Raising a puppy mill dog

For those of you who regularly read my blog, you know about my brother Elvis. He is a puppy mill survivor and will be 6 years old on Saturday.  He spent the first four years of his life as a breeding dog until the puppy mill was shutdown and he was rescued. He has been living with me for the past two years and continues to make great strides. Today, Mom wanted to take over my blog to talk about the ups and downs of raising a puppy mill dog. Take it away Mom:

First, I want to say I would never trade my little Elvis for the world. I am sure that many of you have seen through Preston’s blog the growth Elvis has made starting out as a confused dog and growing into who he is his today. However, I wanted to share with you some of the hard days as well. Taking on the responsibility of a rescue dog with an unknown background is always hard, but to take on a puppy mill dog is even more difficult. We have had several questions about puppy mills dogs so I would like to share with you some of the challenges we have faced.

• Bad days – Elvis still has bad days. They now occur less and less often but there are still days when he gets so confused. He locks on something and gets obsessed with it. There has been days where he stares at what we think is an imaginary spot in the corner of a room and just barks and barks and barks for hours if we let him. We redirect him to a toy or a treat. Sometimes it works, and other times he is right back at that corner thirty minutes later. Luckily, there are days (most of them at this point) where he is a normal happy dog who just wants to be with us.
• Fight or flight – Elvis is like a light switch, and when he is started or doesn’t know what is going on, he will either fight (and when I mean fight it is growling, barking, or going after a cat until they jump up on a counter) or flight. One good example is our computer printer. Whenever we send a document to print, it makes some loud noises. Elvis runs for his life. He will take off down the steps at a full run and unfortunately he has fallen before. Now, we always try to warn him before we hit that print button.
• Confusion – Living in isolation at the puppy mill for four years there are so many things he has no clue about. Whenever he is presented with a new situation or a new object he is lost sometimes. Lucky for Elvis, his cooping method is to just bark. Some puppy mill dogs respond with aggression. Some good examples that have confused him are the first time he saw a helium balloon, a motorcycle, or even a man with a hat on. He barked and barked.
• Slow to learn – We are so used to Preston, the super dog, who has his trick dog title, loves to learn, and picks up commands in just one setting … and then we got little Elvis. Elvis has really been a challenge to train. He has repeated beginners and intermediate training classes so many times that we now call it Elvis special topics. However, each class he does make progress, it is just much slower than this classmates. It took him months to learn sit, and laying down was very challenging. He is very close to finally being ready to take the AKC good citizen exam but he has two more commands he still needs to master without the use of treats. If you have a puppy mill dog, when you look for a trainer, make sure you find someone who has experience with these types of dogs.
• Doesn’t bond with other dogs – Honestly, I don’t blame him. He came from a mill that had 1,000 other dogs and terrible conditions. I’m sure it wasn’t the best environment for him to socialize and trust that another dog wouldn’t hurt him. However, one special quality Elvis has is that he LOVES humans and loves to receive affection. We have tried taking him to doggie socials, but when the others dogs go off to play, he doesn’t join them. Instead, he makes his rounds to all the pet parents and convinces them to pet him, hold him, and cuddle.
• Questionable health – We know that puppy mill dogs never see a vet or receive shots. Now, Elvis has access to vets, tests, great food, etc. Regardless, we will never know how those first four years will affect him long-term. One of the other dogs that was pulled from the same puppy mill has been diagnosed with cancer. Even though rationally I know he is healthy, in the back of my mind I still worry about his health.

It breaks my heart at times to see him struggle. It makes you wish you could have somehow gotten him out of that terrible mill when he was a puppy or better yet got his mom out before he was born. Unfortunately, Elvis has to play the cards that were dealt to him. He is an amazing dog that surprises me each and every day. I can’t believe he is so accepting of love and human affection. Really, you would think he wouldn’t be capable of love but he is!

So please consider adopting a puppy mill dog even with their issues they will be the most loyal, caring, and thankful dog you will every have!