Thank you for giving so much love to the first part of Shaggy’s story, where I mentioned how I adopted Shaggy and how everything changed in my life. From pain to agony to stress, everything disappeared after the arrival of Shaggy in my life. After much appreciation, I am coming up with the next part, highlighting how I trained him and how he lives a promising life here with us at our home.
Shaggy’s Training –
Shaggy’s training was more than the training for ourselves first. He is notorious, so teaching him something was equal to the Mission Impossible parts. Every time I started training him, we played with each other. Shaggy’s training was crucial, but was even supported by himself. He somehow knew that we were training him for his good, as it would be followed throughout his life, so he even supported us in this training.
Those who say that training a dog, especially an indie, is a hectic job are the big fools, as training indies, aka street dogs and Desi Dogs of India, is one of the easiest. They are too smart to follow the commands and act accordingly to show their obedience. To be true, I never taught Shaggy not to poop in the room, as even on the first and second times, he understood the commands and ignored pooping in the room from the very first week he was at my flat.
With the help of treats, I trained him for toilet training. He used to go to our bathroom to use the toilet. To your surprise, even at night, he goes to the bathroom, pees, and returns to his place. He is this smart. Can you imagine? I personally worked on his behavioural pattern, where I worked on his biting and anger issues. As everyone knows, puppies bite in play and for fun at their humans, who aren’t just pets but also family members and children. Due to teething issues, puppies want something to chew so that they will be engaged, and the same goes for Shaggy.
He, too, chewed many things, such as the Bhagwat Gita, chargers, cables, etc., and I taught him with the power word “No.” Yes, dogs understand human language, but they react proactively to such words as “no.” As a first-time pet parent, several issues came up after adopting one.
How do we treat Shaggy?
For me, Shaggy is my son, the one who means everything to me and obeys me like a son. It took time for my family, but as we say, time flies and makes everything possible, so this was repeated in that case, too. Shaggy got the recognition at our home, who wasn’t allowed to enter the standard room. Moreover, Shaggy is now the family’s crucial member and lives with us peacefully with complete support, love, and compassion.
As you can see, he is wearing Kurta attire at Diwali, which denotes our love for him. We dressed him like this so he could get involved in our rituals and send his well-wishes. Once we start acknowledging how these street dogs are, the more we cherish kindness and become better humans.
As Vivekanand Ji says –
As long as a stray dog of my country remains without food, my religion will be to feed and care for it. All else is either non-religion or false religion.”
Here, he meant that the biggest religion in the world is Humanity, which is not limited to just Humans. We must be ashamed if our street dogs are sleeping with empty stomachs when every human is living with a full stomach.
Why did I adopt Shaggy – An Indie?
I adopted Shaggy because I don’t want to buy a breed dog while supporting the breeding industry, where their mothers are impregnated multiple times to deliver the highly in-demand breed dogs. Yes, love cannot be bought; it can be adopted, just like he adopted us, the purest form of love.
On the ongoing chaos among Dog Lovers and Dog haters, where the hating side people are going to the extent of killing and maiming the street dogs, I wanted to give a strong message that Shaggy is a Desi. Such dogs are termed as the – Desh Ke Kutte, Desi Shwaan, and harming them is more than a sin, it’s a brutal curse. I wanted to highlight that they didn’t choose to live on the streets; the people decided to keep Breed Dogs as their Pets and avoid such intelligent beings as their family members.
They ask for the freedom of life, as people do not even allow them to sit in the shade to seek shelter from scorching heat, heavy rains, and cold winters. My point is clear – If you can’t adopt, do feed and manage sterilizations and vaccinations, and if you can’t do any of these, then you have no right to kill and beat them and prevent feeding, as you aren’t doing anything for them, so don’t do the melodramas too.
Watch out, Shaggy’s Saiiyara Version on his Instagram Account –
Follow me on my Instagram Writer Profile – Siddhant Jain SJ – The Writer
You can check my previous blog for Shaggy – Shaggy (My Indie Dog Son, My Strength and Reason of Happiness) Part 1
I once had a baby rabbit named Pulpy, gifted by one of my closest college friends on my birthday. Sadly, I lost her within a year, and that day was truly devastating for me and my entire family. I still remember how deeply we grieved, we couldn’t even bring ourselves to cook or eat after burying her in our backyard. Only later did I learn that rabbits should be kept in pairs. Since then, I decided not to keep any more pets, but I deeply respect and cherish those who do. Pets are not just companions, they become part of the family, and losing them leaves a void that never really goes away…..
This is truly heart-touching, and I agree with your saying that they do become part of our family. I really can’t imagine life without them, as they are the heart. Thank you so much for your appreciation of all the pet parents. Please, do adopt, they fills our life’s emptiness with love, care and compassion.