LEAVING MAX ALONE

One day, my dad announced that we were going to Hong Kong for the summer. The first thing that came to our mind was, "what should we do with Max?" We discussed it and after some time, we decided that my dad would take my sister and I first. Then my mom would follow us there afterwards, during the last few weeks of our trip. During that time, my mom said she would leave Max with my aunt and uncle (who were just married).

Our trip went smoothly and my mom came, as planned, during the last week of our trip. We had lots of fun but we were glad to be home. We cleaned the house up (vacuumed, mopped the floors, and stuff like that) and when we were done, we got out to the car to pick Max up. My mom started the car but the engine wouldn't start. We tried a few times and looked at the manual. Finally, we gave up and called the car company to fix the car. We were told that they would come to fix the car tomorrow. So, we weren't that happy about it. Since my dad had to take his car for the rest of the day, we were pretty much stuck at home and had no way to pick Max up.

We decided to call my aunt and uncle to see what they could do. They told us that they were busy that day and they couldn't take Max to our house. They also told us that Maxie refused to eat during the last few days and they had to practically stuff food up him. We knew that Maxie missed us and that we had to take him home as soon as possible. So, we called another of my aunts and she agreed to pick up Max and bring him to our house.

Maxie loved the car ride for one thing and he was very glad to see us again. He jumped up and we got a few kisses from him. He was hyper for almost the rest of the night. When we ate dinner, Maxie gobbled up everything we gave him. He acted like he was starved for all that time!

We enjoyed getting Max back for some time until it was time for his weekly bath. He growled and bit us (HARD). At last we gave up on him because he bit us so hard. He started growling at us and biting when we played with him like we used to (pulling his ears... lifting up his front paws to "dance"). We had no idea what had happened. So, we called my aunt and uncle again to see whether they had noticed any weird behavior. They didn't tell us much except that Max got free once and all the dogs around that area were barking at him. So, we tried emailing a TR specialist (Kathy Hughes) in the states. She told us that Max had fear agression and that we had to be very patient. We had spend lots of time with him and for almost a month, we couldn't give Max a bath. By then, he had ear mites and he sure was one stinky puppy! Finally, after a long time along with lots of love and care, Max was back to normal. He started softening up and we could give him a bath (we had to bribe him a little though. We had to say that if he took this bath, we would give him treats. He understood and let us give him a bath).

It was then that we realized how much Maxie understood us. We started talking to him more (both in Thai and in English... so he is Bilingual) and now he is pretty much back to how he was before we left him.

A few months before, we had to leave Max (again) for a 2 day trip. This time when we came back, Max was fine (except for the fact that he ripped his Super Max cape... but then we sewed it back together again) and he didn't come back with fear agression.

Now, we've learned that leaving Max was a big mistake and that because TR's are so close to their owners, they get fear agression very easily. So, after that experience, we often think twice about our vacations and we know we can't stay away for too long!