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Originally Posted by Sheronc  Rudy's coat mats under his legs where they meet his body. Kind of the "armpit" area. He is cottony but he's still a puppy so I don't know what to expect when he gets an adult coat. Sunny, you have a huge amount af patience. I think I would have shaved off all the hair out of frustration! |
He was so afraid of everything when I rescued him, considering he had been starved so badly that within 20 minutes of me picking him up, he had gone into a hypoglycemic coma. I was so scared he would not make it, so it took time to get him healthy again and to trust us. I went very slowly on purpose, and very gently with him to gain his trust because he was so mistreated. The last thing I wanted to do was introduce something that made noise as I feared it would scare him.
The first time I bathed him, I tried to blow dry him with the blow dryer on the lowest setting, and the poor little guy freaked out in a second thinking it would kill him. We now dry him by playing fetch. :-) . Everything with him is very slow as we continue the trust building, and I don't blame him. I'm a licensed cosmetologist, so I am very good t knowing how to be gentle with hair and he shows such love and trust in me now, it's unbelievable that he's the same pup I rescued over 2 months ago. His new hair is extremely silky soft and he is now used to his normal baths and grooming. It was just my way of building trust with him, and proving to him I would never do the harm that others had to him.
He now is like a whole different puppy, and has complete trust in me as well as others. Everyone he meets just falls in love with him because he just immediately shows them how loving he is. He no longer yelps just because you pet him like e did at first, nor does he run away anymore like he used to, but instead now runs to you to be loved. He is so happy, lovable and playful now you would never believe he was the same puppy I rescued who was so severely abused. He is truly part of our fur family and knows this. You can tell now he has full trust in us and its like he knows how we saved him from the horrible people that abused him. If I were him, after all that had been done to him, I would probably e aggressive to protect myself. Like I've always told everyone, people can learn a lot from animals as they are so forgiving. I would have never shaved him t that time, as it would have probably just instilled more fear in him. I had to do things in a quiet gentle way to gain his trust. My vet listened to me on my plan and agreed from the get go, to go slowly, gently and quietly with him. So that'd the reason I did things the way I did, and I am now seeing the payoff, of a well adjusted, gentle loving puppy :-) he's also training amazingly for his age of almost 4 1/2 months. He is so intelligent and seems to want o just spread happiness and love to everyone he meets, so I must be doing something right :-) I've rescued many animals before him, and it's funny with each one, you can kind of tell by its personality what it needs, ad how it needs to be done. He immediately let me know, with the hair dryer, that noises frightened him, so there was no way I would have even considered at that time to use a trimmer or electric shaver on him. He's ok with trimmers now, as we have slowly introduced them, by trimming the hair on his ears, and now with the trust we ave built, he sits perfect for his ear hair trimming :-) its just all been about taking his queues and going slow and steady with him :-)