Harmoney was a stay who had been in a shelter and wasn’t sure of people or life. 

Gia was someone completely different.
We wanted to give Gia the best life she deserves, we had a plan to do that. What we didn’t know at the time, but know now. You can still give your new pup a new life and the best life, without giving them everything at once.

Freedom = chaos.

Which is what we learnt, the second night we had her we left her for a couple hours, she had the bedroom and outside access as we had planned for her to live her new best life. Which was too much, for starters she didn’t know us. Sure she was starting to understand we were her parents. But she didn’t truly know us in the way dogs respect their owners. That is built over time. And because of this, she destroyed quiet a few things. We put it down to nerves of being left alone for the first time, so when it was due for me to go back to work and she was alone for a couple hours and she destroyed more stuff, but more important stuff. We knew she couldn’t be trusted in the bedroom.
but this wasn’t a forever thing. It was a she wasn’t sure of us so of course she was going to destroy our stuff. Its like a test, were we going to abandon her. Not a chance.

Dog training helped her gain a bond with us and set clear boundaries outside of the house, in areas she thought she had control she had to learn that she wasn’t a stay anymore and she had to listen. She had to walk with us, not run away.
It was hard for us to get her into dog training though as most places we looked only took puppies, not older dogs too. We finally found one recommended by a vet who took any age, and we are so thankful because after her 6 weeks she is a completely different dog. She knows we respect her so she respects us. She is better at walking on and off lead. Her confidence with people and dogs has grown. She is more independent and all round happier.
Dog training didn’t just teach us how to train her, it taught us to see what helps calm her down, what she likes. And use that, for example Gia would prefer to lie down than sit. It helps calm her down. So that’s what we do. If shes playing up, being naughty, we put her in a down and we wait. And when we go again shes calmer and thinking the steps through.

I regret giving her too much at the beginning, I wish I had known. But I never blamed her. It shocks me now that we can leave our house without closing all the doors to all the rooms and we can still come home and nothing will be destroyed anymore. Although we still do our walks and checks and see, we end up stood there staring at this dog and going ‘how are you the same do that was destroying everything in sight only 3 months ago?!?’

And its simply because we learnt, we learnt the approach we were doing was wrong. And sure she still has slip ups, shes actually very naughty and she knows it. But she respects us too much now to go and do it just because. But also she knows if she did, we would be taking the privilege away from her again until she earns it back.

Guilt is big within rescuing dogs, you worry you’re being too harsh on them. That they might resent you because they’ve already been through a lot and you just want to make them safe and happy. But you can do that with boundaries too. Its okay to tell your dog off, as long as you give them all the love when they do the right thing.