Continuing from the vent thread, (Reactive dog)

[Lunabear1988]

We definitely miss my buddy. Life is so much less stressful without him but he was loved. I always took so many pictures of him maybe more than anybody in the family. Some constantly getting Google reminders of old pictures of him

But my little dog is thriving without having to tiptoe around her own house.

There was an incident at Petco the other day that seemed very relevant to him. There is a dog rescue that rescues puppies from a reservation. They were walking some of the dogs around and one came up to us. Medium size male puppy. He was very friendly. My heart definitely started tugging at me. But then someone walked around the corner with another dog and his tail went between his legs and he started barking loudly. So I thought to myself, Oh no we don’t need anything like that. Only confident dogs only in my future.

Then as we were walking out the store someone walked a smaller puppy up to him and he just latched onto him. Like weny instantly into attacking the puppy. They got them separated but it did remind me of my other dog. Well he never latched on to anything and will never forget when he snarled and snapped at another puppy when he was just 12 weeks old. It’s just not something you like to see in a puppy, I don’t think.

It scares me that they were at Petco ready to sign that type of puppy over to just about anybody, that day. I know their hearts are in the right place to save all these puppies but gosh that doesn’t seem like a good idea.

[Lunabear1988]

Having all these photos makes my heart ache but at the same time I know he was very very loved and we really tried our best to give him a good life and his best chance. I wish so much that things had turned out differently.

(He was just laying on my phone charger, not chewing under anything.)

[JBCool]

@Lunabear1988

It scares me that they were at Petco ready to sign that type of puppy over to just about anybody, that day. I know their hearts are in the right place to save all these puppies but gosh that doesn’t seem like a good idea.

I always feel the same when I hear the radio ads for a mustang adoption “own a part of the American West!”

I’m glad your little dog is thriving and life is smoothing out. Big dog was lucky he got to be a part of your family, even if it wasn’t for long. More hugs

[Lunabear1988]

There is a local trainer around here that made a whole career about convincing novice horse owners to buy mustangs that he would then train for them. I think early on in his career and with better match clients things worked out but towards the end things got pretty ugly. Lots of barely broke mustangs and scared owners running around.

Thank you. I’m glad we could love him even if it was too short

[JBCool]

@Lunabear1988

I’m glad we could love him even if it was too short

It could easily have been far shorter with someone else. With you, he never knew mistreatment or worse that his behavior may easily brought out with a less consciencious owner. He was in the right place for the right amount of time, even if the your plan was for longer.

[Angela_Freda]

@Lunabear1988

Then as we were walking out the store someone walked a smaller puppy up to him and he just latched onto him.

Why are people so naive?

[Lunabear1988]

They were all puppies from the same rescue but yeah. It was chaotic and just a mess. Really scary that they are just adopting puppies out so easily with unknown breeding and backgrounds. I understand they are trying to save the dogs and there are a lot of them. But gosh, that’s a recipe for a disaster as proven that day.

I’m glad the other puppy was okay.

[Lunabear1988]

This little girl went to his training the other day. I had set it up as a second opinion with one of their senior trainers. But the situation had escalated and we couldn’t even make it that far. The graciously let me bring her instead.

She’s also a very insecure dog and even though we did puppy obedience classes and even the socialization camp that they had at the humane society there she’s still nervous around new people. So I just wanted to take her to work on her confidence…

She did pretty good although she was nervous about them being there. But it’s just not as extreme as the other dog.

They said they were very impressed with everything I had done with her and the other dog. And that my timing and understanding of dog training was very good. They gave me a few tips to continue to work on things. They also suggested maybe talking to the vet about an anti-anxiety medicine like Prozac. They said there is a difference between fear and anxiety and they thought she might be a good candidate. She’s just very very sensitive. We will see. I could try using CBD more regularly first. She’s pretty easy to live with but it would be nice if her confidence was up with strangers. Although I will say I’ve already seen a difference without the other dog here.