Three sides to Scout & Henry’s Adoption Story
Foster’s Side of the Story
Colleen and Tristan
Fostering Scout (now Max) was both a challenge and a privilege. The privilege part is obvious: how could we possibly resist that sweet face and those big hound-dog ears? And we immediately discovered that his personality is just as sweet.
He has such pure joy for life, and an exuberance that makes everyone around him smile. That said, he challenged us nearly every day for ten weeks — and we were the ones with the opposable thumbs! The only things that could contain Scout were windows, closed doors, and a secure six-foot fence. He sailed over baby gates in a single effortless bound. He bounced off of coffee tables. It was impossible to keep him out of the laundry room (where the cat food is). He took up the whole bed. And he slept in the bed out of necessity, because we didn’t have a crate from which he couldn’t escape. We started to worry about his adoptability and even his safety — I mean, this dude bent the metal door on a crate with his teeth and could slither out of any tiny opening. And, well, he had a penchant for “redecorating” when left alone. When we found his collar under the couch one day with a broken clasp, we acknowledged our defeat. Thankfully, all it took was an email to TBR about our (now heightened) concerns and they agreed to send him to Dog Training Camp (DTC) for intensive crate training. He returned a few weeks later with his joy and exuberance intact, but now willing to quietly spend time in his industrial strength crate (which TBR generously offered to gift to his adopters to set everyone up for success). We were thrilled with how good a boy he was after DTC. Serendipitously, the Jennings met Scout at DTC when they were dropping TBR alum Henry (FKA Han Solo) off for some training of his own, and the rest . . . well, they’ll take it from there!
Trainer’s Side of the Story
Kersti Moss, Dog Training Camp USA
Scout and Henry are like long lost brothers! Scout came to Training Camp to get better control on his energy and to help with crate training. He was a ball of energy and during camp, my dogs couldn’t keep up with him playing chase. When Henry’s mom signed him up for Training Camp, a lot of their training goals sounded similar to Scout’s, but I didn’t think much of it. The dogs sounded a lot alike, but that’s common for the breed. I had been feeling sick during Scout’s training, so he ended up spending an extra week with me to make up for my sick days. Originally, Scout was supposed to go back to his foster before Henry started Training Camp, but since Scout stayed longer, Henry’s people were able to meet Scout when they dropped Henry off. That was the crucial moment! We saw right away that these boys were like brothers, and Scout worked his charm with Henry’s owners. They loved him right away. During the next week, Scout and Henry were best buddies and kept each other busy. Instead of digging holes or finding things to chew on, they chased each other until both boys couldn’t run anymore. When they got tired, they would lie down and chew on each other! They were a perfect match for each other’s energy. It was the best news when Henry’s people told me they had officially adopted Scout!
Adopter’s Side of the Story
Ashley Jennings
My husband and I had been debating sending our wild child Henry (formerly TBR Han Solo) to Dog Training Camp … which was around the same time that TBR’s Scout headed to camp for some training of his own. I had been following DTC on social media and remember thinking how similar Scout seemed to our Henry — both in looks and personality!Little did we know that when we dropped Henry off at Kersti’s house a few weeks later, Scout would still be there. He stole our hearts when he literally squeezed through the grates of a fence to get to us to say hello. And it was most definitely love at first sight for Henry. He lost his mind with excitement sprinting around the yard chasing his new pal. And also proceeded to get mad at us when Scout would stop by for a few belly rubs mid-play (heaven forbid we take away from play time with his new BFF!) It was only right that these two should become brothers IRL, so Scout is now our Max. These two silly boys have settled in nicely now that they’re both home. Max has been a great influence on Henry, teaching him that it’s okay to chill out and relax. And Henry keeps Max on a strict play hard / crash hard schedule. I’m pretty sure Henry is going to keep Max (and his humans!) young … and maybe give all of us a few grey hairs along the way!
