Autumn’s Story

We adopted Autumn a little over a year ago and it has been a long, scenic road to the angel we have today. She was picked up on the side of the road as a puppy, probably about 6 months old, and brought to the SPCA. She spent the next 6 months of her life there in a cage.

Her picture was shown to me and I instantly fell in love with her eyes, sweet face, and long ears. I could not believe she wasn’t adopted yet! So, I went down to the SPCA to find out more about her.

Once at the SPCA I made my way back to the cages full of dogs, they were all barking loudly and jumping on the cage doors. And there sat my Autumn Bottom (one of her many nicknames) resting on her cot, quiet and curious. She had me fooled! I fell in love and went through the process of bringing her home with me.

We had awhile to wait because she had to be spayed and visit the veterinarian about her long ears. She was shaking her head and banging her ears on the cage which ended up leaving permanent little tears in the tips. The veterinarian was simply putting ointment on the tips but what we found out later was that she had a deep inner ear infection causing her to shake her head.


After waiting about two months I begged them to let me take her knowing that I could focus my attention on her health. Off we went to the veterinarian my two other dogs go to. They ran tests and found many types of bacterial growth deep in the ear and prescribed oral antibiotics and eardrops. We did a month of treatment, went back for more tests, still had a small amount of bacteria left and continued one more month of oral antibiotics as well as a different prescription for ear drops. Oh, I forgot that she also had yeast between her toes when we got her, which called for antibiotic wipes every day until the skin improved. That also improved after about two months.

Besides her ill health, we found out that she was an escape artist and would jump the fence anytime she would go into the back yard. When one escape route was fixed she would find a new one. It was impossible to keep her in the yard. She would always stay within sight but spent hours running around the house, up the hills and chasing birds. A neighbor who was walking by once tried to help catch her. He left his backpack on the sidewalk, grabbed some treats from me and we attempted to lure her back. She was not interested in the treats and proceeded to steal the rest of his sub from his bag.

Having had many dogs growing up, this was the first dog that I had to set up an electric fence for. It was an awful feeling. We trained her and she was shocked once, but now she stays in the yard and knows that when she hears the beep to back away. It will be a year this August since she has escaped.

The last problem that we had with Buddha Gouda (her other nickname), and continue to work on, is her food guarding issue. I have to be understanding because I’m sure when she was a puppy there were times when she did not know when her next meal would be. We dealt with two attacks to my pug, mostly because the pug has no “dog manners” and goes sniffing in her bowl. She drew blood on the second attack and we had to think seriously about finding her a new home. Instead, we decided to work extra hard on training and hope for the best.

Many, many months were spent “being the pack leader”, watching the dogs while they ate, and not giving her longer than 20 minutes to eat her breakfast. The good news is there have been no attacks in about a year! Of course we are still cautious and save treats for kennel time when we leave the house.

I can’t say that this process has been easy, between the escaping for hours and food guarding it’s probably one of the most frustrating things I have encountered. I love her with every once in me and just could not give up on her. I also knew that if I gave her up she had little chance to be adopted with her behavior issues. But there is hope! Food guarding is not the end of the world and all the advice from trainers that I got a year ago was very negative. Many people said it would not get better. The key is to be aware of your dog’s behavior and watch the signals; the dropped tail, lowered head, hovering over their bowl (guarding), eventually the growling. Do not let them continue to guard the food! Give your dog maybe 20 minutes to eat and if they don’t eat, remove the bowl. We feed the dogs twice a day and this usually happens at breakfast, so the bowl is removed and she always ate at dinnertime. It was hard for me to take her food away but she knows she will be fed twice every day, she also knows that she cannot guard the food. If I allow her to do that she will stay there for hours, not letting the other dogs near her. I have learned also that any food given to her absolutely must be given in the bowl. I give them a lot of veggie scraps when I cook but they have to be given in the food bowl or she starts to growl when we eat our own meals.

This has mostly been a trial and error process but these are tips that have worked and continue to work. If you are lucky you have found your best friend and there is no reason to give up on them if there are problems like this. You have to be the dominant one! Trust me, she makes my heart melt and it was not easy taking the dominant role. It makes everyone’s life easier though.

When we go for walks, to the store, anywhere everyone falls in love! I lose count how many times we hear “those eyes!” which are a two tone blue (inside) and silver (outside). She is a gorgeous and well behaved dog; all the effort put in was well worth it. Looking back I am so thankful that I did not give up.

Oh yea, her song is “Hungry Eyes”… mostly because she is always hungry, but also because those eyes can see through you!