Rawleigh
Rawleigh
by Tanya M. Jackson
This adorable half grown pup was adopted from the shelter at a fairly young age, but before long he was returned to us as “untrainable”. Sometimes it is people who are untrainable. It is not necessary to beat a dog or “rub his nose in it” to get him (or her) house trained. It just takes patience and consistency………and time. And the earlier you start, the quicker the success. Rawleigh had a bad experience right away, and this made everything twice as difficult and took twice as long.
When I took Rawleigh into my home for foster care, love and training, he was already terrified of being hurt. He simply did not understand what was wanted of him, but like most dogs, he was still trying to please. But he was afraid to pee if anyone was looking at him, even out of doors and it worried him to be collared and leashed. Obviously, the training methods at his previous home were very inadequate. Several times each day I took him for a walk to the very same place where my other dogs usually relieved themselves. No playing allowed, just a very business-like attitude. “Do it, Rawleigh!” I would say, and after a while he got the idea. Shortly after the light dawned, Rawleigh could be counted on to make it through the night without accidents and to ask to be let out when he wanted to go. This was no dumb dog. He was sweet and smart, and beautiful to look at. Best of all, he was ready to be adopted to a new family.
For practice in public, we dressed Rawleigh up with a Christmas bandana and some jingle bell reindeer antlers and took him to the Christmas Doggy Parade in downtown Fernandina with a bunch of our other “adoptables”. It didn't take long for him to shake loose of those antlers, but he was a pro walking on leash, he did not jump on people, and he had a wonderful time being admired. We put him on the Website at PetFinders.com and hoped his new family would find him before Christmas.
A Christmas angel watched after Rawleigh and the right family came to the shelter looking for a new forever friend. We could tell it was a match! He loved them, they loved him and quickly the paper work was done and the adoption fee paid. When we told the family his name, they decided to keep it, simply changing the spelling of his name to Raleigh, for Raleigh, North Carolina, the Dad’s beloved hometown. Everyone was happy, especially me!!
Tanya,
Just wanted to send you a quick note and let you know that Raleigh is one of the best dogs I've ever had. He is doing great. You would not believe how tall he got! He's about as tall as my 100lb. Lab. He's thin though. He'll never be that heavy with his body structure. He is still as sweet as can be. I keep meaning to send pictures. It's been almost a year now that we have had him. We just adopted a little Aussie mix pup and Raleigh just loves him. They play constantly. Thank you for doing such a great job with Raleigh.
Gamble Herman
