Recently Adopted Pets - Stories single view | PAWS Chicago

3 months before I met Lenny I had been mourning the passing of my little dog that spent her entire 16 years and 8 months being the center of my life. Even though I had been monitoring shelters I thought I would need much more time to fill the vacancy until the day I saw Lenny’s profile. Not even knowing anything about his “issues” when I reached out, it turned out that I had almost the perfect set up for him. I was told that Lenny didn’t have the greatest of experiences in his past and he needed a house where he could have patient, supportive and calm guidance. The stars were aligned.

Lenny has only me as his human but also several animal siblings- 4 parakeet brothers and 2 tortoise siblings. He was a bit surprised by the tortoises as one of them is contained on his level. I remember the look on his face when he noticed there was a rock that was moving around in there but they are way more his speed. The birds on the other hand… well, we are working on that. 

Lenny is a pretty good listener and quick learner. He only knew “sit” (unless english is his second language) but is making progress learning new commands like “place" in the kitchen, “battle stations” and “suit up” for his walks. He was terrible on a leash at first but now has much better manners, working hard to wait at corners when told and stay to one side.

He is quite energetic when it feels right. His favorite pastimes are squeaking soft toys, having a good chew and running laps in the house. He appears to be unfamiliar with me as a playmate and prefers to play with his toys alone but is starting to consider fetch and chase among other games. Because of that his most favorite thing is going out for frequent walks (even thought they can be a bit scary) and is probably the best way to get rid of the energy that I believe contributes to some of his anxiousness and fears. 

We are enrolled in the Cautious Canine class with Paws and we hope to learn some good ways to deal with some of the fearful behaviors he has. After a month of living with me he has shown great progress with exposure alone and we are excited to learn more techniques that will give him more confidence especially on the outside. We are hoping to be able to participate in more outdoor activities.

What I love most about Lenny is that he likes to sleep stretched out on his back- its super cute. He has never been over energetic, destructive or trying to negative attention. When he is playful it is hilarious and when he is loving he is very sweet. His issues are more like quirks. He’s doing great and I know he’ll be a patio dog soon!