I wanted a playmate for my Shih Tzu. I thought Bichons were cute little dogs. I researched the breed. I decided to adopt a Bichon. I read information about Bichons on the internet. After adopting the Bichon, I found out his personality did not match my lifestyle. He needed an owner that worked from home. I read that Bichons can suffer from separation anxiety. From my experience, I stopped my Shih Tzu from suffering from separation anxiety, and I thought I could train any dog that suffered from this disorder. When my Shih Tzu was a puppy, she cried when I first left her to take a shower or sleep in her crate. I ignored her and eventually she stopped crying. However, I ignored the Bichon and he graduated from crying to howling. I tried my best to train him to stop crying and chewing up my furniture when I left him to go to school. I read on the internet that increasing the time you left your pet at home will help stop the dog from crying and destroying your furniture when the owner leaves his home. However, I went to college and had to do field experience. I could not practice the training the dog needed to stop him from suffering from separation anxiety. I was under a lot of stress from college, and the dog's behavior was adding more stress to my life. I decided the best thing to do is to give the dog to Small Paws and allow them to find him a nice and loving home. I know the op was not trying to offend anybody. In addition, I know she was venting after reading from a previous post that an owner was deciding to give up his animal, because he could not potty train his dog. The number one reason people give up their animal is due to training which includes potty training. I replied to this thread, because I did not want people to be judge harshly for giving up their dog. Not everybody has a Ceasar Millian in their neighborhood, and nobody is a walking dog encyclopedia. I did my best to train my dog but it just did not work out. |