A beautiful young couple, Florian and Catherine, were simply heartbroken when they lost their long-awaited child.
To ease the pain, they thought it would be a good idea to find a four-legged friend. While looking through photos from animal shelters, she came across a photo of Faust, a dog with a sad expression on his face, just crying, “Please help me.”
They eventually visit Faust at a shelter, quickly become friends with him, and end up adopting him.
Fearless faust
From what they know and what they have heard, Faust was taken to an asylum by a family he no longer wanted to see. He was probably a small puppy who hadn’t had enough time to bond with his mother yet. Faust spent many months in his kennel before being transferred to another shelter, where he was discovered by Florian and Catherine.
“We started recognizing very quickly that he has just a tremendous fear of practically everything. So, lights, bicycles, definitely cars, airplanes, construction sites, everything. Pretty much anything that man has constructed, he can be afraid of. Yes, he was afraid of water,” Florian told GeoBeats Animals.
Poor Faust spent most of his childhood within the four walls of a kennel and was unfortunately very afraid of anything outside or made by human hands. He was incredibly trusting of other dogs and other people, but every time he went out into the outside world, he became a completely different dog.
For the first couple of months, the couple had seen a lot of professional dog trainers, as they were quite overwhelmed.
“We had trouble just getting him to leave the apartment. We said, well, we need to get out of this mode of constantly stressing out about this dog and worrying, so let’s go on a vacation,” Florian said.
That was the first time they saw Fausto get out of his shell and explore the world without being terribly afraid of everything.
The Cutest, Smartest, And Bravest Dog
It really took four or five months of hard work and learning how to help fearful dogs such as Fausto, but finally, their hard work paid off.
“Practicing loose leash walking and working on Fausto’s fear of traffic. Not long ago, that would have either lead to a flight reflex or he would pancake on the road.”
Faust has grown a lot since he was adopted. According to his parents, he is a very thoughtful and active dog who is very receptive to feedback. From this point on, Faust usually has control over his fears.
He swims, accompanies restaurants and banks, even walks along the streets, which was previously completely forbidden.
In hindsight, they both needed each other to fully heal.
Fausto needed them to come out of his shell, and they needed him to come out of his dark place. By taking the focus of their own heartache to help Fausto, they all healed.
“I tell him every night that he is the cutest, smartest, bravest, bestest, funniest little dog,” Katrin said.
Follow Fausto and all his adventures in conquering his fears on his official Instagram account, @fearless_fausto.
This is his full story for GeoBeats Animals:
