My husbands uncle is getting divorced and needs to rehome his dog.
Ive met the dog, and loved him. When they visited last Christmas, I wanted to steal him! He is small, well behaved, seemingly well trained, a rescue, and quiet.
They offered the dog to us, and my husband said we should take it. I am usually team “Collect All The Dogs,” but for some reason I am just not excited and can’t make up my mind about taking him or not.
It is an ideal situation, because we could take the dog on a “trial,” and we know his history. We have an old dog who has lived nicely with other dogs in the past, a small child, and will be having more children, so that is a nice bonus(the trial). But I am shockingly undecided!
WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?
Don’t get any more animals:)
Trust me.
Sounds like the dog might come with family drama, which is certainly a good reason to have some hesitation!
You don’t want another dog. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you. You are happy with the situation you have, what’s wrong with that?
Just curious, you described the dog as “small, well behaved, seemingly well trained, a rescue, and quiet.” Why does it matter he was a rescue at some point? He presumably isn’t now. Unless your uncle is abusing &/ neglecting the dog, he’s just another dog.
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Maybe because she has a child and the full history on the dog isn’t known because he is a rescue. Sometimes there can be weird hidden baggage with rescue dogs. She doesn’t say how long relative had the dog or how much exposure to different situations the dog has had.
A neighbor got a really nice young adult doberman. The dog was good with her kids, the other kids in the neighborhood, my dad, her husband etc… They had a boarder that was on vacation when they picked up the dog. When he came home a week after getting the dog the dog zoomed across the room and tried to attack him. He walked in the room no differently than my father had or any of the other neighbors. The boarder was black. The dog eventually had to go back to the rescue. The dog kept trying to attack the boarder. He seemed to be fine with kids, women, men but for some reason did not like this boarder. Boarder was a dog person so wasn’t afraid of the dog. The guess of the adults at the time was the dog was reacting to him being black. The dog has something in his closet.
I had a dog that I got from a not great home (not a rescue but soon to be either knocked up dog or road pizza dog type home). I rehomed the dog with a distant relative for 3 years. That home did not work out so I took her back. I had her for 2 months before I found another home. The new home had her about 6 months. One day the husband comes home from errands and the dog is growling at him, all bristled and posturing, won’t let him up the steps to the house. He finally realizes that the dog is reacting to him having a baseball cap on. He was able to work through it with Brandy. However the point is even though I knew a good portion of the dog’s recent history she still had that weird baseball cap baggage that took almost 4 years to show up. If that had been a child wearing the hat and not an adult it could have gotten ugly. Mind you this family ran a day care out of their house. The dog loved the kids. I hope she would have reacted differently to one of the kids wearing a baseball cap but I can’t guarantee that.
I would pass. Small dog, new home with existing dog, unknown background, a previous rescue and now the owners he is happy and well bonded with are abandoning him. That to me is too much change when you have a small child / children at home.
