We Rescued an Abused Puppy from Iran

Or, how to tame a vicious dog in less than 10 minutes

Benji

Did you know that the Persian word for ‘sit’ is ‘beshinin’?

I learned this new word last night from my cousin-in-law Deena who was over at my house for a small spring dinner party. She’s fluent in Persian.

I introduced her to my new puppy Benji, who also understands Persian words because he spent the first troubled year of his life in Iran.

“Tell him beshinin”, Dina recommended, as I bent down and held out a doggy treat in front of the tiny terrier.

“What does that mean?”, I asked.

“Death to Americans”, she joked.

“Benji, beshinin”, I commanded. Sure enough, he sat back on his hind legs and wagged his curly tail in anticipation of a small cut of dried beef. “Good boy, Benji!”

It wasn't always this simple with the little pup. Last Thursday afternoon, when we first ‘rescued’ him, he growled ferociously at me, bared his sharp fangs, barked constantly, and even bit my left hand, drawing a small amount of blood and leaving two lasting teeth marks.

In Iran, Benji was neglected and mistreated. He was also severely underweight when an Iranian animal rescue group found him.

I can’t really blame him for being mistrustful of humans. In Islamic teachings, these animals are considered ‘impure’, and there are no Iranian laws in place to protect them.

Hence, many dogs like Benji are abused or abandoned. Even dog walking is banned there, as the Iranian government looks to find ways to dissuade its citizens from copying such Western customs as domesticating animals.

It’s only been a few days since we adopted our little guy, and I almost can’t believe that this playful pup was once a scared, ferocious dog.

In just a few short days, he’s completely transformed.

How to tame a vicious dog in less than 10 minutes

“I think he’s crying”, I said when we showed up at Benji’s foster parent’s house on Thursday.

In between the constant barking and attempts to bite off my legs and hands, I could notice actual tears falling from Benji’s eyes in those first few minutes of meeting him — tears of fear.

“I wonder if he’s been traumatized by his experiences with men”, my wife Karen said. He seemed far less angry with her.

“Maybe”, I replied, my feelings irrationally hurt.

“Take him for a run around the block, Keith.”

And so Diba, Benji’s foster mom, guided him onto the road in front of her house, and then slyly passed his leash over to me without Benji noticing. He started walking ahead, without realizing that I was the one behind him.

A jog: I picked up my speed into a little jog, and he picked up his speed too. We left the street and turned right into a nearby forest. We jogged down a paved pathway, with trees and leaves on either side of us.

A run: We exited the forest and followed the paved pathway to another sidewalk on the other side of the neighborhood. I increased my speed to a run. Benji sped up too. We did a full circle around a grouping of townhomes, and as we were making an approach back to the forest, I shifted gears into an all-out sprint.

A sprint: Benji sprinted too — the kind of sprint where his two front legs planted onto the ground at the same time, and his back legs followed in beautiful coordination. He was at least 4 or 5 feet ahead of me when I noticed an old Indian woman crossing the street.

I pulled Benji’s leash back, and we both slowed down to a brisk walk. The old lady smiled.

“You’re not going to outrun him, you know?”, she said, shaking her head like older Indian women sometimes do. I burst out laughing.

I found a park bench inside the forest, and Benji sat on it beside me, but he wouldn’t look at me. When I reached my hand closer to him, he pounced and bit it with his sharp teeth, and I snapped back in pain.

It was then that I remembered the wise words of dog whisperer, Cesar Millan, whose excellent Youtube dog training sessions I’ve been binge-watching.

“If you can control a dog around food, you can control him around anything.”

I took out a tasty lamb treat that I had with me in my zipped-up coat pocket, and I placed it on the ground. I tightened my grip on Benji’s leash, and I showed him the treat.

Just as Cesar had done, I didn’t let my new dog eat it. If he tried to grab it, I would pull him back. He was made to wait for the treat. It’s not that I was being mean. I was just trying to show my new puppy that I was the one in charge. After a few minutes, I did let him eat the treat. And then I did the same training over and over again, moving my hands closer and closer to him each time.

And then all of a sudden, he let me pet him, and he even started licking my hands instead of biting them.

Adopt a rescue dog

When we took Benji back to our house, he bit Karen’s right palm when she tried to take a piece of plastic out of his mouth.

The experience initially played with her mind. She started having doubts.

“It felt like postpartum depression”, she said.

She wasn’t sure if we made the right decision to take in a rescue dog when we still have two young children in the house.

But I told her that we did do the right thing. That incident only occurred because we were new to parenting rescue dogs. Once we realized that we had to find ways to deflect Benji’s attention, rather than physically confront him, he hasn’t bitten anyone since.

As Cesar Millan has said, it is our job to keep him away from situations where he could bite.

A rescue dog is different from the types of dogs you get from breeders. They come with a certain amount of mistrust and trauma. But once you break through those defenses and emotions, they provide you with an unlimited amount of love.

In just a few short days, I no longer see fear in Benji’s eyes. They are wide open and happy when they look at me — like when a baby looks at a parent. I know he still has much to learn, so we will take him to a professional trainer for lessons later in the month.

There are numerous Facebook groups set up that allow Westerners to adopt Iranian dogs as pets. It’s relatively inexpensive too, in comparison to the price you’d pay a breeder for a similar pup. You’re looking at about $600 USD instead of $3000 USD.

That’s how we found Benji. Once we selected him from his photos, we signed the adoption papers and waited for some generous soul to volunteer to bring him to us by airplane.

We adopted him without actually ever having met him. And, even though these first few days have had their ups and downs, I‘m so glad we took him in. There are so many beautiful but mistreated puppies out there looking for good homes. Once they find the right family — a family who loves them and cares for them — they will give back that love a million times over. And it really doesn’t take very long at all.

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