As a
child, the one thing that I would consistently ask for every birthday and
Christmas was a dog. I dreamed of having a companion to take on long walks,
play fetch with in the yard, and snuggle up with every night. Unfortunately, my
dad was allergic to dogs, so I patiently waited eighteen years to move out so
my dream could finally come true. I had a job working at a doggy daycare at the
time and thought I knew everything there was to caring for a dog:
socialization, vaccines, breed tendencies, training—the works. My boyfriend and
I agreed that we wanted a shepherd mix given that he grew up with German
Shepherds his whole life. We thought we were prepared in every way to get a
dog…until we met Atilia.
Atilia
was advertised as a “German Shepherd mix” at our local rescue. She was reported
as being six months old, which was the perfect age for us. It took us all of
thirty seconds of meeting her to both agree that this was the dog for us. We
filled out the paperwork, waited as she was spayed, and took her home four days
later. The first week or so, she was perfect; she was gentle on the leash, she
was friendly with the cat, and she never barked or chewed or scratched. The
first day I took her to work with me, my boss exclaimed “that’s no German
Shepherd; that’s a Malinois!” A Malinois? Although I had worked with many
breeds, I was still early in my animal career and had never heard of a Belgian
Malinois before. But after some research, I could see that she was practically
identical to a Belgian Malinois besides her small stature and floppy ears. The
many articles I read about Belgian Malinois all pretty much said the same
thing: they are as loyal and smart as they are energetic and crazy. But since
Atilia had been so calm and gentle, I didn’t think that she inherited those
traits from whatever else she was mixed with.
However,
as Atilia became more comfortable with living with us, her true personality
began to show. First the chewing started. Anything on the ground or counter
tops like shoes, laptop cords, brushes, and sponges were all chewed up in a
split second. I soon realized Malinois have the nickname “Maligator” for a
reason. It seemed that no matter how much I walked or played with her, she was
always ready for more. Training was a long and sometimes painful process; it
seemed to be impossible to keep her attention. It was much more work than I had
originally thought! I was increasingly jealous of my friends whose dogs could
be taken for a thirty-minute walk and be tired for the rest of the day. But I
was determined not to give up. I even began to change my own school and work
schedule to give her as much stimulation and exercise as possible.
The
biggest shock that came to us was when I took her to training one day, and our
trainer made a surprising discovery. As he was attempting (and failing) to get
Atilia’s attention by saying “look” and “here” over and over, he jokingly said
“Achtung”, the German word for “attention”. Atilia’s ears perked right up, and
she held his gaze without even blinking. Our trainer thought this was
interesting and started going through all the German commands, and without fail,
she responded to each of them. He got a huge smile on his face and said, “Your
dog knows German!” What? Why in the world would she know German? He explained
to us that there is a German training method called “Shutzhund” that’s mostly
used for working dogs in the military or police. Apparently, at some point in
Atilia’s early life, someone had taught her those commands. Once we started
using the German commands with her instead of English, it was like training an
entirely different dog!
So
here I am with my crazy, German speaking Malinois. She’s not the dog that I
thought I adopted, but I wouldn’t trade her for the world. Atilia has come so
far since we first got her, and the bond that we have formed has made us
inseparable. The lesson that Atilia has taught me is that you can never truly
prepare for what life throws at you, but you can always adapt, and sometimes
it’s better than your original plan.
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