We've been meaning to write to you to let you know what has happened with our Kirby dog. We adopted him in October 2005 after he had been pulled out of a shelter in Kansas, contracted heartworm and ended up blind in one eye. He was off to a rough start and bit my mom's dog and had displayed agression and poor impulse control. Training wasn't working well. Then, he had a big meltdown in March of 2007.

I know you probably worried that we would try to re-home him or put him down. We didn't even consider those—we made a commitment to him and have worked to make him comfortable with us! We love him now more than ever and wanted to let you know what transpired.

Here's our happy-beginning story and a rare photo (he's afraid of cameras).

A year ago, our one-eyed Kirby had a doggy meltdown spurred by serious separation anxiety. He panicked every time we left him, and started nipping me when I took him to doggy daycare. We couldn't leave him, even if it was with someone else!

We had consulted several trainers and specialists. We have ended up working with a TTouch specialist and a veterinarian who also does chiropractic and acupuncture. Kirb has some neurological issues – the chiropractic vet thinks he was kicked or hit by a car and his spine suffered. So we are managing his pain with acupuncture, managing and working with his separation anxiety with Clomicalm, and working on our relationship and a combination of traditional training and TTouch. He also gets a pre-dawn walk every morning to get his wiggles out before the day starts.

Kirby can now be left alone in the house for 5 hours (yay!). During the week, he goes to a small doggy daycare. We've found that if the workers come out to the car and get him, instead of us leaving him, the separation is much more calm (no biting!). They love him and he gets rock-star treatment there.

Kirby has won our hearts with his quirky personality. Here's a description of some of the cute things he does every day that make us laugh.

He gets so excited in the car he can barely contain himself, and makes the weirdest noises—we call them his "car noises"-- and they are a strange mix of groaning, moaning, humming and barking. His favorite phrase of ours is, "Wanna go for a RIDE?"

He sneezes (and sneezes and sneezes and sneezes) when he gets excited. He doesn't seem to be able to control it and sometimes sneezes 10 or more times in a row. We call those episodes "sneezures."

He loves hiding in "caves." His favorite places at home are under tables (see picture) and in Steve's closet. At doggy daycare, he loves bellying under the groomer's tub and will stay there all day.

We love this dog and are happy to have him, warts and all. Thank you for saving him and letting us have him in our lives!

Gina and Steve Schaarschmidt
Colorado Springs, CO