Welcome to College!

   

Copper's college gear!

    The next major step that me and Copper had to take was to get him approved to be able to live on campus with me.  The paperwork process wasn't too bad, I just had to provide documents from my counselor as well as Copper's medical history to ARC.  The challenging part was simply (or maybe not so simply) getting adjusted to our new life together.

    It was November of 2020 when he was finally approved to come to school with me.  Before this, my mom had been taking care of him back at home so the concept of dorm life was brand new for him.  Copper and I were not very used to living with each other anymore since I had been away at school and he stayed behind with my mom.  This was also my first time being completely and totally responsible for him with no assistance from my family.  

     The biggest challenge I faced was having to continue being around him when he was stressing me out.  Before, when we were both living at home, if I felt overwhelmed by him I could just walk away and take time for myself since my mom was around to help keep an eye on him.  Once we started living in the dorm together though I had no escape from his nonsense unless I wanted to go sit in the library or something.  It was definitely frustrating for me having to adjust to having him constantly in my face especially since I hadn't been getting to experience him in person for the first part of the semester.  We were having to learn about each other all over again which caused some conflict.  When I wanted to rest he wanted to play, when I sat down to do an assignment he'd have to use the bathroom, I couldn't even have my room set up the way I wanted anymore because he would get into things or knock stuff over.  I felt like the life I had been used to was being constantly disrupted by him for quite some time.  I think most of these feelings I had towards him were due to my own unrealistic expectations of how I felt he should act and I wasn't that accepting of him at first.  I also think he could feel my frustrations towards him which makes me feel horrible now because he wasn't really doing anything wrong, he was just being himself.

    After a while, we began getting used to each other and things got much better.  I began to learn his behavioral tendencies and was able to know what he was thinking before he did.  This made it much easier for me to prevent certain things from happening. Copper also began to learn my personality better.  He was soon able to read my body language and know when it was playtime and when it was time to relax and leave me alone for a bit.  I think this period of time made mine and his relationship stronger since we didn't have that personal understanding of each other at first.  We were kind of forced to rely on one another for support and companionship and now everything is very natural between us. Our personalities have almost melted together.  He taught me how to have fun and not to sweat the little things and in return I've helped him learn how to relax and enjoy down time.  This was honestly much better for me mentally than if I would've had a dog that was exactly the same as me at school.  If I had a very calm, relaxed, and lazy dog I probably would've stayed in bed more and just continued to keep myself locked away so, I think Copper came to shake up my life right at the perfect time.   

    The next biggest challenge I faced when he first came to school was getting used to a new schedule.  The schedule was difficult because he was more used to my moms schedule since that's who he had been living with while I was in school.  She wakes up much earlier than I do so Copper would wake me up at least 2 hours before my alarm every morning to be taken outside and often I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep.  I would be so exhausted when I would go to my morning classes due to my sleep being disrupted on top of me already being mentally exhausted due to some other stuff.  Copper and I eventually figured out our own schedule along the way which made our lives much less stressful and tiring.  

    Copper enjoys college very much now and has become quite the popular boy around our building.  It's kind of funny when we go outside because everyone knows his name but hardly anyone knows mine. It's always "Hi Copper!" and then I'll get a wave sometimes. I'm basically just his side character at this point which I guess is fine because I don't like socializing that much anyways.  Of course I appreciate that other people love him but it can honestly be really frustrating at times.  There's been one too many times where he has completely lost focus or gotten overly excited because people wouldn't leave him alone.  When I'm outside with him I'm usually trying to keep him focused on using the bathroom and walking calmly on his leash so when people come and disrupt that it makes things more difficult for me.  He also now has an expectation that everyone we see wants to pet him and be friends.  This makes it near impossible to walk him around campus because he gets overstimulated by the amount of people. This always leads to him acting like a maniac and me having a complete meltdown. 

    He's the type of dog who needs a more controlled environment to freely run but unfortunately, there's not many places around the school where I can take him to do that.  There's a few dog parks at nearby apartment complexes that I take him to sometimes but the downside is that some other pet owners aren't the most responsible when it comes to maintaining spaces like that. 

Watching me sew up his toy that he destroyed

    Since our outdoor activities are more limited, we spend most of our time together in our apartment.  He has enough space to run around and play when he wants to and he loves to be involved in anything I'm doing.  I used to get so annoyed anytime he would come get in my face while I was doing something but now I kind of love it.  I think it's really cute how he just follows me around and is always interested.  It's also a very comforting feeling having him by my side 24/7 because I know I'm never completely alone with my thoughts. 

    Although we have faced many obstacles together, and will encounter more in the future,  I can't imagine what my college experience or life would be like without his help and comfort.  He has helped me keep myself in check and has reminded me time and time again that I'm stronger than I think.  He gets on my nerves, embarrasses me, makes me cry, and simply just drives me insane but he's my other half and I don't think I could've made it this far without him.