One of the most common issues dog owners face is separation anxiety, which causes them to bark, howl, or mess up when left unhandled. Shorty, for example, an adorable dog from Reno, USA, was restless whenever his beloved owner Mark left the house.
Shorty wasn’t a dumb pup, he was already 15, but his separation anxiety never went away. He lived at Mark’s home for 11 of those 15 years, and before that he was at the shelter the man took him out of.
For some reason, the previous owners gave this cute dog to the shelter, and Mark, who worked there, immediately noticed this little dog. They have been inseparable ever since. Shorty was a great companion, except he was constantly stressed by the fear of being alone.
It may have been his time in a refuge that made him react so nervously to his master’s absence, but it gradually became a big problem. At first, Mark just handled the situation by taking her everywhere, even to work.
But over the years Shorty grew older, and the man began to leave him at home, worrying about his health. He was not left home alone with his other dogs, including Mark’s wife Kristen. But it was the absence of his beloved master that made Shorty stop whining and barking.
The solution was found by Kristen’s mother, who visited her daughter one day while Mark was away. Seeing Shorty upset, the elderly woman decided to try an unconventional remedy that she believed would help the family pet survive unloved.
She explained the idea to her daughter, who laughed it off, as the idea seemed ridiculous to her. Nevertheless, the old woman did not give up; she went to a store that sold Halloween items and bought a dummy as similar as possible to her son-in-law.
Together with her daughter, she dressed the model in Mark’s clothes and even gave him similar tattoos. The plastic double was named Farc (Fake – Marc). They placed the dummy on the sofa where Shorty’s owner liked to rest and brought the sad pooch to her.
To the surprise of both women, the plan worked: Shorty stopped whining and quickly fell asleep, cuddled up against the dummy. In this ingenious way, Shorty’s distressed issue was finally safely resolved, and everyone in the house breathed a sigh of relief.
