A little background information-we already have two dogs. Hagan-a giant schnauzer that we raised from 7 weeks old-he's 100% stable.
Then there's Jake. Jake is a lab mix rescue with a bite history (humans caused both bites-seriously). He was a psychological mess when we signed the papers on him 4 years ago. He's made incredible progress. He now knows he's not alpha and it's not his responsibility to protect the pack (it's mine). It has taken years of work and that work is about to be tested. He was a dog I fostered and I haven't fostered or adopted any other dogs since we officially made him part of our pack.
Saturday I went to Petsmart for a few items. They had a rescue organization there. My attention was caught by this little 4 month old blue heeler female. Since I've been working with dogs for 28 years, I ran some temperament tests on her. She has no food aggression, no dog aggression, a very easily controlled prey drive (she's easily distracted from it), and is intelligent enough to learn two brand new commands within an hour. She's also submissive to both humans and other dogs.
When I was getting more information on her, I found out her time was up. She had come from the animal shelter via the rescue and was due to be euthanized if she wasn't adopted.
There is NOTHING wrong with this pup. Under the guidance of a knowledgable handler, she's a perfect dog. I adopted her. She's getting spayed tomorrow and then I'll be picking her up.
I'm not sure if my heart is bigger than my brain or if somehow she's supposed to be with us, but I couldn't take the chance on her being put down. She's a good girl and will be a phenomenal dog. The world is definitely a better place with her in it.
Then there's Jake. Jake is a lab mix rescue with a bite history (humans caused both bites-seriously). He was a psychological mess when we signed the papers on him 4 years ago. He's made incredible progress. He now knows he's not alpha and it's not his responsibility to protect the pack (it's mine). It has taken years of work and that work is about to be tested. He was a dog I fostered and I haven't fostered or adopted any other dogs since we officially made him part of our pack.
Saturday I went to Petsmart for a few items. They had a rescue organization there. My attention was caught by this little 4 month old blue heeler female. Since I've been working with dogs for 28 years, I ran some temperament tests on her. She has no food aggression, no dog aggression, a very easily controlled prey drive (she's easily distracted from it), and is intelligent enough to learn two brand new commands within an hour. She's also submissive to both humans and other dogs.
When I was getting more information on her, I found out her time was up. She had come from the animal shelter via the rescue and was due to be euthanized if she wasn't adopted.
There is NOTHING wrong with this pup. Under the guidance of a knowledgable handler, she's a perfect dog. I adopted her. She's getting spayed tomorrow and then I'll be picking her up.
I'm not sure if my heart is bigger than my brain or if somehow she's supposed to be with us, but I couldn't take the chance on her being put down. She's a good girl and will be a phenomenal dog. The world is definitely a better place with her in it.
