“There’s a story behind every person (or dog). There’s a reason why they’re the way they are.” – Ziad K. Abdelnour

( I added the “or dog” part.)

Seventeen days ago, we adopted an adorable Chorkie, named Jax. His owner passed away, and the owner’s daughter was looking for a good home for him. The minute we saw him, we knew he belonged with us.

We already have a sweet little female Bichon, Stella, and were in the process of creating a new potty area for her, so we quickly finished it. Rather than allowing her access to the entire backyard, we created a cute little area (in the backyard) with redwood chips and some artificial flowers (since the area was just granite with a small covering of soil). I now added a tree stump for Jax, him being a boy and all.

Teaching Jax where to go potty was our highest priority.

At first, Jax wouldn’t go potty at all. When he hadn’t gone within 24 hours, and seeing a slight discharge from his privates, we took him to the vet. The vet put him on antibiotics, but felt that he wasn’t urinating due to stress.

We continued taking Jax to the specified area in our backyard and would repeat the command, “Go potty,” as one is supposed to do to get their dog to associate the command with the deed. But Jax continued to refuse to go. He would, however, now come into the house, and potty 5 minutes later. He did this several times over 2 days.

Then we left to go to our son’s house for the weekend. Super bad timing to adopt a dog and then go away, but months ago we committed to watch our grandkids for that weekend. The thing is, though, that when we let Jax go out into their backyard, he immediately went over to a bush and went potty. All weekend long. NO problem.

When we got home, and I took Jax out to our specified potty area… nothing. So, remembering Jax didn’t have an issue at our son’s house,  I took him out to our front yard, where there are bushes and trees, and he went right away.  It had to be the bushes and trees that were the key.

Okay. I get it. He wants bushes and trees. So I continued taking him to the front yard, and the problem was solved.

But here is what is so interesting…. I was talking to his previous owner’s daughter yesterday, and she told me that his owner’s partner was a long-haul truck driver. Both his owner and Jax went with the partner on his assignments most of the time. Jax spent much of his life on the road…… going to the bathroom at truck stops and along the side of road….. where there are bushes and trees.

It’s no wonder that my cute, little pristine area held no interest for him at all.

And in thinking about this, I was reminded of the Ziad K. Abdelnour quote,  that there are reasons why we are like we are, whether we are a person or a dog. It just takes a little effort, patience, and understanding of our past, both on our part and on the part of others, for us to create harmonious relationships. But it can be done.