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Need Input
There is a young lady who comes to the dog park with her rescue Husky. I think she's a high school student, but appears to have a good head on her shoulders, reads tons about dogs, always interested in learning, volunteers at the shelter, etc. So, I trust her version of events. A family she knows, that has 5 young kids, just adopted a 12 week old puppy. Let's set aside the fact that the rescue quite possibly has no idea what they're doing. He's supposed to be a GSD/Boxer mix. The family chose him because he was quite mellow when they first met him, and gave them no trouble when he was picked up, cradled in their arms, etc. She went to meet the puppy, first because it *is* a puppy and she is a dog lover, but also because the family is having problems with the pup. After her interactions with the puppy, she said she could totally see why the kids are terrified of the pup. This puppy was described to me as vicious. Apparently, the puppy growls, lunges, snaps, and on more than one occasion has bitten. The puppy bit this girl. She said that she was just sitting there, a good 10 ft. away from the pup, talking to his owners and not paying any attention to the puppy, when he ran over, growled at her, and went for her hand. She had teeny tiny puncture wounds where he had got a hold of her. Apparently, this is not at all unusual, he growls and lunges for no reason anyone can tell, and none of what was described sounds like normal puppy nipping/overexcited play type behavior to me. As a first step I suggested that the pup get a pretty thorough medical evaluation, have his vision, hearing, etc. checked out. If all is normal, I said that they should get a behaviorist in ASAP if they have any intentions of keeping this puppy. Considering that the family is already afraid of the dog, it might be in everyone's best interest if the pup was returned to the shelter, and these folks got an older, more mellow dog. As far as I know, the pup was kept with his littermates until these folks brought him home, but we don't know how long he stayed with his mother. Any thoughts on what is going on here? Suja |
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