How many of you dream of finding a treasure? I mean something of real value – something you will truly cherish? Well, this is the story of how the humans at Tailwagger Dog Photography found a treasure – a treasure of immense value – an irreplaceable, one-of-a-kind treasure. One year ago we adopted a 5-year-old English Springer Spaniel named Shots. We immediately changed her name to the German word Schatz, which means treasure. Both names sound the same, so there wasn’t an adjustment for little Schatz. We tend to call her little Schatz simply because she is the smallest of our three dogs – by a good 25 pounds. What little Schatz is missing in stature, she sure makes up for in personality.
Schatz is an intense, affectionate and people-oriented pup that is 98.5% nose. Little Schatzi was bred, born and trained to be a nose. She is a former explosives detection dog that worked for three years in Afghanistan before being retired after tearing her right ACL. Part of the reason we named her Schatz is because she was born and trained in Germany using German commands.
When Schatzi first came to our home she hung out alone in her crate (with the door open) holding onto her black Kong, chewed on nylabones incessantly and continually watched our two Golden Retrievers play, but never joined in. She never really took naps – she was too busy watching what was going on. The first several walks we took her on she shook the entire time and cowered whenever there was a loud or strange noise. If she saw another dog or a squirrel she would scream at it – this high-pitched half yip/half howl – continuously until she could no longer see it. To say the little girl had a bit of anxiety is an understatement.
The first few weeks we had Schatz she just seemed to be observing how things worked in our house – our daily rituals, as well as continually checking out Boo and Jasper, our Goldens. She seemed surprised that her collar was taken off every night and put back on the next morning – seemed intrigued, but uncertain by the idea of eating sliced bananas, cucumbers and apples for snacks – as well as outright perplexed and very curious about Jasper and Boo growling at each other, jumping on each other and biting at the other’s ears and legs while they were playing.
It took a little while but Schatz slowly came out of her shell – a big thanks to Jasper. Jasper seemed outright frustrated and almost irritated that Schatz would not play with him. Jasper’s goal in life is to have fun – it is the #2 goal on the Golden Retriever’s comprehensive list of Life Ambitions (food is locked in at #1 and always will be). He would take toys and put them in her face and make growling noises and get in the downward dog/let’s play position and bark at her. She would just impassively stare back.
One day Jasper stole Schatz’s black Kong. Schatz came to our home with her black Kong – it was her ‘security blanket’ and she was rarely without it. Not only did Jasper grab Schatz’s black Kong – but he ran away with it! The result was Schatz’s first chase of an on-going game of chase/keep-away that has been played pretty much every day since then.
From that day on Schatz watched Jasper constantly and started to mimic him – to the point of stealing our socks and boots, begging for food and counter-surfing (although she is a little short to be an effective counter-surfer). She even started to take naps with Jasper.
One thing that always struck us about Schatz is how different she is inside the house vs. outdoors – she can be such a paradox in this way. The indoor Schatz is cuddly and always waiting for one of us to sit down so she can sit on our lap. She dances and twirls around and around in anticipation of a frozen peanut butter Kong and will lie down in the middle of the room on her back and patiently wait for someone to walk by and give her a belly rub. The indoor Schatz will always make eye contact with her humans.
Then there is outdoor Schatz – also known as The Nose. Her humans don’t exist on walks – they are just the weight on the other end of the leash that keeps her from following her nose full tilt. She won’t look at us, if we call her name. She won’t sit, if we tell her to. She has even picked up a scent and crashed right into one of us following it – as if she wasn’t even aware that we were there. If we kneel down in front of her she turns around and looks the other way, or she stretches her neck to look around us – all the while never making eye contact. And the entire time she is sniffing – sniffing the ground, the air – obsessive sniffing – such intense sniffing that her teeth make clicking sounds.
It’s no secret that Schatzi can be a little intense. Whatever the little girl does she gives it her all and then some. For example, she wags her tail so hard that her butt wiggles – hence her nickname Wigglebutt. Even though we have had Schatz for a year, we are still trying to teach her how to walk. No, there is nothing physically wrong with her…she just runs everywhere. She can be standing 5 feet away when she is called and she will run the few feet over. She even cuddles intensely. Schatz won’t just snuggle up to a leg or lie at one’s feet. She has to climb on, or lie on top of you and press herself against you – her version of a hug, with her nose a half an inch away from your nose.
It has been an interesting and gratifying year since we found our little treasure – watching her adjust to life in our family and home, as well as watching her slowly transform into a dog that can now relax and just be a dog. Her anxiety has lessened immensely: she will now nap on and off all day long (as dogs do), she enjoys playing with Jasper and Boo – even to the point of seeking them out for a little playtime and she no longer has to constantly hold a Kong or toy in her mouth or chew on nylabones.
Sure…we still have our trials from time to time. Her intensity (especially if there is a squirrel involved) can still be a bit overwhelming. We recently sought the help of a friend, Liz Drennan, from Kibby Park Animal Hospital who gave us some much appreciated and needed advice concerning walking Schatz. Liz reminded us that Schatz was trained to do a job. She no longer has that job, but she still has the nose to do the job and she still has the need to do a ‘job’ while she is outside. Schatz needs to sniff – it is who she is. When she goes for a walk, the walk, in part, needs to be about sniffing. We were so fixated on the idea that Schatz needed to walk ‘correctly’ that we forgot who Schatzi is – what she was trained to do – sniff. Schatz is much more than a nose – true. But when the little girl is outside – she is pretty much all nose. So, now when we go for walks, we always pick areas for her to just let loose with her nose. As a result, the walks are much more enjoyable for both the Nose and us.
We are ever so grateful to have found our little treasure and even more grateful that she has been able to make the progress that she has over the past year. But like most stories there is usually a story before the story. Our story of Schatz would not be complete without mentioning a woman named Sharon. Schatz’s success story could have never taken place if it hadn’t been for Sharon. Sharon took care of Schatz for the nine months before we adopted her. When Sharon first met Schatz, Schatz did not want to leave the security of her crate. Sharon took an anxiety riddled, cowering and frightened pup and showed her – with a ton of patience, love and a huge amount of TLC – that the world wasn’t such a bad place after all. So, Sharon, we would like to express our gratitude to you as well for doing such a great job with Schatzi and for trusting us to take her on the rest of her journey.
So, this was our story of how we found a treasure. We know there are lots of ‘treasure’ stories out there to be told and each and every one of them is just as special as the pup they are about. Thanks for letting us share our story with you!
