Musings & Threads. Saving Jocko.
Saving Jocko
Well, I got another foster dog last week, Jocko, a 3-year-old purebred Havanese.
To update you about a former rescue, Waldo, unfortunately, Waldo’s earlier life cost him. His fear of men and skittishness made him a poor fit for an active family. As an asthmatic with a severe allergy to shedding dogs, I was unable to rehabilitate him and we were fortunate enough to find a generous rescue group in New Jersey who will continue his rehabilitation and find him the perfect home.
My newest rescue is a nonshed so I will be able to work with him. He will take some time because, despite assurances to the contrary, he was a puppy mill breeding dog. The owners had been informed that three-year-old Jocko had “lived in the home, loved children, loved toys, was housetrained, and a shy but, sweet dog.”
Except for the shy, sweet part, it was a fabrication.
They realized that they had been duped when the promised blankets and toys that he lived with arrived with store price tags on them. Jocko never had any toys or even a blanket, just a cage and a hard, cold concrete floor.
The family tried, but unaccustomed to homes and people, Jocko continued to deteriorate, and I offered to help. Based on almost 20 years of experience, I knew that Jocko needed a dog to teach him how to be a dog.
All rescuers have their own methodology. My strategy is to set up a routine and observe a dog, quietly assessing his personality, issues and tools that I will be able to use to help him transition to a normal dog.
Jocko has a long way to go, but he will get there.
Jocko doesn’t understand human affection and is uncomfortable when petted or approached (typical signs of a puppy mill breeding dog). He is not housetrained. He is afraid of things that go bump in the house, the appliances, the street noises, the cell phone ring.
As a puppy mill breeder, he gets along great with my dogs. And he will watch them and learn how to live in a home with people and I will be able to keep him until he is fully assimilated.
His learning could be slow and nonlinear. Unfortunately (for me!), housetraining will be the most difficult since he lived covered in his own excrement and urine.
I lost count how many puppy mill moms and dads that I have rehabilitated, probably over 50. For that reason, it is hard for me to see the cute labradoodles, goldendoodles and other adorable “designer dogs,” such as poodle mixes.
Most of these dogs came from puppy mills. Estimates range from 90%- 95% of puppies sold on the Internet and pet stores are from puppy mills. An estimated 2 million puppies are purchased each year from as many as 10,000 puppy mills. Puppy mills mass produce on the most desirable dogs, the latest winner of the Westminster dog show, purebreds and the “in dogs” which are now poodle mixes.
How can you tell if your dog was purchased from a puppy mill? Not from the breeder, who will assure you that they are not puppy mills and that the moms and dads live in their home and the puppies run free in the rich green grass. But most of the time it is not true. Here is what to look for if you want to avoid purchasing a puppy mill puppy.
Stay away from the Internet, some classified ads and, of course, pet stores. A relative bought a puppy from a pet store and believed their assurances that this was not from a puppy mill until she read her papers, she had been bred in Romania.
Puppy mills typically have puppies available at any time.
Puppy mills usually offer more than one dog breed.
Most of the hybrids (e.g., poodle mixes, puggles, etc.) are from a puppy mill. The original breeder of labradoodles has expressed deep regret that he created this breed. He knows that most of these dogs are now “mass produced” at puppy mills.
You cannot be sure unless you tour the facility and meet the parents. If the parents are shy and afraid, chances are they have spent their life in a kennel.
These states have the most puppy mills: Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska or Oklahoma.
Breeders from the Amish and Mennonite communities (particularly in Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania) are notorious for being puppy mill breeders.
There is a long list and if you want to be educated, you can find more information. The puppy mill breeders will do everything they can, including showing pictures of puppies running in grassy fields, to assure you that, unlike the others, THEY are not a puppy mill.
How did I learn so much? About 20 years ago, I unknowingly bought a cockapoo puppy from the Internet and I have been trying to pay it back ever since.
I get it. It is so easy to say, “I want a cute puppy,” and find just the one that you want on the Internet, just when you want it. But legitimate breeders don’t usually have puppies available and you must be approved and wait. It is much harder to buy from a breeder than to click on a cute puppy that is available today.
Some people are under the misconception that buying a puppy from a puppy mill “saves” that puppy. In fact, by puppy buyers are providing the money to keep up the breeding facility. While most of the puppies live amazing lives; their moms and dads live in squalor. And they suffer horribly until they are rescued or (usually) killed.
One of my dogs, Annie, is a puppy mill mom. She was kept in the bottom cage. The dog cages are stacked on top of each other, overcrowded with barking, neglected dogs and so that the “miller” doesn’t have to clean them, the floors are wire. Since Annie was on the bottom, she was covered in the urine and excrement from the dogs above her. Her feet are permanently splayed from living on a wire bottom. She weighed 12 pounds (normal weight is 20 pounds). She still suffers from PTSD. But she is one of the lucky ones. Most mothers are killed at six. Before that, they will give birth 2 or 3 litters in a year without veterinary care. The dads are kept in cages for 8-10 years before they are killed. The cages are in unheated and uncooled barns or the cargo area of a tractor trailer with no electricity are fed minimal, non-nutritious food, and receive little or no veterinary care. All day they must crouch in a small, overcrowded wire cage listening to the incessant barking of dozens or hundreds of tortured souls. Other parts to Annie’s story are too horrible to speak of.
The puppy that I bought (unknowingly) from a puppy mill was the best dog I ever had. She was adorable, sweet, kind, beautiful, a special, special dog; we adored her. The rescue dogs I now have are discarded dogs that bear some scars.
So little Jocko watches my dogs. They will teach him how to bond with people. They will teach him how to chase squirrels. They will teach him how to bark and annoy my poor long-suffering neighbors.
Housetraining puppy mill breeders is not for the faint of heart. These dogs have learned to live in their feces and urine in their crates. Teaching them about personal care takes a while. (Annie took 6 years!)
As I start to pet my dogs. Jocko lines up behind them, while they jostle each other to get more petting, he watches them. Finally, it is Jocko’s turn and he steps up to me, as if called to attention by a drill sergeant. I softly pet him and scratch him behind his ears. He looks up at me with his sweet, questioning eyes—eyes that seem to ask, “Do I like this?”
And I smile at him and whisper.
“You will.”
