hi! i recently applied (14th may) for a cert 3 in animal care services at boxhill institute. start date is in july of this year so its pretty soon. is it pushy/weird to send a follow up email? ive read a lot of reviews saying their desk staff can be a bit wishy washy on communication, so im getting nervous (im autistic and organisation is a must for me. have never done a tafe course before)
hi! i recently applied (14th may) for a cert 3 in animal care services at boxhill institute. start date is in july of this year so its pretty soon. is it pushy/weird to send a follow up email? ive read a lot of reviews saying their desk staff can be a bit wishy washy on communication, so im getting nervous (im autistic and organisation is a must for me. have never done a tafe course before)
context:
my family & i (me, my parents and two older brothers) adopted a 3.5 year old jrt foxy mix named jack 3 months ago today.
we adopted jack out of the blue about five months after our previous rescue passed suddenly at 14 from multiple tumours that had gone undetected. i (19f) volunteer in the cattery at an animal rescue, and saw jack (he originally had a diff name) about half an hour after he was posted on one of the rescue’s social media. i ended up meeting him that day and face-timed my mum to show her.
our last rescue (pom x sheltie) was a highly anxious and unsocialised dog, and although i loved him to bits i can’t deny that looking back it was a lot for us to handle at times. bc of this, i was kinda looking for a dog who didn’t have an insane amount of trauma/baggage.
at the first meeting, i asked the handler a lot of questions: how does he go in the car? is he very anxious? how is he around other dogs? why is he at the shelter?
while the handler didn’t seem to know much about jack in full detail (he had literally JUST officially gone up for adoption after 6 days of being in their care) her answers all made things out to be that jack was a decently well adjusted dog. he was pretty shy & quiet but didn’t seem to be overly freaked out, just confused and unsure ab seeing an unfamiliar face.
my mum called the shelter after i met with jack and immediately filled out their expression of interest form. since 1. smaller dogs rarely come to this shelter, thus are immediately snatched up and 2. we’ve owned 2 jrt x foxies before (1 being from the exact same shelter), everything felt perfect.
the very next day my brother, mum & i went to meet with jack. my brother was not particularly ready for a new dog and my mum was on the fence but excited (my other brother slept in so didn’t come and my dad had urgent work in the morning that he couldn’t cancel on unlike my mum). we met with jack in the usual area where potential adopters meet with the dog they’re interested in. my brother actually ended up bursting into tears. i don’t think he realised on the drive there that there was a chance we’d be taking a dog home that same day.
it was so hard to make a decision on jack bc of the conflicting emotions. we asked the handler if we could go home and think abt it, but she said unfortunately we could not. after nearly an hour it was almost like she started to rush us into making a decision (i don’t think this was her fault but more-so the shelter’s policy. she was a lovely woman who even offered for us to trial taking care of her foster jrt if we weren’t ready to take jack on a whim). we said yes. i was the one who pushed for it bc after initially saying i didn’t want to get a dog if someone didn’t want one i switched once my brother kept saying unconvincingly *through tears* that we should adopt jack if we liked jack.
the whole adoption process was bittersweet and super last minute - my grandparents actually came to visit us that same day and i felt so awful for bringing more stress onto jack on his first day home. if i could go back in time and plan things out i would.
jack very quickly latched onto me. we planned on letting him sleep in the laundry for at least the first few nights, but after 5 mins of hearing him cry from my bedroom i let him sleep in my bed.
for a while, jack would bark every single time someone opened the door and walked into a room. this has slowly lessened over time although he still has issues with the barking if there aren’t lights on and he can’t tell who’s there.
jack was a lot more defensive when any of the men in my family were coming in. he’d bark at my mum and i but would always stop shortly after recognising that it was just us coming in and not a stranger, whereas he’d continue to bark after recognising the men. this habit became worse when he decided to pair this with cornering my dad/brothers on occasion.
over time, jack began to get a lot better with this habit as my brothers got to know him.
one of my brothers made a real habit of coming out of his room to see jack. he stays in his room on his computer a lot of the time and the dog would be in the rest of the house. after the first month or so jack started to trust him. my other brother also stays in his office room often on his computer doing uni work. he started giving jack cheese at random times when he’d walk around the house, and he also started sitting with jack.
on the other hand, my dad started drawing himself further and further away from the dog out of fear. my mum and i encouraged him to start speaking softly to jack when coming in and out of the house, feeding and giving jack treats more often, etc.
i feel that since my dad is often going back and forth running errands and going to work (he’s a sports coach & doesn’t have a fixed work schedule like my mum who works in an office), jack doesn’t really understand my dad’s place in the family.
after unsuccessfully trying to sort this issue out on our own for over a month i asked my mum to reach out to a behaviouralist. my mum talked with the same behaviouralist/trainer who had briefly helped us work on our last rescue’s jumping issues.
we started with a sit down family session where majority of it was spent running through everything we wanted to work on over time.
the order of most to least important for what we wanted to mainly focus on working through went as follows: jack’s cornering/nipping/growling at my dad, barking, leash manners and pulling, & uncontrollable arousal when walking past other dogs.
i felt really hopeful after the family session despite most of it being an introduction into what kind of dog jack is and what issue’s we are having rather than actually training. she gave us some tips and equipment (long + short lead to keep him on and correct him via light tug) to help jack behave neutrally around my dad.
the month after we decided to get my dad to do a 1 on 1 session with the behaviouralist as my mum and i were exhausted trying to explain to him how she recommended he acted around jack *keep in mind her advice was to turn around or stand still before continuing to walk which rarely worked*. this was a horrible idea as jack didn’t have any of his comfort people around to help him. he ended up peeing himself out of stress (he also hadn’t been to the toilet in a while as my brother was asleep and nobody else was home before the behaviouralist came). the behaviouralist suggested anxiety medication for him.
we have recently had larger and larger gaps in between the days where jack is trying to get at my dad and isn’t. we’ve also had multiple instances where jack has nipped at my dad. his eyes will often lock in on my dad’s shoes.
i do believe that there are traits my dad possesses that trigger him. my dad is very tall, 100% has undiagnosed adhd so he’s very abrupt and rushes around the house always stressed, etc.
i asked my mum to reach out to the shelter and see if she could get some more info relating to his past. the handler had told us at the meet n greet that he had been brought to the shelter twice; first time he came with another female jrt who had a puppy there and then surrendered after living with his adoptee/s for about a year because they “couldn’t take care of him anymore”.
the shelter got a staff member on the phone and she was a staff member who actually fostered the female jrt jack first came in with. we learned that they were originally found as strays which i don’t feel was properly disclosed to us before then. she explained that while jack got adopted almost instantly, the female was in her care for about a week (idk if this was bc a lack of interest or processing or smth else) and was completely shutdown and afraid of everything.
i hate to sound like i’m just critiquing this poor, confused and tiny dog but idk what to do and i’m at a loss.
there’s so much that i’m stressed about and didn’t prepare myself for.
i’m willing to put all of the work in but i really don’t know what kind of strategy to use as all advice i’ve received or read seems completely contradictory. i’ve already taught jack so many tricks (he didn’t even know how to sit) so i’m confident he’s trainable but i’m struggling. i have to be his primary carer in the house as i’m here the most and he is so attached to me already. i do a lot for him - exercise, food/water, taking care of him when he’s barking at people, training sessions…
there’s a lot more info i wish i could but ik my post has already gone on waaaay too long so if anyone trying to help in the comments require any more details to help out pls just lmk and i will happily put it out there. ❤️
been on the hunt for a job via seek and finally landed my first walk around interview (casual/part time dairy team member at coles). the email said “depending on the role you’re applying for this interview will either be completed 1 on 1 or in a small group”; i’d honestly prefer for it to be 1 on 1 bc i already know ill get extra shy and compare myself if i’m in a group of applicants. i’m a very anxious person esp when it comes to doing new things & meeting new ppl. what should i expect? any tips/advice/suggestions would be much appeciated!