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  1. #1
    Senior Dog janedoe's Avatar
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    "Was I ever that naive?"

    This is the question my husband asked me when he got home tonight. Here's what happened.

    A thirty something man my husband knows married a few months ago. They have four small dogs, several cats, reptiles, etc. Two weeks ago, they decided to foster a pitbull. This dog had been at the shelter for over a year. They were told by the shelter that the dog had become aggressive.

    I have fostered, transported, etc and can attest to the fact that just about any breed of dog can become aggressive so I'm not making a statement about the breed. However, if someone told me that the dog was aggressive, I would not bring it into my house, especially with cats.

    Over the course of these two weeks, the man said certain things that alarmed us but he seemed entirely blind to. First was that they took the dog in because they felt sorry for him. Sorry. Not good enough. Second was that the dog really liked his wife because he would put his head in her lap and would not let her get up! That is Behavior 101. We just shook our heads and said that someone was going to get hurt.

    Yesterday, the dog mauled his wife. They called the shelter and while someone was on their way to get the dog, he killed one of the cats. They immediately put him down.

    There were so many people involved in this travesty that I can't even begin to say where this all went wrong. Clearly the shelter had no business placing this dog in the first place but what were these people thinking taking him? And cats? Really?

    Anyway, his wife will be OK but that's my husband's takeaway on this. "Was I ever that naive?"
    Last edited by janedoe; 12-14-2017 at 07:33 PM.

  2. #2
    Best Friend Retriever silverfz's Avatar
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    I think we live in a world.of save a dog and humanizing an animal. I tell my kids our dog is an animal when they complain that gigi did this or why she acted a way.

    I think I posted before where we got a medium size lab unseen from a shelter flown in. He was suppose to be friendly and a lab. It just so happened he growled at my son constantly and was 90 lbs. We got lucky a local rescue placed him at a kid less house and he doing good. He does not do good with kids (small kids running and screaming ). . But other than that a great dog.

    So yes we were native once.



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    janedoe (12-14-2017)

  4. #3
    Senior Dog janedoe's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by silverfz View Post
    I think we live in a world.of save a dog and humanizing an animal. I tell my kids our dog is an animal when they complain that gigi did this or why she acted a way.

    I think I posted before where we got a medium size lab unseen from a shelter flown in. He was suppose to be friendly and a lab. It just so happened he growled at my son constantly and was 90 lbs. We got lucky a local rescue placed him at a kid less house and he doing good. He does not do good with kids (small kids running and screaming ). . But other than that a great dog.

    So yes we were native once.



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    You were told he was friendly. You recognized the signs and took steps. These people were just willfully blind. Your only naivete was that you believed the people who told you the dog was friendly. But they are supposed to know better.

  5. #4
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    Oh gosh, what a terrible situation. Not only were the people "naive", if you want to call it that, I'd say the shelter staff were irresponsible for allowing an aggressive dog to be fostered out to a family with other animals. I can appreciate a person's wish to give an animal a better life but man, oh man. They didn't seem to have much of a clue about animal behavior, even having owned dogs previously.

  6. #5
    Best Friend Retriever
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    That's awful....the people were trying to do a kind thing, and unfortunately learned an awful lesson the hard way. I hope the woman will be o.k.

  7. #6
    Senior Dog POPTOP's Avatar
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    So sad especially for the dog put in a position that he was sure to fail.
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    MontananDakota (12-15-2017)

  9. #7
    Senior Dog
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    So sad. So many things wrong with what you shared. Naive on the family's part to think they could handle an aggressive dog, irresponsible for the shelter to adopt an aggressive dog out to a family with other small pets and obviously the lack of knowledge in handling difficult dogs.

  10. #8
    Best Friend Retriever annkie's Avatar
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    My jaw is on the floor reading this... what an unfortunate situation for everyone.


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  11. #9
    Senior Dog SamsonsMom's Avatar
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    Oh wow. That poor dog and oh my goodness, the kitty. Glad the human is OK too. Could have been much worse.

  12. #10
    Senior Dog MontananDakota's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by POPTOP View Post
    So sad especially for the dog put in a position that he was sure to fail.
    Couldn't have said it better. It breaks my heart all around. When I was at the local shelter last week I, for the first ( and last) time saw the back where the dogs are kept. Some ppl were coming & going-to help out & walk dogs. There was a sign on the door of one kennel that said "DO NOT WALK THIS DOG IT WILL BITE YOU" a medium sized white fluffy dog, not sure what breed or mix of breeds. She | he was sitting there at the door, mouth open, panting ( wasn't hot in there) and clearly stressed to the max. I had to look away as my eyes filled with tears. My heart broke at the reality of life for some. Sorry-long reply here...you are right though there are so many ways this was not going to work. Glad the wife is ok and this is over for them but most importantly I hope they realize their mistake so that they don't do it again.

 



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