Foster Chihuahua Mix's First Time Playing with Toy Is Full of Gentle Sweetness

Foster dogs sometimes need a little bit of help figuring out how to be dogs again. Whether they've come from a traumatic situation or just spent too long being in a shelter, they need a helping hand, and that's okay.

On Sunday, August 18th, a Chihuahua mix who had been labelled as a "behavioral" case found himself feeling better after spending some time in a loving home. He decided to try out the whole playing thing, and he's just too cute:

If there's one thing the internet can count on, it's that Isabel Klee is going to bring out the best in every dog she fosters - which is a lot of dogs. It's incredible every time!

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At this point, Isabel has fostered at least a dozen different dogs. Most famously, she fostered a Bully mix named Poutine. When she got Poutine, she had an ear infection, a skin infection, pneumonia, and more. However, after a few weeks in Isabel's home, Poutine blossomed , and she transitioned into her forever home earlier this month.

After Ms. Poutine came Twinkle: a Chihuahua mix that Muddy Paws Rescue had deemed a "behavioral" case. When they found him, he was with a bunch of other dogs (some of whom were deceased), and he was really having a hard time. When they first got him home, Twinkle would hardly let Isabel or her partner touch him. With lots of cheese and many slices of ham, they won him over. Now, he wants to cuddle and, apparently, play! His gentle tail wags are just screaming, "I really hope I'm doing this right! Please play with me!"

Why Do Dogs Become Reactive?

While we don't know much about Twinkle's case other than how he was found, his evolution while he's been at Isabel's leads most of us to believe he wasn't always so skeptical of humans. He didn't seem to mind her resident dog, Simon, even a little!

So, what happened? No one is sure, though they speculate that the most likely scenario was that Twinkle's previous caretaker had passed away suddenly and no one thought/knew to check their apartment for dogs until things had gotten out of hand. The lack of care/trauma of being left alone may have made him wary of humans.

Typically, dogs become reactive in a few circumstances:

1. They were abused by their first family.
2. They have a bad experience with humans (or dogs, in cases of dog reactivity ).
3. They weren't properly socialized as puppies.
4. They weren't trained properly.
5. They're the product of reactive parents (which is a telltale sign of bad breeding ).

Lucky for both Twinkle and Isabel, he's getting a lot better about being with humans. Hopefully his forever family knows to take things slow and go easy on him, too!