We Are All Good Dogs At Heart — Remember To Pay Attention To Your Environment

By Stuart Little

I want to tell you a story. It is about a dog named Sam. Although I didn’t know him personally, my brothers lived with him and he was part of our pack. Unfortunately, he passed away before I was adopted, so I never got to know him personally.

Sam was also an adoption just like me. His story starts with him being found running the streets of Baltimore with a pack of dogs. Sam was homeless and living on the street! I guess lucky for Sam he could handle himself. He was kind of a Pitbull that had been crossed with a Chow and not sure what else. He was short, muscular, stocky, very bright, but unfortunately by the time he came to live at our house he had become a very mean dog. After Sam was picked up off the streets of Baltimore he went into some type of rescue facility. From there he was looking to be adopted.

The adoption process for Sam did not go well, as you might have guessed. Perhaps he holds the record for flunking out of homes. I believe he failed being fostered into a forever home five times. Yep, you heard it right. Adopted and taken home five times only to be returned. Why was he returned, you ask? The rap sheet on Sam ranged from biting people to biting at people, to biting more people, to being aggressive towards little children, etc. Essentially Sam had an anger management problem and was prone to violence. I think he also had some PTSD mixed in there as well. This could certainly be problematic for any dog, but given Sam had the hitting abilities of a linebacker coupled to the speed and quickness of a professional boxer, he was potentially very lethal. I’m trying to be polite here, but if I’m to speak plainly I believe Sam was a real jerk.

Now I know some of you might be saying, “Well, it could be his breed. Chows maybe are not the best thing to mix with a Pitbull.” I hear you on that, but I don’t think that is necessarily fair as I know plenty of super friendly Pitbulls and Chows.

I’d offer for your consideration that Sam’s early challenging environment led him down a path where he needed to defend himself, develop aggressive traits and well, essentially be a jerk to survive. I’m reminded of the quote by Jim Rohn, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” My bet is whoever Sam was running with on the streets of Baltimore also had some harsh traits. I believe Sam’s early environment played a big role in why he was a jerk, but I’m not a behavioral psychologist or professional of any sorts, so I could be wrong. The bottom line is you could safely say he was anti-social and mean.

Now I know there is this other famous saying that goes something like, “People never change and a leopard never changes its spots”. I guess if I believed that I would be confident Sam’s life ended up miserable. I would be wrong however, for this is where Sam took the path less traveled. An opportunity will continually present itself in life. Lucky for Sam, when it presented itself the sixth time things changed. Sam didn’t initially change, but things changed in his environment and that led to him eventually changing. He got the chance in large part because my Mom knew if she returned him to the shelter he would probably never get adopted, for additional reasons that will soon become apparent.

So he gets adopted into his sixth home, which is our home. I still can’t get over he was a five-time loser. I’ve heard of two-time losers and I know for humans if you are a three-time loser you might never taste freedom, but c’ mon, a five-time loser. I need to give Guinness World Record Books a call and see if that qualifies Sam for some posthumous award.

Sam is placed with our home because the facility he was living at didn’t have space over the holidays for some paying customers and they wanted to get Sam out for a few days. So this facility called around the German Shepherd rescues (you guys/gals sure are popular, who doesn’t love a Shepherd?) and said they had a black German Shepherd that needed put up for a few days. Easy peasy. German Shepherd rescue calls some of its members and one of them gladly agrees to put Sam up for a couple of days. That person would be my Mom.

I guess you can imagine my Mom’s surprise when she went to pick up a black German Shepherd and Sam walks out. Well, my Mom is very easy going and was happy to leash Sam up and bring him home. I heard my Dad said, “What is THAT. That is not a German Shepherd. He’s black like they said, but that’s about it.”

Sam started pulling some of the regular stunts that got him kicked out of the first five places. I heard he went after a few of my brothers who relate how Sam tried to beat them up. He was horrendous. He had a strong will and was committed to his monstrous ways. Lucky for Sam my Mom has an even stronger will and is committed to fair but firm leadership. She is a super loving Mom, but she can also lay down the law.

Sam ended up getting “rolled” a lot. You know that is when a human essentially puts us onto our back in a submissive posture. What Mama dogs sometimes do to baby dogs. Sam didn’t exactly take being “corrected” very well and there were ongoing corrections. My Mom never stuck or hit Sam, but she would roll him and she would also lecture him. I think he once got a three-hour lecture from her for being a “BAD DOG”. Sam didn’t like lectures and as a result, his behavior started to improve.

Aside from my Mom being super nice to be around, Sam was now also living with my four brothers who are all very well balanced and chill/cool dogs. This brings me back to Mr. Rohn’s quote about the five people you spend the most time around. Sam had gotten a big quality upgrade with the people and canines in his environment.

To make a long story short, I’m to understand over the course of roughly nine months Sam did a complete 180-degree turnaround. He turned into Mr. Super Kind, Loving, Affectionate, well behaved Sam. He turned into a completely new and different dog. I, therefore, believe that dogs can change. I also believe that people can change. If you want to stack the deck in favor of positive change, perform a quick inventory of who you spend your time with. They probably play a bigger role in who you are or may become than you realize. Spend your time with quality people that you admire or would like to become more similar to.

Realize that nothing happens overnight. Most things worth achieving take time and work. This was the case for Sam, but nine months to achieve a complete transformation is still pretty impressive.

While it is sad that Sam has passed and is no longer around I know he will always be remembered for all of the lessons he taught everyone. These lessons can be summed up perhaps as follows:

1. Life can be extremely tough and unfair at times, but it can change for the better.

2. Accept leadership from those who are fair, firm and loving.

3. Try to improve even if it is alien to you. Hang in there and try.

4. No one wants to kiss you or put their face next to you if you are mean and they don’t trust you.

5. Sam missed out on a lot of hugs and kisses because early on he couldn’t be trusted.

6. Sam learned that with better behavior and trust it is easier to get hugs and kisses.

7. Everyone deep down wants to be loved and appreciated.

8. To be loved and appreciated it helps to love yourself and be at peace with yourself.

9. With a peaceful attitude, your whole world can change. Your perspective will naturally change for the better.

10. A life that ends on a good note is a wonderful life.

Sometime remind me to tell you about the time Sam pushed through steel bars, how he guarded the house and managed to routinely eat steak in bed while watching TV, but I’ll leave that for another time.