I adopted my dog, who was deemed"vicious" and five years later, he has been
the best dog I ever had. Mike.
"Michael A. Ball" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 29 May 2008 08:03:21 -0400, Shari wrote:

We adopted Dakota, a 7 month old dog pound special. She'd been bounced
from home to home and had major behavioral problems (which we didn't
know about until after we adopted her). But by then we were committed
to her. We've had her now for almost a year...

Thank for adopting a shelter dog, and for remaining committed, in the
face of adversity.

As a shelter employee, I wonder what the behavioral problems were.

Do you think the shelter should have known about the problems and/or
should have warned you? If they knew, they should have warned you. If
the problems could potentially involve violence, the dog shouldn't have
been offered for adoption.

Sadly, many of my coworkers don't even notice problems. Some of us
detect problems that others miss; simply because we spend more time in
contact with the dogs. I clean kennels, and see who is timid, who tends
to be resource aggressive, who doesn't like to be touched in a certain
way or place, and so forth. However, I don't always know who fights the
leash or chases cars and so forth.

I see a lot of timid dogs get adopted, to people I think will be wise
enough and kind enough, to draw the dog out of its fear. But the public
is warned about, or even dissuaded from, adopting dogs that have
potentially violent behavioral problems. Dog-on-dog aggression is the
most frequently noted problem. Almost no one will adopt such a dog.
And almost no one should.

Again, thanks for being so kind and committed to your pet.



___________________
A dog's life is too short; their only fault really.