Dog adoption in Tooele, UT, 84074
German Shepherd Cocker Spaniel Mix Dog
"Pikachu"

About this Dog

Pikachu’s Backstory     We got Pikachu off of a KSL ad in early February of 2020. The people we bought him from said he was 2-3 months old and that he had been living outside for most of his life with 2 Cocker Spaniels (one being his mother) and a German Shepherd (his father). They said he was outside from 7 AM or so until almost 4 when someone got home from work or school. They said the week prior was the first time he’d had a bath and that he had freaked out really bad. They did not let us into the yard let alone into their home, they only handed him to us over the fence on the sidewalk outside their yard. They also said they had not gotten him any shots or registered him.  In hindsight I should’ve asked more questions, but at the time I didn’t think about it. I’d done research about different dog breeds we knew we couldn’t handle like terriers, and retrievers with lots of energy, but I didn’t research German Shepherds or Spaniels before I found him on KSL and decided to go meet him. To be honest Pikachu was an impulse buy which I know is not the best way to get a pet. I did go into this decision knowing my husband was not going to be able to help with the dog very much, that he would primarily be my responsibility, and I fully intended for him to be my walking buddy and a lifelong companion. However, I did not know the scope of what I was getting myself into, but my intention was to train him from the time he came home and for him to grow up well behaved and regularly exercised with kids so by all counts he would be a very well mannered, socialized and experienced dog.  The day we brought him home he was terrified, understandably. We’d just taken him from everything he knew and understood with no warning. He cried and barked the whole way to the pet store where we bought him a collar, leash, chew sticks, and toys. He growled at all the other dogs in the store, but we thought it was just nerves from all the new sights and sounds and smells  When we got home we ran into our first issue. He was territorial over food, treats and toys - which again we found understandable because he’d spent his life outside with three adult dogs and probably had to scrounge for anything left over. Shortly thereafter he began to show territorial tendencies around me. He would snarl and snap at my husband when he would try to get close to me. We worked religiously with him over the next several weeks to teach him these behaviors were not acceptable. We would regularly and randomly take his treats, food bowl, and chew sticks from him to teach him he could not be aggressive and then have him sit or lay down to get them back. When he would become territorial over me I would set him down and ignore him, or my husband would get in between him and I and reprimand him sternly for growling or nipping. It didn’t take long for these behaviors to be corrected, which gave me hope for my future training endeavors.     The first several nights he was with us he slept next to me in the bed so I could easily take him out to go potty in the night, but to my surprise he slept soundly all night and almost never had an accident in the house. It took very little time for him to be fully potty trained as well, again furthering in my mind the idea that he was going to be very receptive to training and my hopes of a well mannered dog weren’t too lofty. Not too long after that we began to crate train him, and while he struggled for the first couple of weeks with being confined (which is normal) he soon became used to it and stopped barking incessantly to be let out.      His first visit to the vet revealed that he was underweight for his age, and that age was in reality closer to 5 months or more rather than the 2-3 months they sellers had told us. The vet gave him his first round of shots and he told us to free feed him so he could gain some much needed weight.    I took him home thinking because he was so young that I could indeed teach him everything he would need to know to go on walks with me daily, be off leash in areas he was allowed to be off leash in, that we would be able to get him to be incredibly well behaved. So after his quarantine period after his first round of shots I began taking him on regular walks to get him used to the leash and to teach him leash behavior. In the beginning there were very few issues because it was still COVID time and most people with their dogs were inside, but it soon became apparent that leash training him would be more difficult than I’d anticipated. The more we went on walks in different areas, the more he became almost crazed at the sound or sight of other animals. He would yank, pull, swerve, jump, snarl and become nearly unstoppable. I thought surely it was only because he was a puppy. So I worked harder and very consistently. He got a walk or more every day! I was consistent with my commands and tried to teach him to stop when I said stop, to begin walking again when I said go, and to be calm and heel at my side as we walked. But any time another dog or cat or sometimes person was visible or audible he lost all control. I wanted to socialize him but dog parks and other activities were closed, and at this point I was beginning to worry he wouldn’t do well with other dogs. I did walk him to my son’s school and back so he got used to being around a lot of loud children and he seemed to do well with that, but as soon as we walked past a dog in a fence or on a leash he would lose all composure. I tried having him on my wrist. I tried tying him around my waist to use my body weight to control his movements or at least minimize his range- he was less than 20 lbs at this point. I almost always took my children with me on these walks so we could get used to walking as a group, and I had my almost 2 year old in a stroller, so I tried tying the leash to the stroller handle so he had to walk next to it. Nothing worked. He pulled my wrists, swerved in front of and around me to the point I rolled ankles. He yanked so hard he pulled muscles in my shoulders. He tripped me. He tried to dive over and through the stroller scratching and hitting into my daughter. I brought food with me to try and use that as a training method I’d read about. If he ignored the other dogs he got a treat….but he wasn’t interested. He didn’t care about the food when other dogs could be around. He wouldn’t take it and therefore he wouldn’t calm down for the walk. He continued to bark, lunge, growl, whine and choke himself on his own collar because of how wild he became. After he jumped through the stroller and then on another occasion almost overturned it I stopped tying him to the handle. After he squeezed my middle so tight from pulling that I almost puked, I stopped putting him around my waist. But no matter what I tried he wouldn’t respond to my commands. I tried being softer and standing between him and the other dogs (which were already far away) to try and show him I would protect him and keep him safe, that I was in charge and I had the situation under control… but it didn’t work. He would weave around me, tangling me in the leash. I looked up article after article about leash training dogs, but none of the suggestions seemed to work. I still kept trying to take him on walks whenever I could, but it got to the point, especially as he got larger that I couldn’t go with the him AND the children because he became so unhinged that he would end up injuring one or multiple of us, so I had to reserve walks for when I could leave the children at home with their Dad, which really restricted the time I had to exercise him, which I am sure led to more hyperactivity. However, because of how intensely he reacted on walks a short 10 minute walk was enough for him to pass out exhausted for at least an hour when we got home because of how wired he’d been on the outing. I started reaching out to dog trainers to ask for advice, and to get quotes. When most of them told me their prices started in the $1,000 range and went up and that he most likely needed a more expensive and intensive package - I continued to research online, and began reaching out to pet groups, and training groups on Facebook. I uploaded videos of him walking showing how I couldn’t get him to chill. The groups were supportive and offered ideas for indoor activity, like a flirt pole, which I got him. Many suggested I try to get some of his energy out before the walk…. which I tried… to no avail. He wouldn’t play fetch outside in the yard because someone or something could walk by and he had to patrol. I’d play flirt pole inside with him, and while he seemed to enjoy the activity it never seemed to be enough for him to be calmer on a walk. He still reacted the exact same way. As time passed his walks got shorter and shorter until it became so bad I couldn’t walk him anymore. My husband’s work schedule mixed with my always having one or more of the children meant that if I wanted to walk him I had to go at 4:00 in the morning or after 8:00 PM when the kids were in bed, and those times could vary. Someone suggested I try teaching him to walk on the treadmill, so I did. At first he was terrified of it, and if I tried to force him on with a leash on he wouldn’t do it. He would fight and struggle. So I started walking on it and would invite him to join me and eventually he did, but he’d only stay on with me for 5-10 minutes at a time. I’m sure it helped, but it wasn’t enough to curb his energy levels and I knew it. But I was in a bind. I didn’t want him to injure my children on a walk, or pull himself or me in front of a car to get to a dog on the other side of the road, but I also knew by not exercising him efficiently it was likely causing his behavior to worsen. I didn’t know what to do. At this point he was a year old, and my dreams of having him fully trained and sociable were  fading away.     I ordered a cheaper online training program I could afford called Sexier than a Squirrel. It promised that in just a few weeks, by watching their videos and then doing the activities with my dog 15 minutes a day, that I would become sexier than a squirrel and he would be fully trained if I was consistent. I diligently tried the program for several weeks, but because it was food based it did not really stick, and or he would manipulate the system. They recommended I stop free feeding him so as to make the dog food treats more appealing as a motivator. He would ignore the dog food, and when I tried to use high value treats he began to repeat negative behavior so I would reprimand him, he could correct the behavior and get a treat. For instance he would continually bark out the window, long and loud, and continually. He would bark at people, cars, leaves, trees, other animals. Sometimes it was just him barking and other times it was the same as when we went on walks, with him becoming loud and uncontrollable, barking, snarling, growling, and lunging at the window. If it was the calmer type of barking out the window and I called him to me and told him to sit and be quiet… he would perfectly follow the commands, then after the treat was gone, he’d walk right back to the window and bark again, to which I would call him back, make him sit and be quiet, and then offer him a treat… and he would repeat this over and over again to the point that I was just continually calling him away from the window and giving him treats until I realized what he seemed to be doing and stopped. But then the barking would continue, and if I didn’t have a high value treat and didn’t spend long periods of time calling him away he’d just bark and bark and bark. So I started telling him to be quiet and then putting him in “time out” in his kennel for a few minutes each time he barked at the window and that seemed to help with the indoor barking. But outside barking is a different story. He gets into this mode where he is singularly focused on whatever he is running and barking at and I cannot get him to break focus. He frightens people every day as they walk past the yard. In the beginning every time he would do this I would run outside and try to get him inside. I would call him and command him with pre-determined commands and he would ignore me, so I would chase after him, looking like an idiot running all over the yard trying to grab him so he wouldn’t bark at people or freak out about dogs. At first people were really kind and understanding saying they knew it took time to train a dog and that he was just still learning, but after months of me doing this and trying everything in my power to get him inside, people began to be rude and judgemental telling me that maybe I should try walking him once in a while. It got to the point that if I heard him start to freak out I would just stay inside and wait until whatever it was had passed and then I would go get him, because once he’d focused on that thing I couldn’t get through to him.    I talked to several more trainers who all quoted me $3000 or more for a 6 month program. A lot of them wanted to take him and train him without me around, in a different location and then teach me what they’d trained him before leaving. I didn’t have the thousands of dollars to pay, and somehow the training method of taking him away from the environment he’d need to be trained in didn’t make sense. I continued to try things I found online or heard about. I asked friends and family members for ideas and suggestions, all the while getting more and more frustrated with him and the situation. I took him to his regular vet appointments, got him his shots, and tried to get him out of the house on a car ride or a short walk as often as I could but his behavior seemed to either stay the same or get worse.    Eventually, after much research and internal struggle I bought an e-collar. All the trainers I’d talked to recommended them, but other people  said they were evil and abusive… so it had taken me a long time to break down and try it. I promised I would never use it past a certain limit, that I’d test the levels on myself, and that I would try to only use the beep and vibrate settings regularly and that I’d only use the shock setting if absolutely necessary. I did all the things I set out to do and he responds pretty well to the Beep or Vibrate settings when he has it on and IF he is not full out freaking out. If he is in that state even the actual shock rarely works. And he has learned to identify when he has the collar on and when he has it off. When it is off he returns to barking and not obeying as often as when he has it on, and when it is off and he goes into one of his frenzy’s I cannot get his attention at all.    I got to the point where I felt like he needed really intensive training and time that I could not provide him so I tried to re-home him. I contacted no-kill shelters and rescues and reached out on Facebook to groups but to no avail. Everyone said they were full, or he didn’t meet the requirements for their particular shelter or rescue. They said they didn’t have anyone who had the capacity to take on his particularly intense needs. So, not wanting him to be euthanized I kept him. I started a go-fund me and made YouTube Videos and Facebook posts to try and raise money for training. I made $20 bucks, and tried to return it to the person who gave it to me because it wasn’t nearly enough for training but they offered to let me use it for another E-collar or some supplies for him. I kept reading articles and trying new things here and there, but things were getting so difficult with him. Taking him on drives can only happen if I am staying in the car with him or if the weather is nice enough that he’s not going to overheat in the car. So I would try to take him as often as possible, and then one day he jumped past me out of the car and took off onto a busy road. I had the kids with me, so it was difficult to get him back without also either leaving the kids or putting them in danger chasing him. Luckily he came back after a few minutes and I was able to get him into the car again. He’s tried to jump over my lap at drive-thru windows to bark and lunge at the people in the window. He pants, and whines, and cries in the car even with the e-collar, which I know is an anxiety response. After two plus years of this I got to the point where he basically lived with us, we took care of his regular vet appointments and shots, and we fed him and made sure he had water, and that was it. During this time I looked up calming chews for him and got him some. He didn’t like them and it didn’t really seem to help so after a few months of those I stopped giving them to him.   Then after a while of that and his behavior in the yard, and yet another realization that I couldn’t give him what he needed, I began to feel bad again and tried to re-home again with the same results as the first time. I reached out to friends and family to network but to no avail. Someone suggested about a year ago that maybe he would benefit from some anxiety medicine so I brought it up with the vet at his last appointment and he was prescribed Trazadone. At that time I was very heavily pregnant and I did not give it to him regularly enough to know if it helped. I would try to remember but day after day I would realize I hadn’t gotten him his dose. After the baby was born I was more consistent for a while and then I kept forgetting again, so after not seeing much of an improvement even when he had it consistently I stopped giving it to him because I was unsure of the effects of going on and off it.    Another thing that started to bother me was when we brought my youngest home from the hospital in November of 2022, Pikachu didn’t display any outward signs of aggression but nor did he seem pleased. His body language expressed tolerance, but standoffish-ness toward the baby, so unlike with my other kids I’ve been much, much more wary of him being around the baby. I never let the two of them be alone together. Whenever the baby wants to talk to or interact with the dog I am right there monitoring his actions and the dog’s behavior so if anything seems amiss I can intervene immediately. I don’t allow the baby to pull on the dog, poke him, climb on him or anything, and for the most part the baby just leaves the dog alone and vice versa. With my other children Pikachu will rub up against them and try to play with them and give them affection and ask for it in return. With the baby Pikachu seems more to avoid and ignore him. I’d been starting to wonder if my caution was unwarranted when the other day Pikachu was sitting on the end of the couch and I tossed him a chew stick. The chew stick landed next to him, but he was not chewing on it, when my 10 month old saw the motion of the stick landing and stood up next to the couch to grab it. He took the chew stick and tossed it on the floor. He was in front of Pikachu now and they were looking at each other, the baby babbling away with his hand up. I was maybe a foot away from them the entire time. About 30 seconds to a minute after the baby tossed the chew stick on the floor Pikachu nipped him in the hand and made the sound that usually accompanies such an action but a little higher pitched. The baby started to cry as I jumped towards them and yelled at the dog, getting mad at him. I grabbed the baby and checked on him. His two first fingers on his right hand had white scratch marks on them and some redness, but luckily Pikachu didn’t break skin. My daughter took Pika down to his kennel while I comforted the baby. He calmed down alright and after about a half an hour the marks on his hand completely went away. If he had broken skin or more I would’ve taken the dog to the shelter no questions asked right then and there, but since he didn’t I thought about what I should do since the two of them were separated. I felt like I had anticipated this, and that now that my worry is confirmed it is only a matter of time before Pikachu snaps at another child. And then about a month after he bit the baby he went after my daughter who was just standing on the couch by him. He's never done anything like that with my other children but now its happened twice and it seems unprovoked. I’d been passively letting Pikachu live here and tending to his basic needs, but I truly don’t have the time to give him or the finances for the long and intense training needs he has. My dream of him being my lifelong pet and walking companion does not seem possible with his disposition,  emotional needs, and now that he has unprovoked bit/nipped/snapped at my children I don’t know that I can trust him around young kids anymore. Since I home-school and have a lot of other responsibilities I need my babies to be able to explore the upstairs common areas without worrying that the dog will hurt them for whatever reason.   Other things to know about Pikachu are:   I had to work for a very long time, almost two years, to get him to be calm in the bath. Originally he would wail and thrash and try to run away. I tried to give him food, but he refused it. I tried different settings on the shower head. I tried to get in a swimsuit and have him lay on my lap in order to calm him and most things did not work. He scratched my legs up and down and would almost wrestle me to get out. It was a nightmare to bathe him, but I kept working on it, and my sister helped me a couple of times and now he will stand in the shower without fighting. He is still very shaky while in the bath, and tense. He stands against the leash making it taught, and you have to be very controlled and firm with him or he will try to jump out, but he doesn’t fight it anymore.   I tried really hard to train him to use nail clippers at home. I bought one of the sanding ones, and for months I would hold it in my hand without it on and give him high value treats if he put his paw next to it. Then I transitioned to doing this exercise with it on. He was doing really well, and I could touch his paw with it on when a well meaning family member said they could just get him to do it and they pretty much wrestled him to the ground and forced the nail sander/file thing onto him. They got maybe one nail before he wormed his way out and ran away. After that he wouldn’t let me get near him with it and so I usually take him to the vet and have them trim his nails when he goes under for his teeth cleanings.    He’s tried to use a halter / harness before but he fought it a lot and when we used the face one he pawed at it and chewed at it until he broke it and we never ended up getting another one.    He seems to do really well with my two older kids ( they are now 7 and 5, and I don’t know if it’s because he’s grown up around them or if he’s good with older kids?), but again he doesn’t seem relaxed around the baby, he seems to tolerate him, but not necessarily accept or like him. And he has now tried to bite my 5 year old. He seems to like some children but now I am unsure of him around kids.    In the yard he barks at and lunges at some people, but not others. He usually gets excited when people enter the fence and jumps for attention sometimes, but he has never actually hurt anyone, except for the nip/bites I have described. He did get out of the fence once and ran at/chased an elementary schooler down the street as I tried to get him, but he didn’t lunge or bite. It scared the kid half to death, which I don’t blame him for. So, I honestly don’t know really ever how he is going to react to people. Some people he is really calm with, others he gets really excited with, and others he barks and runs at when he’s in the fence. He seems to connect better with men than with women. I don’t know the mechanics behind it, but there is an older gentleman that walks past our fence and always pets Pika and talks to him and Pikachu looks forward to this. He also gets extremely excited whenever my Dad or my Brother come over. He will follow them around eagerly and or lay by them to get a ton of extra attention from them. He does get excited when female family members come over, but not to the same degree as he does with the men.    He herds cars. Sometimes when we go out of the gate he pushes past us and gets out, and he will run into the street and chase cars (especially larger ones and trucks) down the street and nip at their tires. Luckily we’ve stopped him the two or three times it’s happened but he could end up getting hit if someone doesn’t end up stopping or doesn’t care to stop.     He has lived with an older female cat and 2 male cats. He is afraid of the older female because he tried to chase after her several times and she told him off, hissing and scratching at him. He won’t go near or around her now unless there is absolutely no other way. The two male cats I think he tries to play with. He will chase them if they run from him, and he gets very eager and intense going after them. He will lay with them between his paws and chew on their tails and pull tufts of fur off them but neither of them has ever gotten upset with him or hissed at him or bit him or anything. He can get rough with them while playing though. The other day he pulled one of them off the fence and started draggin him around the yard. I think he is just playing but I am not an expert.Cats outside are a different story. I’ve never seen him react to one while inside the fence, but on walks he reacts to cats the same way he does to dogs or other animals, freaking out and lunging and fighting to get to them.    Pikachu has had a few interactions with other dogs and he seems to be reactive for the most part, meaning he will display whatever behavior the other dog displays first. If they are calm and playful he usually is too, but if they bark or nip or seem aggressive or defensive in any way it sets him off and he behaves that way too. I had a friend who let me bring him with us to her house when we were close to play with her silver lab. Pikachu would get upset initially and nip at her and/or run from her but eventually he calmed down and would play. He was always on high alert though. That friend eventually got a golden retriever puppy and Pikachu was always checking on the puppy when he met him, and didn’t do anything negative. We eventually fell out with each other so Pikachu doesn’t have those dogs to play with or interact. He met my cousin’s dog one time , I believe female, and she was pretty on edge around him so I kept him on a leash or in the kennel because he responded to her behavior with like behavior. My mother in law’s female dog is aggressive towards Pikachu so he seems upset around her so we usually kennel him if she’s over for about an hour. My brother’s dog, Maya, is a basset hound and Pikachu loves her. He seems very happy around her and wants to play, and even when Maya gets nippy or annoyed he doesn’t react negatively to her for some reason. My parents had a dog named Stella who played with Pikachu a few times before she got some health issues that caused her to be more aggressive. Pikachu was very happy with her and didn’t display any aggression. He has met ,in passing, my sisters dogs Piggy ( a chihuahua mix ) and Little Diego (not sure the breed) and while the interaction was brief he didn’t seem upset. But all dogs outside the fence are threats and he freaks out at them, the hair on his back raises and he lunges and jumps and barks. So I honestly never know what to expect with new dogs around. He might be completely fine, or he might fly off the handle.  On walks or outside the fence or yard he’s even worse.   He likes to get into the trash and dig through it before stealing his prize and running to hide with it. He usually takes it down by where his crate is. He goes through the kitchen trash, but will also pull stuff out of our dumpsters if they are in reach.   If he is outside and packages are delivered inside the fence (usually tossed in, or if I don’t notice the package before letting him out) he will chew the package open and destroy the package before flinging the contents all over. This is the only chewing that he does that’s negative.   He does stink. I have tried to bathe him so many times with different shampoos. I’ve even gotten doggy odor sprays but no matter what I use he usually goes back to smelling nasty within 24-48 hours of his bath/spray/cleaning. I have tried Mane and Tail, Burts Bees Oatmeal, Burts Bees Dry Skin, and one other Burts Bees, I’ve tried Dawn Dish Soap, and a Dog Shampo Bar from Viori. I’ve tried human shampoo, baby wash, and a variety of other dog soaps and shampoos and none work on him. He’s regularly smelly. The only exception is, Lexi told me she thought he had a skin infection on his chest, so I got him a antifungal/antibacterial shampoo and when I used it on him it really changed the color of the water and he smelled neutral for several days afterward. I need to bathe him in it again here soon.   The Positives.   He is a very sweet and smart dog when you get to the moments when he isn’t freaking out or barking. He is loyal to the person or people he deems to be his pack and has always displayed protective behavior over myself and the two older children. He loves belly rubs, and gets really excited for them, or for any petting. Sometimes he can get a little too excited and starts to grab hands while you rub on him because he loves it.   He has an iron stomach. Nothing we’ve ever fed him has caused him issues. He once got a bag of shredded cheese off the counter and finished the 2 lbs that were left in it, with nothing but a couple of stinky farts. We’ve had to change his food a couple of times due to it being out of stock or the price increases, but no matter what he’s been given he’s never had  any issues.   He’s pretty smart. If he really wants or needs something and we aren’t getting it for him or understanding he will gently place a finger behind his front teeth, or grab a sleeve and lead us to whatever it is he thinks he needs whether that is water, food, or to go outside, or to play. He knows what “food” , “Water”, and “Potty/Outside” mean and will usually run to those areas if that is what he needs. He knows : sit, stay( this only works for a few seconds at most), lay down, quiet (We struggle with that one), off (for getting off of furniture he’s not supposed to be on), down (for getting off of people he’s jumped on), jump, spin, speak, paw (for shaking), come (again he struggles with this one), kennel(this one seems to work better than come for some reason), Go (for when he’s in your face and you need a minute, or he’s in an area he’s not supposed to be in) Leave it   I believe that with the right home/person (Possibly an adult male) Pikachu would be very happy and content. In my non-professional opinion he needs a home where he can have a lot of individualized attention, a lot of training for emotional regulation, and probably where he is the only pet. I would recommend he doesn’t go to a home with young children just because I don’t know if he reacts well to my older two because they are familiar or if he is better with older children. He has had interactions with my children’s friends and he did okay with them, as well as when I could take him on walks to the school he loved all the children and was happy with the attention they gave him. He would be super happy with someone who is his person, his companion who he can get exercise with and can sit by at home on the couch when it’s down time, and they can snuggle and he gets rubs. I unfortunately did not realize the extent of what he would need when I got him, and have been unable to fulfill those needs time and again, and with him having bit/nipped my children that just feels like the last straw, the last sign that he has to go somewhere else. I don’t want to take him to a shelter because I believe that would exacerbate his anxiety issues, and that he may be euthanized rather than adopted there, which is why he is still here. I really hope someone can connect with him and give him what he needs and what I cannot provide him with. Now we are pretty sure we are going to move in the next couple months and cannot take him with us. So the need to have him re-homed is now more immediate. I am running out of options and desperately do not want to take him to a pound but feel I am running out of recourse.

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