteness and adventure. ❤
A Life of Words 