When Angela saw her foster dog, Griff, for the first time, she knew that he would be way more complicated than she could have ever guessed. He was shaking and terrified of the new surroundings. The dog just looked like a broken spirit.
Angela knew that physically he had gone through a lot. Griff was missing all his fur, and it turned out that he had a severe skin infection. The poor rescue dog also had a lot of behavioral setbacks.
Griff had never been handled before and was almost like a wild animal. The first day when Angela took him to the vet’s office for an examination, they could not even get him out of the kennel because he was so distraught.
The first few nights that the rescuer spent with her foster dog were pretty stressful for them. Angela spent most nights sitting on the floor outside Griff’s kennel. She kept the door open and would offer him food.
However, she could not get a leash over his head. Griff really surprised her when he first started to show a little bit of a mischievous side. He was sitting in a bit of a basket and looked content and relaxed. When she got closer to him, the rescue dog did not move, making Angela really happy. She knew that Griff had started to trust her.
Angela had set up a few milestones with the dog in the beginning. The first is to feed the dog out of her hand. The second was to get him to walk on a leash. The poor dog was absolutely terrified but soon got the hang of it. Now going for walks out and staying outside had become his favorite thing.
One of the biggest challenges for the duo was teaching Griff how to go up and down the stairs. The first time when her foster dog came up to her, Angela could not believe he was actually approaching her. Gaining the dog’s trust was the best feeling for the foster mom. Griff was now ready for adoption and was waiting to move to his forever home.
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