Meet Tuxie

By Ellen Schuette

“Buddy was six months old when I got him. His owner had just died and her husband didn’t like the dog. The first thing I did was change his name to Tuxie.”

From the beginning, Tuxie was very hard to handle. He completely ignored people and attended only to dogs. When he saw a dog, he lunged and barked so much that people crossed to the other side of the road. Once in downtown Los Gatos , a woman yelled at me to ‘get that nasty dog off the street. Why would you have an awful animal like that?’ Tux thought people were play things. You might be sitting on a couch and he’d jump up next to you only to bite your ear. Or he’d grab your arm and start playing tug o’war with it. I had so many bruises on me that people asked me if I’d been abused! Tux didn’t look at people or respond to his name at all. He was unable to bond and he had no idea how to deal with people or animals. I had a mess on my hands.

Never had I met such a difficult dog before, or even heard of one this nutty. But I liked him and I was determined to win Tux over. I couldn’t figure out how to work with him so I found a behaviorist. Anne Peters, a well-known trainer and behaviorist evaluated Tux and told me that with two years of hard work, he’d become a pretty normal dog. Anywhere close to normal was good enough for me. The hard work she referred to was a combination of obedience training, agility and lots of socialization.

There was another piece to working with Tux that Anne disagreed with but I believed would be pivotal in his success: I found a doctor who prescribed Prozac for him (the dosage was based upon age and weight). Tux could not bond with me and I’d read that Prozac was working on dogs and cats. Tux took the drug for four months and in that time he bonded to me. It was a miracle.

It really took more than two years of hard and continuous work for Tux to become a dog I could walk down the street with and be confident he wouldn’t begin barking and lunging at other dogs. I’d say it was four years before he really settled into himself - a happy, sweet and silly dog who can look me in the eye and listen. I am so glad I never gave up on him.

Tux turns nine on December 5.

Breed: Tibetan Terrier
Place of Birth: Sakura Roji Kennels, Denair , CA
DOB: 12/5/1998
Nickname: Tuxo-Shmuxo, Boo-boo, Sneaky Pete, Mr. B…the list goes on and on.
Likes: Greenies and playing and running with other dogs.
Pet-Peeves & Quirky Tid-bit: He’s frightened when he smells smoke from a fire and when someone coughs or clears their throats (pretty strange, huh?). He actually will try to hide when he smells the smoke or hears the cough. Tux goes crazy when I leave him in the car, too.
Trivia: Tibetans are not real terriers. They were brought to Great Britain in the 1920s and because they were under a certain weight, the breed was assigned to the terrier group. The kennel clubs here and abroad recognize them as a non-sporting breed.

2 comments December 1st, 2007