‘Macy’ not rejected by Farragut family
Dillon Sims enjoys some play time with Macy, the family dog, pulling on her chew toy as Dillon’s older brother, Kendall, watches alongside the family pool.
Rejected by three families who adopted this dog — all apparently finding her behavior too much to handle and returning her to Young-Williams — the Sims family of Farragut was determined not to be the fourth.
Told by Young-Williams personnel about Macy’s returns, “That made us super sad,” Karen Sims said, adding the information about the dog’s excessive barking and other bad habits “didn’t actually” cause any hesitation to adopt. “We were not going to return this dog.”
However, “It did make us wonder what we would be working with,” she added. “The boys were already set on her, and it broke my heart that somebody would give up on a dog.”
Her oldest son, Kendall, 17, “just saw her sitting in a corner, she looked real sad, but he said, ‘I want to get that dog out and see what she is like.’ He said, ‘I like that dog.’
“So we got her out to play with her, and they just had a great time,” she added. “So both of my boys (also Dillon, 12) said, ‘we want to take that dog home.’
“They knew it right away when they saw her. They just thought she would be a fun dog.”
Though saying Macy’s barking and overall behavior “wasn’t so bad at home,” she added, “when we would try to go out in the car it was kind of a dangerous ride. She was kind of all over the place, jumping everywhere. And when we would see other people, she would just bark a lot with excitement.
“Continuous barking.”
Enter K9 Center of East Tennessee. “Our veterinarian, Pellissippi Veterinarian Clinic, recommended Susie (Stout, with K9 Center),” Sims said. “We took her to see Susie after just a few days.”
Sims said Stout’s work with Macy “was just amazing. … Susie just met with her privately two times … about 45 minutes to an hour … and after the first class Susie was so smart, she knew how to handle her and how to teach us how to work with her.
“We went for a weekly class with other dogs for about five weeks, which lasted about 30 to 45 minutes,” she said.
“All of them worked with Macy during the class and did their homework every week,” Stout said. “The whole family has learned how we talk to dogs so they can continue training her. She graduated at the very top of her class at K9 Center.”
As an example of Macy’s changed behavior, which includes much less barking and calmer behavior in the family vehicle, “She had grabbed one of my younger son’s prized toys and had it in the floor, and we just looked at her and said, ‘Macy, leave it.’ And she just dropped it,” Sims said.
“We were like, ‘oh my goodness.’ We didn’t have to chase her, or yell at her or threaten her,” she added. “She just dropped it, and so we rewarded her right away.”
Sims said Macy “looks like a variety of things” but most resembles “a little bulldog or pit bull.”
To contact K9 Center, call 865-310-2800 or e-mail Stout at Susie@K9CenterTN.com
