Heartwarming transformation of tense shelter dog who struggled to settle into furever home finally complete after months of anxious behaviors, dog dad says: ‘It's weird, like a month ago he just kinda changed. He is so cuddly now.’

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Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Feb 16, 2026 10:00 AM EST

You might be used to stories of doggos who were returned to shelters over poor behavior, but this story tells the tale of what happens when you lean in and invest in your pupper instead of throwing them away.

As the old advert goes, a dog is not just for Christmas, it is not just for when things are going well, and it is not just for the time that they are young. When you take responsibility for the life and soul of a doggo you are tasked with their life. If they are not doing well it is your fault, or at the very least your responsibility to handle.

And while many pawrents think that they are not indebted to their puppers and can freely send them away when they become an inconvenience, this pupper pawrent did not see things that way. They understood the responsibility they had taken upon themselves and sought to stick through the tough and the ruff times. Resulting in one heck of a happy ending for the doggo and the pawrent. Just as it should be.
 

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    good COUNT "The first day was a screw up i see that now."
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    We had a rough start with our 4 year (ish) old Robert Walker Coonhound. The first day was a screw up
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    i see that now. We picked him up from his foster home on a monday night and took him to our home after he had
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    met us once a week before in a park. From his point of view he left to go for a walk and lost his home of 3
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    weeks after a few months in a shelter. He freaked out and would not stop paceing and p d on the carpet. He
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    Cheezburger Image 10604374784
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    had to spend the night in his crate just to calm him down. The next day i called in sick and just took
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  • Oh sweet pupper, what a disorienting thing to have to go through. As a pupper in the system of foster and shelter care you already have so little agency and influence over your life. And then to have even that little bit of stability taken away all at once is painful to see. It is no wonder that he had to be put in his crate to calm down. But that is the nature of life and we all make mistakes. And as much as this pawrent might have made a mistake from the get go, that does not mean that they do not have the ability to make up for it. And make up for it they did.

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    him for a long walk around the neighborhood, like for 5 hours. Then we came home and he took a nap, it
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    was the first time he slept since the night before. The next few weeks were slow progress to get him
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    leash trained and behave. During this time he would not show any respect for my wife, to the point that if i
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    left and she was home alone he would just bark at her. Then 3 seperate times she spooked him while he
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    was sleeping and he lunged at her snarling. So we got a specialist to come give us some obedience
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  • Well, we might have spoken too soon, sometimes these situations get worse before they get better. But the point is that they do get better and that you as the hooman do not give up on the pupper. Their improvement is your responsibility and so long as you invest in them your investment will come back to you four fold, one for each of their sweet paws. That being said, we cannot ignore how tough it is to hold on through this stage where things are truly at their worst. Any reasonable hooman would find themselves wanting to give up, and it would be hard to blame them. But a doggo, especially one that has been given up on many times before, deserves just that little bit more leniency when it comes to trying. 

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    training. We learned some tips and tricks and started to make some real progress. One of many things we did is my
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    wife became the sole source of treats. I never gave him anything except his meals. if he wanted treats
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    he had to be nice to mommy. We also started taking more walks as a family. But the big change came when my
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    wife quit her job to be a full time at home student. Now he LOVES her. He just likes to follow her around and lie
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    down next to her. We did other things too. Doggy daycare helps alot. Also doggy playdates help.
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    We got him a new bed outside his crate so he gets to choose how exposed he is and it seems to help.
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    He is now very calm and laid back, we havent had to crate him in over 2 months now. I started cooking his
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    dinners and i try to switch it up each week and he has really responded to it. Its weird, like a
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    good COUNT
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    month ago he just kinda changed. He is so cuddly now, he listens if we give him instructions. He greats us at the
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    door and is great on a leash now. He has his routines and has learned ours. He is no fuss anymore. If there is food
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    on the coffe table he wont steal it. If the garbage is left open he ignores it. Everything we train him to do
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    he just does it. If we leave for the day we just say goodbye and leave and he is fine. When we get back has just
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    spent the day chilling, doesnt even get in the furniture. If we are on a walk he just follows alongside and listens to commands, my
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    wife likes walking him now. And no more incidents getting frightened awake.
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cuddly behavior months transformation anxious heartwarming struggle reddit story dog story furever home shelter dogs intense dog dad complete
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