As soon as we saw Wilson on the Free Korean Dogs website, we knew he had to be ours! The wait time for Wilson felt long, and there were some hiccups in the arrival, but as soon as we got him we felt bonded.
Wilson is very slow to acclimate to new people; he tends to be nervous and cautious around anyone he doesn’t know. But with us, we let him out of his crate when we got him home, and he was home. He wandered out into the house, and went straight to the water we had ready for him. After a short drink, he looked to us and cautiously moved in for a smell. Without too much hesitation, he allowed us to pet him on the first night!
We understand that Wilson is somewhat a special case. Lots of dogs that go through this kind of ordeal don’t imprint on their new owners right away. We are just very fortunate in this case.
We were very careful to not expose Wilson to too much too quickly; he was not introduced to any new people for a period of time, and he was kept close to the house so that he could get used to his new environment. But when we did expose him to new people, he was very resistant. When one of our close friends came over, he finally let out his first bark, and he was a lot louder than we expected him to be! We instructed our friend to ignore him, and let the dog get used to him in his own time. After a few hours, Wilson was accepting treats from our friend, and after a few hours more, Wilson seemed comfortable. Weeks later, this friend can pet Wilson, and they have actually had a nap next to each other!
Wilson loves his Kong toy, and peanut butter. He also loves when you scratch his ears. He has some funny quirks as well, when you pet his whiskers he actually moves his head to encourage you, and if you stop he will use his nose to move your hand back so you will keep going! Strangely, he is also OBSESSED with ice cubes. He loves treats, but if you have an ice cube in your hand he will do anything to get it. He will sit, lay down, come, stay, all on command! And when he gets that ice, he will take it in his mouth and run away into a corner to eat it. Protecting it at all costs!
Unfortunately there have been some small hiccups that we haven’t gotten past yet. One of which is his acceptance of other people who we have over to our house. He will get defensive, bark, back away, growl and grumble, anything a scared dog does. We know this won’t be a quick process but it’s totally worth the effort. Right now we’re working on pairing new people with good things and are making some progress.
As well, Wilson is not very good with unknown dogs outside of the house. He gets defensive of us and is scared of them. These small issues aside, we are confident we can get Wilson used to this new world we’ve brought him into, and make him one seriously happy dog! We are extremely happy that Wilson is in our lives now, and both of us feel like there is no dog more perfect for our house than him. He is adorable, smart, quirky, and gentle, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Written by Dylan & Mara Himbeault
