Waldo

Waldo is a male German Shepherd/Rottweiler mix who came to us at the approximate age of 2 on October 18, 2009. He is yet another dog from the Yonkers shelter that was to be euthanized but Leslie & Dottie just couldn’t let that happen. Waldo was described to me as being very close to being a feral dog. The shelter thought that perhaps someone had kept him in a basement or some other confined area. He was extremely emaciated. You could see every rib and he had large chunks of fur sticking out here and there. I look at pictures of him from when he was at the shelter and I just sigh. He was a sad sight. At the shelter, he was quiet and fearful of people and could only be walked by Maureen, one of the wonderful volunteers at Yonkers. Being in this state, his chances of being adopted were slim to none. We rescue old dogs, and he certainly wasn’t old, but we decided that we could help him learn to be a dog again and down the road we would find him a great family.

The first attempt to get him here to PA failed. He broke out of his crate and was completely panicked in the car. Maureen and her husband Chris had to turn around and bring him back to the shelter. Poor Maureen had to hold him down the whole way back but he never tried to bite her once. They didn’t give up on him. They planned to try it again the following weekend. Waldo was given a sedative to get him here safely and it was a success. City dog, meet the country!

Waldo’s first few days here were tough. Tough on him and tough on us or should I say tough on our house. LOL! He got along fine with the other dogs in his group with little to no altercations but he was fearful of Matt and trusted me only so much. He wasn’t potty trained and would just go to the bathroom wherever he was standing. He tore the blinds off of the windows and knocked things down but the worst was yet to come.

Since he was new, he had to be separated from the dogs when he wasn’t being supervised. This was for his safety and for the safety of the other dogs. His buddies were all over 12 yrs old. He had the run of one room downstairs but while I was at work my husband called and let me know that while he was out, Waldo had broken through the door and made a big mess in the process. He tore the moldings off the door frame and chewed the doorknob up. He pulled the sheetrock off of the wall trying to scratch his way out. Matt put Waldo outside in a 10×10 kennel we keep for emergencies or quarantines and went in to clean up the mess. Matt called me home and I was on my way. In the meantime, Waldo decided he didn’t like being confined in there either and bent back the chain link and took off. He headed to the neighbors house and chased their chickens and barked at their dogs and just began running all over the place. Matt was chasing him for quite a while but Waldo headed for the creek and outran him. I arrived on the scene and started looking for him as well. Thank God one of the neighbors had beagle in their yard. It kept Waldo’s attention long enough for us to get there and put a leash on him. Of course, he doesn’t do well in a car so I had to walk him home the 2 miles.

We tried crating him in the main area downstairs and thought if he could see the other dogs he’d be ok. We gave him toys and a Kong to keep him busy but they only kept his attention for so long. Waldo would break out. He broke the welds off of a metal crate and broke a few teeth in the process. He just didn’t want to be confined. 2 crates later, Matt made him a custom crate in the corner of the “dog kitchen”. It’s pretty big. More like a small room and the walls go from the floor to ceiling. He welded metal bars for a door with a big heavy latch. We put Waldo in and sttod back and watched Waldo squeeze right through the bars so he could stand next to us. He was able to because he was still so thin. Plan B had Matt attaching plexi-glass panels on the door and that worked. Waldo had to eat his meals in there because he is prone to food aggression and that is where he gets his rawhide treats to eat as well. He is a resource guarder. We tried drugs to keep him calm and they worked. It wasn’t long before we could leave him with the other dogs on his own and he was ok. About a month later he came off of the drugs and was in a better state of mind.

One day he closed himself up in the bathroom while I was outside with another group of dogs. He must have wagged the door closed. He tore up a 24 pack of toilet paper and threw it everywhere. He pulled the molding off the walls and chewed up the door knob. When he still couldn’t get out the door, he chewed a hole through the wall between the studs and was able to squeeze himself out of the bathroom and back into the main rooms with the other dogs. When I came in to take them out for the last potty before I went to work I was wondering why he had a white smudge on his nose, but thought he must have rubbed up against something and didn’t look any further. When we got back in a few minutes later, and it was time for me to get ready for work, I walked into the bathroom and pieced it all together. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I was wondering if I had finally met a dog I couldn’t help. But I took a deep breath, cleaned up the mess and we soldiered on.

Potty training came pretty quickly but he occasionally will mark something if Chico does it first. Waldo has Shep for a role model and looked to Shep a lot in the beginning. If Shep sniffed something Waldo had to sniff it. If Shep peed on a bush, Waldo had to pee on the bush. It was cute. Waldo would follow Shep everywhere. Shep has been instrumental in Waldo’s rehabilitation. I don’t know how I would have done it without him.

Waldo gets closer and closer every day to becoming a regular dog. He loves to go for walks and spends most of his time with Shep, Chico & Zou Zou. He’s getting more comfortable around people. He’s not aggressive but barks in fear to new people but warms up to them eventually. He has come a long way already but still has a ways to go. I know some day he is going to make someone a wonderful pet. He would love to be in a home where someone was with him most of the time. He is the type of dog that will dedicate himself to you. He does still have separation anxiety and resource guarding but we are making progress daily. He’ll get there eventually. It will just take some time and I will be there with him every step of the way until he is ready for me to step aside. I know that day will be bittersweet for me.