We love a good rescue story.

What kind of dog is he?

We had no idea! We heard everything from white German Shepherd to husky and all breeds in between. After months of constantly being asked by people passing by, we decided to try an Embark DNA test. It was as easy as could be and after swabbing the inside of his cheek we sent it off and got our results back a few weeks later. To say we were surprised was a bit of an understatement! Click on the video to find out why we were so surprised.

His beginning.

While Brian was out of town, I visited Asheville Humane Society and stumbled on a litter of pups recently removed from a local hoarding situation. After harassing Brian via FaceTime and forcing him to look at this cute and dirty pup, we decided to adopt. Thanks to a Prestige Subaru-sponsored adoption event, we were able to bring him home at no cost, neutered, micro-chipped, and ready to go! It made preparing for his arrival and taking care of his varied needs much easier. After a day or two, the perfect name popped up: Bao—after one of my favorite foods and Pixar movies.

His journey.

Initially, he was a fearful pup and it took hard work comprised of consistent training and exposing him to all kinds of people and things before he blossomed into the fun-loving, curious, bossy pup that he is. We credit Puppy Playtime and trainings from our local Petco, individual sessions with Angie from The Dog Door, daycare at Camp Bow Wow, and heavily supervised visits to our local dog parks for opening Bao up. Now he loves playing with other dogs. His absolute favorite thing in the world is playing with reckless abandon for as long as his body will stand!

With a little help.

In addition to some of the resources previously listed, we found such great enrichment, help, and fun from the following: Zak George’s Youtube training videos and books, Kim Brophey’s book Meet Your Dog, Shay Kelly’s book Canine Enrichment, the Canine Enrichment public Facebook group, BarkBox, Pupford’s 30 Day Perfect Pup Facebook group, the Puppy 101 subreddit, Pet Vet Corner Facebook group, Animal Sense Facebook group, and so many others.

Milestones

Bao’s First Birthday

Bao had his first birthday on July 21st, 2020. It was a momentous occasion with fun had by all. He spent the day at his favorite place—daycare—where he played with all of his four-legged friends. He came home to presents from his God Mom and enjoyed a cupcake from Woofgang Bakery. It was a good day.

Bao & Geordi Reunite

On July 24th, 2020, Bao reunited with his little brother, Geordi. I posted in a local Facebook group to see if anyone adopted his siblings. A lovely gal by the name of Addie responded that she had his little brother, Geordi! They reunited at the Azalea Dog Park and had a romp through the mud—much to my delight and dismay.