I adopted a rescue dog almost a year ago. It was a huge adjustment for her, as she’d never been a pet or lived in a home before. I think she did amazingly well with it. In the last ten months she’s learned to love cuddles and pets, mastered several commands, been leash and toilet trained, overcome her anxiety-driven paw-chewing, improved her eating habits and has even learned to indicate when she wants something. But she never licked to give kisses, and I kind of just figured that was something she didn’t do.
But yesterday we were having some chill time after scent work practice, and I was just absent mindedly petting her while we watched TV. And I realized she was licking my hand! I was so accustomed to her not doing that that I wondered if she just liked the taste of my hand lotion or whatever. But this morning when I went to get her up for her walk, I leaned over her bed and she licked my face to say hello!
I’m so delighted! It’s wonderful that even this far into her adoption she’s still reaching these milestones and making these discoveries about her inner dogness! It really made me think about how far she’s come from the poor little girl who was too scared to even poop for her first few days here.
I love this dog so much!
I’m so happy to hear that your pup has come so far and I can relate to your joy so much! It was months after I adopted my shy, scared dog when she suddenly licked my nose and nuzzled my face a bit. That moment was one of the happiest times of my life.
It’s such a good feeling when they start trusting you! I remember the first time my girl rolled over for belly rubs. I genuinely felt honored!
I’ve often said that no performance review at work has been made me feel prouder of myself than seeing my dog progress from a shell to a floofy tail wagging clown.
My rescue dog just started doing that too!! I was so happy. It took a long time to gain his trust. Its so cool watching them change in a loving environment
It’s amazing the impact that love can have on a dog. I had a friend come and visit who met my girl for the first time. She’d only seen her in shelter pics and very early adoption pics before, and was stunned. She kept saying “she’s so beautiful! I didn’t know she’d be so beautiful. She didn’t look like this in the pictures at all!” And I went back and looked, and she was right! She’s really blossomed as she grows more secure.
