Pilaf Career Changed

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A couple of weeks ago Pilaf went to stay for a few days with our Community Field Rep (CFR).

She had her evaluation, and Pilaf overall did a great job. She showed huge improvement in her confidence level and thus was no longer a concern. She also showed great improvement in her dog distraction, as well as her overall manners with other dogs (which was a really big problem when she was a younger pup).

Now after hearing the good news from our CFR, we discovered behavior that was concerning to our surprise. Ever since Pilaf was a young puppy she liked to lick, suck, and chew on Ricki’s ears. We tried to keep her from doing so, but she just couldn’t seem to help herself from the temptation. Over time she became a little obscessed with doing the same thing with her tail. Bitter apple kept her from licking and sucking her tail most times, but she would still do it occasionally.

Now even though this was happening, we always felt she would grow out of it.

We also thought it was not that big of a deal the whole time or we would have filmed this topic. It was not until our CFR observed her last month with a dripping tail that we realized how serious things were. Pilaf has since woken up with a wet tail 90 percent of the time since she has returned. Moreover, a wet tail also has been discovered after short car rides, while at work, and also at home during the day.
There was a long discussion with the training department at Guide Dogs about her and they determined that Pilaf has a small obsessive compulsive dissorder and most likely would not grow out of this behavior and it would possibly get worse. (if you remember as a baby puppy she had a very hard time controlling her inpulsive biting and chewing on the other dogs). The decision was made by our CFR and the training department to career change Pilaf.

We are dissapointed about the decision, but we couldn’t be more proud of the dog that she has become.

A family that we have been friends with for years is adopting her and they are very excited to welcome her into their family. It is always hard to say good bye to our puppies, but knowing that she is going to a family that will love her as much as we do makes it much easier. She will be close and we will be able to visit and have play dates with the other dogs, so we will be able post updates on her.
Thanks,
Amie and Matt
Always Stay Connected

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