Before I get into the story of my saluki, Cleo, I think it's important I cover some background information. Let's start with the most obvious, Why Salukis? FLIGHTS, an organization that originally focused on bringing in Irish Greyhounds, through the pandemic, expanded into rescuing salukis from the Middle East. Their website summarizes the why incredibly well, but if I were to highlight one thing I found to be particularly true, it is the sheer gentleness of the breed. Cleo, despite everything she's gone through, remains so sweet and loving.
So, back to me : having owned an ex-racing greyhound (Allison) for a little over two years, I absolutely fell in love with the breed's temperament and aesthetic. I knew, if I were to get a second dog, it had to be a sighthound. Soon enough, I was ready and started looking around for adoption opportunities. With the difficulty bringing in greyhounds through the pandemic, I decided to foster for FLIGHTS and help them out with the salukis.
Fast forward to exactly one year ago, today, my second foster, Cleo, left Qatar. FLIGHTS graciously picked her up at the airport in Montreal and drove her to my home. This where our story begins.
Cleo leaving Qatar and landing in Montreal
As you might already know (or figured out), I very quickly "foster-failed" and adopted Cleo. However, it has not been only sunshine and rainbows. Looking back, this last year has been filled with challenges, and frankly, it's important to share them. Adopting a rescue dog can be overwhelming, and it's unfair to pretend otherwise. I want current and future adopters to understand our journey: where did we struggle? How did we overcome the obstacles? Was it worth it?
So, on day one, Cleo was absolutely terrified and emotionally shut down. That first week, we had countless potty accidents (including poop all over my car), many heart-stopping moments (e.g. she tried to bolt out of the house and slipped out of her harness), and a seemingly infinite chain of anxiety driven-behaviours.
Cleo's first few days in Canada
Very quickly, I learned some valuable lessons:
To a fearful dog, subtle body language matters.
looking at them directly is scary
walking straight towards them is scary
fast movements are scary
physical touch is scary
standing is scary
movement is scary
Scared dogs are particularly sensitive to people's moods
Fear urination is real, and can be made worse when one gets upset, angry or even mildly frustrated
Dogs can vomit because of stress
Faced with all of the above, I had to address the situation with my veterinary team. This is where they recommended anxiety medication. I was a little hesitant to move forward, but the vet explained that this would help lower her level of stress and allow her to learn that her environment is safe.
And he was right. While the medication did not eliminate the anxiety, it took the "edge" off, and allowed her to adjust much better. The fear urination stopped completely, nearly overnight, and the vomiting slowly went away. In tandem with the veterinary intervention, I hired a dog trainer to come to my house and help us out with Cleo's fear and crate training. With her advice (e.g. the treat & retreat game), we continued to progress and slowly gain trust and confidence.
Slowly learning that Canada is safe
From there, we tackled new challenges and I continued to learn more about dog behaviour. I took some online dog training on canine fear, learned about the effects of cortisol/adrenaline (explaining her cycles of shutting down/breaking out in "zoomies"), and tried my best to build some resilience into Cleo's training plan.
Resilience may sound like an odd thing to focus on, but the reality is, Cleo forced me to adapt my dog training perspective. I've always done my best to work within the R+ realm and thus, I aimed to keep dogs under threshold, consistently pairing good experiences with the behaviours I wanted to achieve.
...but how do you train positively when your dog is afraid of...everything? When the tiniest little thing throws her off? When everything seems to be aversive? At first, this felt unsurmountable but, with the help of Happy Fido Company and Call of the Canine, it clicked : I had to focus on desensitisation and counter-conditioning. With their coaching, I improved my ability to keep Cleo at a productive level of stress (where she can learn), while pairing positive events to things that she found scary, overwhelming, etc. Eventually, I was able to enroll Cleo in a group class, called "Streets Smarts". It was amazing to watch her go from being 100% terrified the entire session, to enjoying it and interacting with the dogs and obstacles.
On top of this, back in September, I joined FLIGHTS as an Ottawa Support Representative. This provided Cleo, with an incredible opportunity : she would have to visit potential foster and adopter homes and act as an ambassador hound. At first, I was quite worried, but my little scared saluki was on her best behaviour at each visit. She showed incredible resiliency and flexibility : the past few months, she's met new people, dogs and cats, in wildly different settings. She even went as far as directly interacting with some of the applicants, requesting to be pet, and even falling asleep at their feet.
A year ago, if you would have told me: "this terrified saluki will travel across the city and encourage others to adopt one of their own", I would have stood there in disbelief : "how could this dog, skittish as she is, do any of that?".
But with time, a generous dose of patience, and a little bit of TLC, Cleo made it here. I am incredibly proud of her. So, to answer the question above, was it worth it?
One hundred times, yes.
"Saving one dog will not change the world, but surely, for that one dog, the world will change forever".
But, above all, she changed my world forever. She taught me patience, sensitivity, empathy and most important of all - that one can find perfection within imperfection.
As a bonus, I would like to share Cleo's parents' story - I hope it warms your heart as much as it did mine .
Cleo's dad, Bolt (left) and mom, Pearl (right). You can see the family resemblance!
Thank you for reading.
Amazing work Rufino! ❤️