Pursuit of Dog IV: Bringing home Maggie

Dago finally finds the dog of his dreams. Now what?

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Maggie and Dago

Dago Aceves has just met the dog he wants to bring home. Her name is Maggie and she's a red-haired Corgi mix who captured his heart from behind bars at the Silicon Valley Humane Society. After they met in the shelter's greeting pen, he knew she was the one.

But it turns out that new doggie love is kind of like new people love--nerve-wracking. "I hardly slept last night, I was so anxious to see Maggie again," says Dago, a 25-year-old web developer who lives in Alameda, California. He says it feels like suddenly things are moving very fast.

Maybe that's because it took so long for him to get here. When he decided to get a dog, he agreed to follow our four-step happy adoption program. He took DogTime's Are you ready? quiz and found that he was. He answered our Dog Matchup and learned he leaned more toward couch potato than high energy dog. He used our DogFinder to search for adoptable dogs, and trainer Kelly Dunbar, a DogTime contributing editor, helped him zero in on Maggie.

Now all that remains is making sure Maggie gets along with DJ, Dago's housemate's dog as per the shelter's request. So the morning after meeting Maggie, Dago packs DJ into the car and heads an hour south. DJ, an older mutt with the wriggly energy of a puppy, hits it off immediately with Maggie, so the shelter gives Dago the green light to take her home.

Maggie comes home

For the little Corgi mix, it's an anxious homecoming. The first day, she shows telltale signs of canine stress: she gnaws on her paw, yawns frequently, and refuses to leave Dago's room. Only chicken jerky strips can induce her to eat, and when she finally takes in some kibble, it's only because Dago is handfeeding it to her piece by piece. When visitors come by to meet her, she stays shyly glued to Dago's side. When he's in the bathroom, Maggie stands watch outside the door, whimpering.

"She's bonded to me, but for the wrong reason," says Dago. "It's because she doesn't feel safe if she's not right next to me."

Anxious times

But that's nothing compared to the trials of housetraining and crate-training. Following DogTime's advice on how to handle your first week with a new dog, Dago buys a list of must-have supplies for new  [Continued]

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