A New Start

It was a hot day in sunny California when Dawn and I drove together to the veterinarian with our newest foster dog, for what I considered his last chance at a good home. Everyone was hoping the scheduled neuter surgery would reduce the dog's fight response in stressful situations due to a lower testosterone level. At that time, his name was Tiny. I thought it was because he behaved like a tiny, short-tempered Pit Bull, but Dawn thought it might be because he must have been really small when he was a puppy. Ultimately we knew we would never find out, but we always engaged in this type of process concerning our foster dogs: trying to figure out the animal’s past.

He was certainly cute enough to be called Tiny. We both agreed that he looked like the dog in the Taco Bell commercial that was popular at the time. It was the advertisement that depicted a Chihuahua longingly watching a human eat something yummy from the restaurant, the dog stating in Spanish to the human, “Yo quiero taco bell.”

The receptionist at Dr. Warren’s facility admitted Tiny that morning, after making sure we had not fed him after eight p.m. the night before as well as checking if we remembered to pick up the water dish in the morning. She instructed us to return back for pick up by four o’clock in the afternoon. Kind-hearted Dr. Warren made it part of his practice to provide excellent veterinary care for all of our foster dogs at a discounted rate. It was his way of giving back to the community. Because I paid for the vet bills for all of the foster dogs, his services were invaluable.

By the time we left Dr. Warren’s office we had decided we wanted to call him by a different name. Weighing in at approximately fifteen pounds, he really wasn’t that tiny, and in the singular day we had shared with him, we learned that he could be impressively athletic when he jumped up and down with his muscular, Jack Russell type build. This he did practically every time he wanted to go through a door or gate. Dawn wanted to call him Chico, because it was somewhat representative of the aforementioned Chihuahua from Taco Bell.
 

I had read in one of my training books that it is easier for a dog to respond to a new name when the previous name is included together with the new one, much like a hyphenated last name. So when I picked up our new foster dog from Dr. Warren’s place later that day, I started calling him Tiny-Chico. I planned to drop Tiny from his name later in our rehab process. I believed that the new name would also help him with his aggressive tendencies. I hypothesized that hearing a new name might exhibit a different response from the dog. I was willing to try anything because I had seen how dramatically different he could be when provoked, and I wanted to stack the deck in his favor.