Rachel Puklin and her fiance, John, picked their new dog’s name before she’d even arrived.
Rachel had lost her Yorkie, Chance, recently from cancer, which left her other dog, Ellie, an 11-year-old Jack Russell mix, alone. “She’d learned how to be a dog from another dog,” Rachel explained. “She’d lived in a car before I rescued her. After Chance died, I felt like she needed a playmate. Even though she was older, she seemed kind of lost.”
They started looking for a new companion, and after a while, John came across the photo of a tiny little black dog originally named Poppy. “I wanted to change it,” Rachel explained. “I felt like she didn’t look like a Poppy.”
They agreed on Rosie Lee, which is also a British slang term for tea, and since John is of British decent and an avid tea drinker, it seemed fitting. She arrived in March, right as the pandemic began.
Rosie is small, a black poodle/cocker spaniel nonshedding mix that looks like a terrier. And of course, she has big, pointy ears.
Ellie was not a fan.
Rachel had found Philly Unleashed back in 2016, taking Chance to Dogs With Attitude, as he had developed leash reactivity after moving to Philadelphia. “I had done that class with him and loved it,” Rachel said. “It really helped, so I knew exactly who to go to when I needed training for Rosie. We were getting ready to move to South Jersey, so it was helpful that the farm was there, too.”
Since Ellie didn’t want to play with Rosie, Rachel became concerned about socialization. “I was really thinking, I have this puppy and no one was going to the dog park and no one was doing anything at that point and no one was having classes,” Rachel said. “I was thinking about what I could do with her.”
Rachel then learned about the puppy program Philly Unleashed had developed at the start of the pandemic. “I knew she needed something,” Rachel explained. “I worked at a hospital and I was still going to work and my schedule was really funky, and John and I were still living apart at that point. I knew I wouldn’t have the time. I was working multiple 12-hour days at that point. She did amazing with that puppy program.”
They continued with drop-in Puppy Kindergarten classes throughout the summer, private lessons that focused on agility, and weekly visits to Farmcamp. “Rosie is probably one of the most challenging dogs I’ve ever had on my own,” Rachel shared. “She is very, very smart and she is very different than any other dog I’ve had. I’ve had my Yorkie since he was a puppy, but he was all about loving me and listening to me, but he never challenged me. Rosie, on the other hand, is all terrier. He was a terrier, but she is a whole ‘nother type of terrier. If she can find a way to challenge me, she will do it.”
Training has helped their communication. “Training has really helped us bond and helped me figure her out,” Rachel said. “She’s starting to no longer challenge me as much as she did at the very beginning. She’s always been this loving dog. It’s helped me understand her more.”
Her personality has shined brightly throughout the entire process. “I honestly love her spunkiness,” Rachel said. “She is a spunky dog. With her spunkiness, she loves to tell you what she thinks. She’s very vocal. She will vocalize just to talk to you. I do really enjoy that.”
And they’ve found some ways to challenge her brain, like agility. Rachel encourages other dog owners to do the same. “Find something that you enjoy that you can work on with them that really challenges them,” Rachel said. “For Rosie, it was agility. And if you hit setbacks, just keep going forward.”
