Rescue Dog To The Rescue!

 This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PedigreeGives #CollectiveBias

My husband had already adopted Baxter when we started dating. He volunteered at a local shelter to walk the dogs while he was in college, and walked Baxter one day (then known as "Bubbles" - the name the shelter gave him.) My husband loved him instantly since he was different than all the large labs he was used to walking, and ended up adopting him.

When I entered the picture, I could see how much these two loved and depended on each other. Baxter follows my husband around incessantly! He sits by the window, waiting for him to come home from business trips. He knows the sound of his car when it drives by, and races to the backdoor for him to enter at the end of the day.

Baxter the rescue mutt

Me, on the other hand? It took me a while to fall in love with Baxter. As a shelter dog, he had some attachment issues and that drove me nuts. I had my own dog, Otis, whom I gotten as a puppy and trained and socialized. I was used to a dog behaving the way I had trained him to!

A few months after moving in together, I sat Baxter down for a chat. There was a thunderstorm, and he was refusing to go to the bathroom outside, making me late for work. "Alright Baxter, we gotta figure something out buddy! We have to live together. But I don't coddle you like daddy does. I have rules. I have expectations. So let's figure this out so we can play together!"

All Baxter needed was some consistent discipline and encouragement, and he was a new dog! See, with hubs travel schedule, the poor dog never really had a consistent caregiver. Sure, hubs was around on weekends, but that was a playmate for Baxter - there was never the same person around to consistently set the same expectations day in and day out. But Baxter is a smart dog! After only about a month of having to enforce rules, this dog caught on. He's no puppy either: he's 14 years old and was adapting to my way of training him, smart boy! He went to the bathroom outside in storms and he played well with others. His barking reduced. He was a new dog!

Good dogs get PEDIGREE® treat rewards!

After three years together, this 25 pound mutt is my right hand man while my husband travels. If there's a bug in the house, I just call Baxter and he rushes in to the rescue and kills it immediately. Seriously, I just say, "BUG!" and he hunts it down and takes care of the problem. If I'm having a long day with Henry, I get him a ball and Henry and he play fetch, giving me a solid half hour of rest. No need to clean up after a huge baby mess, either! If Henry has thrown his food around, I just call the dogs in and they take care of the cleaning for me.

I reward this sweet boy with PEDIGREE® DENTASTIX® doggie treats. He LOVES them, and they work to keep his teeth clean and freshen his breath. Because I now have two awesome dogs, it's so easy for me to head to Sam's Club and pick up a big box - we need a lot of treats for all the good doggie behavior around here! Speaking of, Sam's Club also offers a 55lb bag of PEDIGREE® brand dry dog food that's great for your pet! Both are easy to find in the Pet Care aisle of Sam's Club, as are tons of other PEDIGREE® products.

Do you have a dog you love like I love Baxter? You can upload a photo of him or her to Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #LaterShelter for a chance to be featured on SamsClub.com! Then PEDIGREE® will donate a bowl of food for every upload to a shelter dog in need in the month of October! How great is that? Let's see some of those cute doggie pics! You can also check out PEDIGREE® social hub here.