I tell people that most of these dogs just show up in front of my house. You very well may have just as many stray dogs wander by your house on a daily basis, but you don’t have a Chankla. Nothing gets past Chankla.
Chankla is my personal dog and she needs a job. First and foremost her job is to follow me around. When I am not available, her job is to sit in the window and to go off like a car alarm when anything walks in front of the house.
The style and sound of the barking has a hierarchy that correlates to the importance of the intruder. Mailman, kitty cat, other neighbor dogs on walks, they all have recognizable barks. But stray dogs wandering around out front – that is an unglued bark like no other. And it doesn’t stop until I come look. In retrospect, that wasn’t the smartest think to teach a dog – don’t stop barking until I come look, but there it is.
The Chankla alarm turned in Freckles. Freckles turned out to be a classic stray: she wasn’t spayed, was heartworm positive, underweight, flea infested, she was lacking some major house manors, so we put her into “the program”.
Freckles
Freckles was and still is a total lover. She loves nothing more than to hang out with people. She is highly intelligent and she learned all the doggie 101 things fast. She house trained, crate trained, learned commands, and was ready to go except for the waiting period on her heartworm treatment. We had one challenge with Freckles’ personality, she was ALL blue healer in her heart. This meant that she was hyper smart, super loving, but also had a tendency to be dog aggressive. She needed to go to a home that would agree for her to be in a single dog home and or for her to get her some professional socialization training. She was as sweet as could be, but that healer in her just didn’t leave any room for other dogs around her people. When her post went out, we were very honest about her personality and included a link to descriptions of blue healer’s personalities and traits.Magically, there is a matching family out there for every dog! Freckles forever family was looking for a blue healer and they called right away to meet her. They met, fell in love and a soon as Freckles finished up her heartworm treatment, she was adopted and the love affair began. She is so spoiled – she totally runs the house.
Freckles scored as she is loved for who she, her owner respects her nature, and she is a beloved family member in her forever family. Let her story remind you to keep your dog on monthly heartworm preventative and to have your pets spayed or neutered, and microchipped!
