Alex is about 2 years old and is a Dalmation, Boxer (or pit) mix who we adopted after my Hubby ( wonderful Hubby) saw him at a local Tractor Supply at an adoption event. Hubby came home that day and told me about ‘Wingnut’, as he was called then. He had been in a rescue (I use this term very loosely, I’ll explain why later) since he was a puppy because the people who got him as a puppy abandoned him at the vet after they found out he was deaf and the vet didn’t put him down because of it. Hubby showed me a couple of pics of him that he took on his cell phone and I knew in that instant that he needed us.

 

So a week later we are meeting the lady and meeting ‘Wingnut’ and my gut says “Bring him home”. Wingnut quickly became Alex, because he has a ring around one eye that looks like mascara, just like the character, Alex, from ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Thank god he isn’t like the Alex from the movie…. Ever seen it?

A short while later his last name of Uya gets pinned on him. Partly because we have a habit of giving our babies last names, partly because we realize that he just loves to be Up Your Ass. Life with Alex has been, shall we say, never a dull moment. He had never had any training and never seemed to have much socialization. I got the feeling he spent a lot of time in a crate and when he did get to socialize with other dogs he seemed to have a dominate personality. Life with Scootch ( our 140 pound Lab/Mastiff/Boxer) was eye (and sometimes skin) opening for Alex. He just couldn’t seem to fathom backing down from a dog much larger than he.

And to be fair with Scootch it was always Alex causing the commotion. Scootch is a pretty patient dog. I think it was part Alex being an aggresive dog and part Alex never having learned the signs another dog would give him saying “That is enough” and having the size to back it up.

Two emergency room visits totaling 1500.00 dollars and various other scrapes later and Alex has finally learned the signals. A lot of finger wagging in his direction helps when we see he is getting too worked up.

Alex also went to PETCO and took training classes with my most awesome Bestie, Toni Nash. Hubby had taken Scootch through the whole series of classes up to the Good Citizen class and we felt that this would help Alex. And it has. He sits, stays, comes, lays, and shakes, all with hand signals.

He is super attached to my Hubby and gets very jealous of Scootch, loves staring at and making noises to all of our cats and will guard the property very well. He barks at cars, people, dogs, horses, wind, air, sky. In fact he is a very vocal dog and makes the most variety of noises that I had ever heard from a dog. Now that he has found his niche in our family he really is the sweetest, funniest, loving dog.

Alex and Scootch get along really well now, Alex has learned how he fits in and they are quite funny to watch when they are at play, they are both about the same age and get lots of excercise running around the property together.

We had heard through the grapevine that the ‘rescue’ which I think of as more of a hoarding situation, was going to have Alex put down shortly because she couldn’t find an appropriate home for him (although training and proper socialization would have done wonders) and I am so thankful that we found him when we did. To think of him being put down…. It just makes me shudder. And it makes me so sad for the others that are out there, just wanting to be part of a family. Some of them not even knowing how great it can be to be with humans who will love them, forever.

This “Happy Tail” was submitted by Marina Borg. Thanks Martina for sharing Alex Uya’s story to all of us here at Deaf Dogs Rock. According to my deaf dog Nitro, you totally ROCK!