01/04/2026
16 Months with Iggy: A Year in Review
Iggy came into our lives unexpectedly in the fall of 2024. I first saw Iggy on my drive home from a training lesson in Fairview. I saw a small white and black dog dashing down the middle of the road. I turned my car around and followed carefully, pulled over and asked if he needed help and tried to call him over to me. He looked worried and dashed off.
I posted about him on our local page (our small towns version of a living newspaper) and others commented they had seen him on the run and tried to help, but he was too nervous and took off.
I searched awhile longer for him, a friend was passing by at that exact moment in her jeep and I called her to see if she wanted to help me drive around for a bit to cover more ground and see if we could get any sightings. Ultimately we were unsuccessful and I decided to keep an eye on the page for our community and continue to look for him every chance I got.
**
It took close to 7 weeks to catch Iggy in a live trap, it turned out that people had seen this small white/ black dog on the run for awhile, and one person said they saw a car stop on main street, put Iggy out and then drive away. Iggy seemed to have remarkable navigation skills, people reported he tended to travel down mainstreet, past the bank, hook a right turn, travel past DQ and Tim Horton's. I tracked him daily, but only with the help of so many people who wanted to see him be caught safely. At one point a man who was contracted to work at the college campus said he had seen Iggy spending each day at the college campus and that he was leaving water and food out for Iggy.
I began going every night at 7pm with wet food to feed Iggy. We developed a meet up ritual where I would drive up, put down the wet food with some tasty treats and probiotics, then back away and wait. Iggy would pop up, come over and eat, but it was clear if I wanted to catch him, it was going to take patience and strategy.
I also was lucky to connect with our towns By-law officer who is a truly lovely soul who loves dogs and he continued to give myself and Craig updates about Iggy and Iggy sightings. I purchased my first live trap and began spraying Adaptil phermone spray around it and in it, with tasty treats in the live trap and continued my daily ritual of meeting up with Iggy at 7pm. I did this for 6 weeks. I also left high value treats inside the back of the live trap. One night after eating his dinner, Iggy did wander into the live trap and it shut behind him. Unfortuantely this first live trap failed, it didn't latch properly all the way and Iggy was able to back out of it. I cried for a long time that night in the parking lot, because I felt like he would probably never go in another live trap again. But I'm also a very stubborn person in general and reminded myself within the context of this situation (Iggy was still alive), that we would only truly be defeated when you decide you are, up until then there is always hope.
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I purchased a new live trap, continued my daily ritual of going to feed Iggy and slowly was able to get closer to him. What started as needing to be almost 50 feet away changed into being able to stand just 10 feet away from Iggy.
At one point Iggy travelled 10kms outside of town, ending up at a farm work site. The farm hand texted me based on the information posters I had put up asking for help with sightings and she said that she and the farmer were feeding him and had water out, but due to many farm cats, they didn't want to have live traps out (fair enough). They were leaving the shop open for him and said if he came inside they would close him in and call me. A few days later though they said they hadn't seen him that day, and then the next day they hadn't either.
Iggy is a small guy, 7lbs and it was hard not to assume the worst. He would be so easy to pick off by a hawk or a coyote or be taken out by a farmers dog patrolling it's property. I continued to drive around those back roads searching for him, while waiting for any more sightings to come in.
Miraculously Iggy made his way back to town and a friend called that she had found him and was with him, 15 feet away from him throwing him chunks of sausage and I said I was on my way with the live trap and the pheromone spray. We set up the live trap and pheromone spray where he was, but were unsuccessful catching him. I continued to monitor but eventually he left the area. Thankfully though he made his way back to our origianl meet up spot where I was feeding him over the course of most of the 6 weeks, besides his side quests to wander out of town before making his way back.
**
It was now mid Septemeber and winter was coming. I knew he wouldn't survive winter here. We regularily get down to -30 C or colder and he didn't have the coat type to make it. It already felt insanely lucky he had survived this long. One day I made the decision that today was the day I was going to catch him. I re loaded the live trap with phermone spray and put some fresh bacon in it. This is not generally advisable, it can cause pancretitis if a dog eats too much fat, but at this point I decided I would take the risk and get him vet care if it was an issue, but it was better then him freezing to death. Iggy would regularily hang out right next to the live trap, likely due to the adaptil phermone spray which mimics the phermones a mother dog releases to her puppies that help them feel safe. I prepped a small amount of fresh bacon, put it in the trap and spent the next few hours loudly in my head thanking the universe that he would be caught this day, that he could go get vet care, that he wouldn't die a horrible dath. I put my whole heart and soul into believing today would be the day he was caught. And the crazy part is, he was. A few hours later he was caught in the second live trap and our friends at the Fairview Veterinary Clinic saw him, vaccinated him and helped asses him. He never had any issues from the bacon thankfully and was in good health all things considered.
Largely I credit this to the approach of having fresh water out daily next to the live trap and feeding him daily outside of the live trap. I felt this would prevent him from going into the panic flight mode that many lost dogs go into as they become hungrier and hungrier and more dehydrated. If Iggy's access to food and water was conditional to him having to go into the live trap (something he was not ready to do), I strongly felt his survival would be at risk. This is counter cultural to how much live trapping of dogs is done, and to anyone reading this, I feel very comfortable recommending this approach compared to the traditional method of they only get food or water if they go in the live trap. You can think of this approach using both counter conditioning and shaping (operant conditioning) to build the behavior you want, while also supporting their survival and keeping them in a thinking brain vs. flight brain.
**
The progress Iggy has made over a 16 month period has been remarkable. We are a household of many dogs, which has helped Iggy thrive. Iggy strikes me as a dog likely from a puppy mill situation, likely from an auction which Alberta has. Iggy looks like a Chinese Crested powder puff (long hair) which is a common dog sold at the Central Alberta auctions. Iggy has no connection to people and does not feel safe around people by default. Which is what we would expect from a puppy mill dog, dogs raised in dirty, crammed conditions with no exposure, no socialization to people. Iggy marks in the house (despite a lot of work) and wears belly bands and has access to p*e pads as well as daily walks and multiple potty breaks. It is very plausible someone purchased him from an auction only to aquire a terrified dog who p*ed in their house daily and decided that was too much for them. It's hard to know and what matters is Iggy is safe now.
Iggy started his time with us needing a hands off approach, with secure fencing, a harness and a long line so that we would not need to directly touch him. We had to move at Iggy's pace and he took a lot of social cues from our other dogs. Iggy bonded strongly to Hendrix, our German Shepherd and I know Iggy felt just as devastated as us when Hendrix died this past summer. Iggy and Hendrix were inseperable, Iggy bonded to him immediately and followed Hendrix everywhere. Craig and I would joke he was Hendrix's little shadow.
Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Hendrix this summer due to cancer. The night after we said goodbye to Hendrix, Iggy spent the night pacing the house crying, searching for Hendrix. We gave him some theanine which helped significantly the second night and Iggy was able to sleep.
As hard as that loss was and is, thankfully Iggy has other friends in our house. He plays with Dolly our female LGD cross who arrived in similar circumstances as Iggy the winter prior, except a nurse had caught her and Nordic on a logging road during a -45 C cold stretch. Nordic and Dolly were puppies at the time though so I was able to get a lot more socialization work in and they bonded with us as puppies. Dolly likes to lie down in the snow as Iggy launches himself onto her and then they run around together.
Iggy also loves Lucy our Husky/ Akita type dog. Lucy is the boss of the house and all of the dogs tend to fawn over her.
Nordic likes Iggy but due to the size difference (Iggy is 7lbs, Nordic is 90lbs) I don't let them play together.
Dolly and Lucy are both 50-60lbs but they show enough restraint and gentleness that I allow play. To be safe though I always monitor and Iggy has his own baby gated area in the house when I am not home to make sure no one can accidentally play too rough with him when we are not supervising.
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Over the past year the most dramatic changes I've seen from Iggy include:
-Recall (come when called): he will run to me for treats. (I cannot touch him but he will run up to me so that I can reward him).
-Interest: he will perk his ears when we walk into the room and move towards us (not all the way to us but towards us).
-Confidence: Iggy is 50x more brave then he used to be. Household noises do not scare him anymore.
-Playfulness: Iggy is becoming more goofy and will initiate play more often with the other dogs. You can see him coming out of his shell.
-Proximity tolerance: Iggy doesn't mind me walking right by him anymore and won't run away.
-Engaged in shaping sessions: I have begun training sessions with Iggy where he is happy to participate vs. too nervous to participate.
I am really excited to see where Iggy is at in another 12 months. Due to his flightly nature and near death experiences while on the run, he will always have to be on leash securely or in a very secure, small dog proof area.
Kayla Young
Canines in the Community
