Posted on 03/30/2012 7:26:44 PM PDT by pops88
I just sent the following to someone involved with animal rescue, and wanted to share with Freepers. It's been a very hard day here :
I found out last night my family has to move overseas in the next 5 days because of my husband's job. I have a highly intelligent, well trained, well behaved, 4 year old German Shepherd. If I can't find a foster or permanent home, he will have to be euthanized. I've worked with him extensively. He's obedient and knows many commands, but he's not been able to be socialized to other people or animals. From the time he was a puppy he was fearful of other people and I was unable change that behavior. As a family pet, he has been wonderful. He was neutered as soon as possible to avoid problems with dominance issues. Some of the commands he knows: sit, stay, lie down, leave it, drop it, take, put (here,) give, find (person/specific toy), back up,wait, shake,kiss, crate, etc.
He is pool safe. He does not enter bedrooms or bathrooms unless on command. He does not get on furniture or eat food that has not been given to him. He will not take food from counters, coffee tables or the garbage. He is housebroken. If his water is empty he will nudge his dish and sit and wait. If a toy is taken away and put up he will not try to take it back. He doesn't beg at the table. When I'm cooking he goes and lies down. He is in good health and not over weight.
He can be a big ham with doe eyes or a head plant on a knee when he wants attention. He's so smart and communicative that I've referred to him as our toddler. He was taught to heel as a puppy, but because of his fear and aggression with strangers and other animals he has not been walked on a leash for several years. He's had to be confined to our home and backyard. My husband is a pilot and was unemployed several times in the last few years because of the economy. It's been a real struggle for us. We didn't have the money to take him to a professional trainer to deal with his socialization issues, and he was too big for me to handle on walks. He would be an absolutely wonderful dog for someone willing to work with him.
I've kept a file on all his vet records and papers (purebred from East German blood lines.) We absolutely hate the thought of having to take him to the Humane Society and be put down when he's such a wonderful dog otherwise, but again, we have to move overseas on extremely short notice and we're all pretty much in shock. I live in Las Vegas and expect to be driving to Los Angeles on Tuesday.
Have you contacted any of the Freepers who have asked you about your dog?
Don’t be an ass. This is a fair bit more than a “change of plans”, this is a complete and total disruption of someone’s life with zero warning and zero alternative.
They’re trying, at least, and with enough scolding and shaming the next person in a fix might well decide to “quietly deal with the problem” without trying rather than be shredded.
I don’t post here as much as I used to... but thought I’d add my two cents.
You have a lot going on apparently, a very short time frame and a dog who would be very difficult to place even if you had all the time in the world.
All of those who are pleading with you not to euthanize this dog and giving you opinions about how lots of GSD people and police depts would love to take this dog are glossing over the very critical parts of your posts that indicate he has severe social and behavior issues. Police and military working dogs aren’t loose cannons with personality problems. A stable, balanced temperament is perhaps the most important criteria for these dogs.
Your dog needs to go to someone really skilled with dog behavior and dog training, who also have the time and interest in rehabbing a broken or defective personality. Those people already have dogs, usually. And those involved in rescue are full up, just with easy-going happy, balanced dogs who should be easy to place.
Unless you already knew of a good home in your personal contacts who know the dog, 4 days is just not long enough to search out, check out, and make arrangements that would not just further traumatize this dog. Taking an unstable dog and putting him on a plane to go meet some stranger at the other end sounds like a disaster to me, and an end much worse than your loving arms and a kind veterinarian... Perhaps one who would allow you to pre-sedate him before bringing him in, if he doesn’t cope with outside situations well... or better yet, would come to your place to do it.
I don’t think you would be wrong to euthanize this dog. It’s not the worst outcome. Ending up stressed out from a hastily-made decision to ship him somewhere far from the very sheltered environment he’s been in, sounds like the worse outcome, to me.
My two cents.
It would NOT be an option for me. This dog has lived in this world & is & has been able to cope. I don't believe that he is a hopeless case to train.
The owner did NOT say he is a viscious beast!!
I think you should quit getting dogs if you have to move so often.
Don’t be an ass. This is a fair bit more than a “change of plans”, this is a complete and total disruption of someone’s life with zero warning and zero alternative.
Then get in your car, right now, and go get this dog. And if you have some reason you can't, don't hold someone else to your standards that are very easy for you to dictate, from a distance.
‘Aldawin. And a small bit of trivia- my 13 year old, who had been home schooled, was taking German her first semester at UNLV and decided to give him a German name. We later discovered it means “old friend.”’
Sorry, I have to comment! (I know it’s irrelevent, but...I can’t help myself!)
“Alt(e)” and its variants means old (never a D substitute), but friend is Freund(e). Doesn’t strike me as German at all. Never heard of such a name, either, in German itself or German dogs.
Right!!! YOU are the only one here allowed to do that!!
A follow up to my earlier post, because I have to admit that I high expectations of my own, that I hold animal owners to.
And that is to keep the animals in our care well, and deal with whatever issues they have to the best of our ability, till the end. I’ve taken in my share of rescued/lost/unwanted high-maintenance dogs, and rescued/unwanted/high maintenance horses.
And I saw them through to the end. Till the day I could no longer do that. And then I was there for the end. It’s not the worst thing in the world. Sometimes it’s the best thing, for your life, and theirs.
You have to weigh the chances of this dog finding something that you can guarantee is just exactly the the right home, in the next 3 days. A home where the dog will not be a danger to people or other animals, a home who has not just the right intentions, but the right skill and environment to keep this from going very wrong.
And weigh that against the peace of being there till the end so you know he wasn’t hurt, and he didn’t go on to hurt someone else, because in haste, a bad decision was made.
OK - fine. See my last.
How is he able to manage visits to the vet? There are usually other dogs there when I take my dogs & unless you take him several times in just a few months, the people there are 'strangers' to him.
Hair! “Welcome back”!
I appreciate your post.
Thanks :~)
We still can’t edit our typos out here, once posted... grrr...
I am not dictating she needs to do anything, her life is dictating that.
I'm simply telling her that euthanizing him isn't the worst outcome, or anything she should feel guilty about, if she can't find a really good outcome she knows is the right match.
Can you guarantee this dog will be safe, and everyone around the dog will be safe, for the rest of his life if she gives it away to someone else? You can't.
There is only one way to guarantee that, and that is to do it yourself.
Many vets either have separate entrances, or will ensure no dogs/people are waiting when the subject dog arrives. My sister has had to deal with dog-aggression from her male GS many times, so things like that are what they do. As for people-aggression (or at least vet-aggression), vets have to deal with this alot. They may simply ask her to put on a muzzle before she even gets there.
You obviously don’t understand classified info. There is such a thing. I’m assuming so I am not pushing the issue. They cannot tell. In fact, she probably is not allowed to know.
You really should ignore these jerks, at least for now. Don’t waste time on them that can be spent packing and looking for help.
Incidentally, I just posted on that German Shepherd pedigree site forum (it’s world-wide). We’ll see if I get anything, hopefully without snarky holier-than-thou comments.
If I didn’t have a very expensive high-maintenance GS allergic to everything, and a little 4yo boy who is too used to big dogs, not to mention much closer, I might consider it myself. I wouldn’t promise he’d be here forever, but I’d promise at least to “foster” him until he could get another home or into a rescue org.
BTW, please I hope you contact the several FReepers in a row who said they might help. Also, do you have any friends or family nearby that would help?
Yes, let's create a situation where some *other* person will appear that solves this problem. Then I don't have to, you don't have to, someone else will. Just like magic :~)
Must be nice. :~)
BUMP
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