Have you? (Hint: I have.)

Has your dog ever been scared by a butterfly, flinching and running away? (I am scared of moths, so I guess I can’t poke too much fun.)

Have you ever crawled across the floor on your belly to approach your dog without aggravating his submissiveness? (And yes, my clothes do get covered in dog hair in the process.)

Has your dog ever refused to eat unless you are also eating something as well? (To be fair, I guess he could just be very polite.)

If you answered “YES!” to these questions, you are either my husband (hello!), me (Whitley, stop reading your own blog!), or a fellow anxious dog owner.

Growing up, I never thought I was a dog person. But with a father and sister who are dog lovers, we almost always had a family dog (one that I, as the “non-dog-lover”, had never asked for so I got all the benefits of canine companionship without much of the responsibility). Fast forward to getting married and moving (far) away from home (and family dogs!) and I am struck with the realization that maybe I am a dog person after all.

Of three things Stephen & I were certain:
1. We wanted a dog.
2. We wanted to adopt an adult rescue.
3. We wanted a corgi/corgi mix.

We were fortunate enough to find all three of those in “Buddy,” the corgi mix we adopted about 6 weeks ago who has since been re-dubbed Moose. Moose is 5, was abandoned as a puppy, lived outside in his first (and only other) home, wasn’t formally house trained, and was in the shelter for over 8 months when we brought him home. We figured there would be an adjustment period. And shew, were we right!

The first 36 hours we had him, Moose would not pee (hence the praying, but those were answered prayers as his bladder now seems to operate normally).

He is very shy and skiddish so pretty much everything outside can scare him (from butterflies to leaves to babies to a strong breeze, but he’s completely oblivious to cats and other dogs so it could definitely be worse).

About two weeks into being a part of our family, Moose began displaying submissive urination (Google if you want, but it’s what it sounds like) particularly when someone is putting his leash on (we have resorted to crawling up to him with the leash and this has fixed the behavior some/most of the time; plus, I get some quality floor snuggles in with my dog).

And yes, little Moose has to be prodded into eating (but we’ve discovered that he loves to eat when/where we are, so we are now enjoying daily family dinners).

Anxiety-included, he is the sweetest, goofiest little guy who never barks (unless he sees River Song on TV) and probably the perfect addition to our little family. (Happy, Stephen? I used the f-word!)