Evaluation

This was it. The rescue gave me a location about half an hour away to bring Diego to be evaluated by a trainer for his surrender. They would prepare a new foster to take him in the interim.

My sister gave me her flexible crate to load into the back of the car. Purvasha was coming with to the evaluation and we wanted to have a safe drive without any surprises. From what I remembered; I thought the crate zipper was broken from when Benny had used it. It filled most of the backseat, but I made sure that the opening was right against the car door so that Diego couldn’t get out. I put him inside and we were on our way.

There was a heaviness in the air as we began our drive. It was really happening…I was bringing the dog that I chose to a trainer to begin the process of giving him up. I turned to check the lane over my right shoulder and saw Diego poking his head out between the door and his crate, panting directly behind Purvasha’s ear! I turned forward placing my eyes back on the road and heard rustling from behind. The next thing I know the little monster was popping his smiling face into the front seat looking charming and adorable as ever.

Purvasha and I began laughing, but then he started trying to walk into the front seat. I tried to hold him back with my right arm, but needed more help so that I could focus on driving on the freeway. I asked Purvasha for the assist, but her nerves had kicked in from the recent bite and she couldn’t come to a place of stopping him. I found a place to pull off the road and tucked him back inside the crate.

We set back out to our destination and moments later he was climbing onto the center console, and I commanded him to go to his crate. He squeezed himself back inside and stayed there for the rest of the drive. Seriously, so smart. He really can be obedient sometimes.

We wove around a confusing lot and parked the car. I took a deep breath and let Diego out of the car, holding his leash tightly, and we hesitantly approached the building. A trainer came outside, followed by more people and dogs saying that we would go through things outside that day. Wait? All of these people are going through evaluations? What are we doing? This is weird.

We stood out on the grass and Diego sat smiling looking like this perfectly well-behaved dog. What is he doing? They’re not going to know he has issues! Other people looked like they were struggling to keep their pets under control as they barked or pulled their owners. The trainer walked around talking to the strugglers and taking over the leash to show how he would calm the dog. Occasionally, Diego locked eyes with one of the others and look like he wanted to launch or lose his cool, but overall stayed calm and ate his treats.

The trainer had us form a couple circles and encouraged us to spread out. We were going to practice walking with our dog. They would need to wait for us to move forward and keep their attention with us. I didn’t understand how this evaluation was going to work.

The trainer came over to practice with Diego and again he did beautifully. He praised him. What is happening? Purvasha and I started telling him that we’ve been having problems with Diego being aggressive as our pup playfully laid on his back rolling from side to side. “This is not an aggressive dog,” the trainer responded. Apparently, aggressive dogs don’t look friendly and roll on their backs around strangers, accepting pets from a calm dog trainer? Diego, you’re messing up this evaluation. He needs to see how troubled you are!

We carried on through the class and it looked like some people had quite the challenge on their hands. Our dog was a high performer. I waited patiently for everyone to leave and then approached the trainer. “Oh, this is a surrender evaluation?” Are you kidding me? How does the rescue tell me to come to a location half an hour away to get evaluated by a trainer and they don’t even realize that they are supposed to be evaluating me? I basically just went to a free dog training class with a bunch of dogs that had behavioral challenges.

The trainer told me that I would need to come back the next week if I wanted to continue with a surrender evaluation, but Diego does not look like an aggressive dog. So cool, we get to keep him one more week and anticipate losing him for another few days. That doesn’t stressful at all.