For the first three days, Nina Marcos and her fiancé, Mike, found that their new puppy didn’t do much.
Winston, a terrier mix, was about two to three months old when they brought him home through MatchDog Rescue on February 8, 2019. MatchDog Rescue transports about 50 dogs every month from rural areas in Texas, and Winston showed up with severe skin issues and mange. “He was a little love bug,” Nina shared. “His foster was like, ‘He just loves being held. He loves cuddling.’ We said to each other, ‘Oh my god, we think we adopted a stuffed animal.’ Three days later, it was, ‘Oh, this is not a stuffed animal. This is a bundle of energy.’ And the real puppiness began.”
They started training the week after he arrived. “We started doing the puppy socialization classes,” Nina explained. “It was really important to us that Winston was well adjusted to other dogs and humans from a young age.”
Living in downtown Philadelphia, the couple found that the socialization was helpful. “Anytime we took him on a walk, it was like a mini-training session getting him used to people,” Nina said. “We adopted him in winter, and he’s used to umbrellas, hats, and gloves, and all the things that summer puppies get really scared of when their first winter comes around.”
They also worked through several private training sessions with Kelsey for the puppy basics, completed one or two classes in Level 1, and entered Level 2 classes. Now, Winston is in Level 3 and working on agility skills at the farm. “He’s a little smart guy when he wants to be,” Nina shared. “Initially, I really wanted him to be a therapy dog, but he’s so young and right now, as a puppy, I’m just not 100% sure if his personality is that of a therapy dog. … We’re trying to see if that mellows out and he’ll be better suited to be a therapy dog. We really love doing agility too. It’s been a fun way to bond with him.”
They’ve mostly trained with Dawn and Alicia in obedience classes. “It started off just working out that way because of our schedules, but we really love them,” Nina said. “It’s great because they know Winston and what he’s working on. They make sure to tailor what you’re working on to each of the different dogs, which is really helpful.”
And Level 3 training reinforces the basics but continues to make training more challenging and engaging. “We’re not only focusing on recall but doing other fun things too, like doing figure eights and weaving around objects in a room,” Nina explained. “That variability keeps things interesting for me and Winston. It’s really important to keeping the training plan really balanced and not getting too focused on one particular item, which would get boring pretty quickly.”
Bringing home Winston added a new dimension to Nina’s and Mike’s relationship as well. “As a couple, when we adopted Winston, the things we talked about narrowed from 100 things to two things,” Nina said. “We talk about him 90 percent of the time – he’s our baby. It’s fun to see his personality grow and develop. … He can be pretty timid but he’ll always try things. I get really proud of him for trying something. As a rescue dog, he had a pretty bad first few weeks of life – he was covered in fleas and fire ants when they found him. His first reaction to most things is to be nervous about them and tentative, but Mike and I get to see him really start coming into his own, which is awesome.”
Sometimes even a new cardboard box on a table he hasn’t seen before can startle him. “To see him start to be a bit more courageous has been really rewarding for both of us,” Nina shared. “When something clicks, with him, either realizing he doesn’t need to be scared of something, or with training – like when he starts to loose leash walking more on walks. That’s a great feeling.”
Nina explained that one of her favorite things about Winston, for good and bad, is that he’s a “dog’s dog” who loves exploring and finding smelly things to roll around on. “My parents have a house in the Poconos,” Nina shared. “As soon as he starts rolling in something, I know he’s rolling in a dead fish and he reeks. He jumps and lays in mud puddles. He’s so happy when he’s dirty and stinky and just loves being a dog. It’s gross, but also makes me happy how happy he is. We’re trying to get him to learn how to focus and come back to us when we need him to, especially when he’s in his element and loving the world around him – that’s when he pretends he doesn’t know we exist. Recall and focus are a huge priority right now. He does great in class when it’s work time, but when we’re on a walk, he thinks, ‘This is my time to be free and explore – Mom and dad who?’”
They’ve enjoyed having Winston around, even with the things they can’t change, like his insistence on getting smelly. “Especially with a rescue dog, you don’t always know what you’re going to get,” Nina shared. “I love that he’s a dog’s dog. As exasperated as I get when I see him rolling around on a dead fish or something else, that’s just him and who he is. He thinks he smells really great right now.”
Nina has learned over the past year to take training at Winston’s pace, and she advises other dog owners to do the same. “I think of one of the biggest things for me that I had to learn was not to push my dog too far,” Nina explained. “You should really go at your dog’s pace. I think it took me being told by two different trainers to slow down and meet my dog where he is. That’s been really helpful. It’s led to less frustration on my end and Winston’s end. I’m not asking him to do things that he doesn’t understand. Take things day by day. Just because your dog could do something yesterday doesn’t mean he can do it today. Try to understand where your dog’s headspace is and meet them there.”
To find out more about MatchDog Rescue, visit their website. Adoption events are held every Saturday at the Marlton PetSmart in New Jersey. And to see more adorable photos of Winston, follow him on Instagram.
