Artichoke’s journey started at Humane Society Naples as a puppy and unfortunately, his first home would not be his forever home. Behavior problems in the home brought him back to HSN where our behavior team began work on implementing a training plan so he could be adoption-ready.
Artichoke’s previous home reported he was an extreme resource guarder and wary of people which resulted in defensive behavior. In order to manage the resource guarding, the HSN behavior team worked to teach him alternate behaviors (asking for a sit when he would start getting mouthy) or learn to exchange ( for example, a toy for a treat).
For this, they worked on his basic obedience and made sure he had a good foundation. Slowly, they opened Artichoke’s world to more handlers and dogs. Meeting people became increasingly less scary for him as they allowed him to avoid people he felt uncomfortable with rather than forcing the interaction. They also paired treats with every interaction he had with a new person for him to learn new people equals treats.
Playing with dogs helped him relieve the stress of the shelter and the puppy energy he had. It also allowed HSN staff to assess the resource guarding with other dogs. He would initially guard areas in the yard and water bowls from the other dogs however towards the end of his stay, we saw less and less of the guarding. Artichoke ultimately was able to share a kennel with another dog which was great to see because it meant he could potentially share a home with another dog.
Artichoke was adopted back in June of 2020! His new family shared photos of him recently celebrating his second birthday and thanked HSN for their work in helping bring Artichoke into their lives.
