Dogs: A new pack member

Yes, a new pack member, which makes me certifiably crazy and open to accusations of being irresponsible. But he's currently better fed than he was and is slowly becoming more adjusted to living with people so if I eventually have to find a new home for him, he has a much better chance of finding a good one and being accepted. I've worked out (or am in the process of working out) a lot of them.

I wasn't actively looking for a dog but I would see them thanks to friends' posts on facebook and because I am part of various re-homing facebook groups because I'd been trying to find a home for a cat I'd taken in. (Yay! Days after bringing in the new dog, Ollie finally found a home!) I eventually wanted to add another dog as a playmate for Zippy to help her expend her energy. She and Ginger would play for about 15-20 minutes shortly before bedtime, but that isn't enough for Zippy. And Ginger is getting old even though she is still in great shape. Sleeping is her favorite pasttime. So I was keeping my eye out for a medium-sized dog but not actively looking.

The dog I currently have was one of those posts shared by friends. He was on the Marshall County Animal Control group. It showed a picture of him curled and said he was a 2 yr old German Shepherd. In the picture he didn't look very big and had the coloring more of a Malinois. Another person commented, "nice Malinois." So I thought he might be of a more medium build than the typical shepherd even if he was a shepherd. So I decided to attempt to meet him.

It took more than one text/call to finally make an arrangement. He was not at a the usual vet facility but was being kept across from the Corrections building in my town and the animal control officer wanted to be present. I didn't ask questions but just showed up on a blustery, damp day. When I arrived others weren't around but I saw the dog in a large fenced area and he was a big guy, not what I was expecting. He wouldn't come up to me and paced at the far end of the fence. When the animal control officer arrived, even he had a bit of difficulty catching the dog. He said he'd known the dog all its life but that it had become shy for no known reason. He was actually only a year old. Though he let me fuss with him in all manner of ways but he never made overtures toward me. The man stepped away at one point and seemed quite pleased that the dog didn't try to follow him but stayed with me stroking his head. He stood the whole time just allowing people to do whatever they were going to do with him. He showed no aggression and once I did get a glance out of the corner of his eye. But that was it. Though I consider him a handsome dog, I can't say it was love at first site or touch. It was more that I realized that this was a dog I could probably work with and that there were few people who probably could. They would be a afraid of him or wouldn't do what was necessary to help him overcome his shyness. So I agreed to take him after neutering, which the animal control officer said he would arrange for the following week.

Since I lived fairly close to where he was being kept, I decided to go visit him the following day. The animal control officer had told me that he was bringing dogs that needed socializing to that facility so that prisoners could do the socializing. The people at the corrections facility were very accommodating during my visits. One of the men kept his two rottweilers there, a smaller but ornery older female and a large friendly puppy, not quite as old or as big as the shepherd but still a big dog. When this guy came out with his dogs, the shepherd would come up but he completely avoided me even if I brought treats. He clearly did not believe in the approval of people. To gain his trust, you needed the approval of dogs, of the pack. So I played with and even brushed the huge puppy, who happily ate up all of the attention. The older female was more reserved, and since she was top dog and I didn't have the approval of the top dog, the shepherd wouldn't come near me. The first day, he only paced at a distance, occasionally circling within 10 or 15 feet. That Sunday, I spent 2-3 hours with the dogs and only then did he start to relax. He wouldn't come up to me, but at one point, he laid down opposite of me and facing me. And he kept trying to sneak up closer to me from behind. He was getting that I wanted to get to know him but he was still too afraid. At one point he laid down flat out within about 10 feet of me as the girls napped. That's as close and relaxed as he got before he was introduced to my house in an anesthesia-drunken state the following Wednesday evening. More on that in a later post.