I wanted to write a post about what my dog has taught me since my boyfriend and I adopted him. I began writing a back story and realized it was way too long, so welcome to the first part of a 2 part series about my dog.

I went for a walk with my dog the other day. My boyfriend (Keanan) and I adopted him from the SPCA. We’re not sure what his breed is but we believe he’s a rottweiler, lab, sheppard cross. He is an absolute beauty and he is my favourite thing in the world. He also has anxiety.

I’ll give you a little bit of a back story to him so it’s easy to understand why this perfect dog could feel so anxious over small things.

When he was a puppy, he had dislocating knees, he couldn’t run or play with other dogs or the family he was living with (from what I understand). Jaxx wasn’t socialized properly as a puppy because he wasn’t able to play with other dogs the way he was supposed to be able to. When he was just over one year old the family that had him gave him to the SPCA because of his medical expenses. Jaxx needed a 12-thousand-dollar surgery on his back legs because of his dislocating knees. That made everything scary to him. Heading into the SPCA without much exposure to the outside world was (I imagine) a shock to his system.

The SPCA paid for the surgery and he had a foster home with one of the SPCA volunteers while he recovered. He loved his foster mom so much, Keanan and I could tell when we met them.

Being at the SPCA is a scary thing for a dog. It’s loud and who you see on a daily basis isn’t always consistent. This made his anxiety even worse.

Surprisingly Jaxx bonded with Keanan and I almost right away. He was off leash hiking with us within a week of adopting him. He realized how much he loves swimming, and he is now a very fast runner. His muscles in his back legs keep developing every day.

A small piece to what I learned from him is that I think we can be born with anxiety to a degree, but it’s also socialized into us through what we’re exposed to growing up.

Jaxx is an absolute gem and I can’t imagine life without our goofy, fearful dog.

Also, if you’re curious, yes, he does have Instagram.

Follow him here.