“Tia Maria Taco Bell” also known as “Tia Come”
Aug 09 2006

When my Dad went into a nursing home about a year or so ago, I took in his little Chihuahua/Terrier mix, Tia. And if you must know, I sometimes I call her Tia Maria Taco Bell. We rescued Tia from a shelter in California about 5 years ago. I remember the day very well. My parents came to visit me in Los Angeles, where I was living at the time. My Dad wanted to get another dog, since his little white puffball Maltese, Fluffy, had passed away. My parents, well, my mother mostly, had strict requirements for the type of dog they wanted. I assured them that with a little patience, we would most certainly be able to rescue a dog that would meet most, if not all, of their requirements and who desperately needed a home. I wanted them to understand that they didn't have to go to a pet store and buy a dog to get their perfect companion pet. Both of my parents were skeptical.

My Dad was under the impression that if he adopted an older dog from a shelter, that the dog would miss its previous family and not accept him. I explained to my Dad that as sad as it sounds to us humans, most dogs can adapt pretty well in a new environment and the human probably misses the dog more than the other way around. My Mom was under the impression that all dogs at the shelter would be “rejects” and have tons of behavioral problems. I explained to them that nothing could be further from the truth. And if there were any problems, they have a dog trainer in the family. So, no worries!

I told my parents I would go with them to visit shelters to help them find their perfect dog. I told them that we were going to use our heads first in choosing the right dog for their lifestyle and that the heart would follow. I explained to them that other people pay me for this service and weren’t they lucky that they had me for a daughter and they could get the service for free? My parents didn’t look so sure.

Anyway, they continued to argue between themselves as to what type of dog they wanted. If my Mom had her way, there would be NO dog, but she relented, as she understood how much my Dad liked having a dog around the house. Deep down, I know she thought the dog would keep my Dad busy and out of her way and that was certainly a benefit in her mind. Needless to say, my Mom had a lot of requirements about the type of dog they should get, so I patiently listened to all the criteria she listed for her perfect dog.

The list from my parents was as follows:

*Short hair (Mom would have preferred NO hair)
*No shedding (Mom doesn’t like finding dog hairs in strange places)
*Well maybe minimal shedding (Dad opening up the options a bit)
*Small (Mom)
*Not so small that it feels like it may break if we pick it up (Dad again)
*Housebroken (Mom and Dad; evidently neither one likes picking up any surprises left around the house)
*Not too young (Mom)
*Not too old (Dad)
*Friendly to family and to strangers (Mom and Dad)
*Lap dog (Dad wants the lap dog, Mom says not in HER lap as she doesn’t want all that hair on her clothes)
*Doesn’t jump up on people (doesn’t put runs in Mom’s stockings)
*Doesn’t jump on the furniture (Mom’s hair obsession again)
*Enjoys playing fetch (Dad)
*Enjoys long rides in the RV and car (Mom and Dad)
*Not too hyper (Mom)
*Not too quiet (Dad)
*Can learn tricks to so we can impress our friends (Dad & Mom, but Mom's thinking teach it to go lay down & be quiet when appropriate)
*Does not yip (Mom)
*Barks when a stranger approaches the house (Dad wants that macho guard dog)
*No fleas, no ticks, no mites (Mom and Dad)
*No bugs period (Mom, evidently Dad can handle a few creepy crawlers)
*Healthy (Mom and Dad)
*And most important to my Dad, was a dog that would love him.

That last requirement was the easiest of all.

Now, notice there was no mention of what the dog should look like. Yes, they had requirements about size and temperament, but not the physical appearance. And I believe we did a pretty good job in adopting a dog that was pretty darn close to their list. But she certainly is a funny looking dog.

Tia has very short hair on most of her body, except she has some coarse long strands running down the middle of her head and around her mouth. In fact, if you take some gel and apply it to the line of hair running down the top of her head, she has a fairly effective Mohawk. I’m assuming the long coarse hair is the Terrier side of her and the rest of the hair comes from the Chihuahua. She has a very small head, with the big bulging Chihuahua eyes and big oversized pointed ears. She weighs about 13 pounds and is pretty muscular and sturdy (terrier). She doesn’t yip, yet she will bark and alert us of any strange outside noises. She’s friendly to people, but is slow to accept unfamiliar dogs (wasn’t on the list! But really because she wasn’t socialized enough as a young pup, or at my parent’s home) She enjoys sitting comfortably on your lap, but is always ready to go fetch her favorite toy, “grandpa”. (I don’t know why it’s called that because it’s a hedgehog, but that’s its name.)

Her favorite pass time was when my father would let her off the leash in a wide open field and she got to take off running as fast as her little legs would carry her. My father unknowingly renamed her “Tia Come” because he missed that part of the lessons with me. When she left his side, he would be constantly yelling “Tia Come”. Even when she was in the next room, he would be calling for her, “Tia Come”. I know Tia thinks her name is "Tia Come".

Tia loved to ride in the RV and loves car rides. And my Dad did pay attention to me when I taught him how to teach Tia tricks. She’s very versatile and just to name a few of her tricks, she can sit pretty, shake, dance, do a figure 8 around my Dad’s legs, roll over, play dead, jump through his arms, jump through a hula hoop, jump from one couch to another (don’t know why my Dad likes this one so much), sniff and search, etc. It’s all pretty simple stuff, because I taught my Dad how to teach Tia while I was in California and he was here in Florida. Dad listened so intently when I explained to him how to teach her tricks. It was about the only time he every listened to me so good! And he is so proud when he shows off her tricks. If he’s walking down the street with Tia and someone comes up to him and says something like “Oh, that’s a cute dog” (they’re really thinking, “Oh, that’s an odd looking dog”), my Dad quickly goes into…. “Tia Come”, sit, sit pretty, shake, roll over, bang you’re dead, jump, stay, figure 8, dance, sniff, find it, Tia Come.” He was just so proud!

So now Tia Maria Taco Bell, aka Tia Come, lives with me, Willow, Cisco the Fat Man, Jake the Blind Man and Cleopatra the Princess (the last 3 are my appropriately named cats). And these are the 4-legged loves of my life sharing my home with me right now. If I could, I would have a house full of dogs and cats. But since I can’t, I’ve found the next best thing to do with my life. And that’s to meet as many other dogs and cats as I possibly can and help to make their lives just a little bit better.

Dog Tails by Janice
Aug 05 2006

I love dogs! I love to watch dogs. I especially love to watch dogs playing with each other. My perfect day is sitting in a lounge chair with the sun shining down, and watching my dog, Willow, romping and running and smiling and playing with one of her doggie friends. The look of sheer joy on Willow's face makes me feel so good inside.

And, I love talking about dogs. Which is why I've decided to use this forum as an outlet for me to talk about all the dogs that are in my life: past, present and future.

I feel it's a privlege to be able to train so many wonderful canines. And nothing brings me more joy than teaching a dog, watching him learn and then "making the connection".

Each and every dog I meet has a unique personality, similar to us humans. And what makes it more interesting is that you can take the same poodle at 8 weeks of age and put him in one household to grow up and if you could take that same poodle at 8 weeks of age and put him into a different household, you would have a completely different "personality" emerge from the poodle. This is because a dogs' development involves a number of factors including genetics and heredity, but the environment plays a huge role, just as it does for our 2-legged children. Of course, our ancestors began breeding dogs when they observed that dogs did things naturally like herding, retrieving, hunting, guarding and running and we capitalized on this by breeding dogs to have these types of dominant traits. But there can be big personality differences amongst the same breed.

Sometimes I'll go into a client's home and they'll tell me that they previously had a golden retriever for 15 years. (and you can insert any type of breed into this scenario as it happens quite frequently) They'll go on to tell me how wonderful their previous dog was, so calm and submissive and caused them no problems. Now they have this new dog of the same exact breed and they can't understand why the dog is so different. I had one client who told me there was no way their new dog could be a golden retriever because their other dog never put its paws up on the dining room table and always had perfect manners. He wanted to return the dog to the breeder because he thought it was defective!!!

Needless to say, after a few weeks of positive training, this particular client told me he couldn't believe how wonderful his new dog was and how much more "personality" this new dog had compared to his prevous dog. He just couldn't believe how active and smart this dog was and then proceeded to tell me that he now believes the previous dog might have been defective because it didn't do near the amount of tricks and good behaviors as this dog! Go figure!