rant! why lie about a dog's personality!

[Faith]

as some of you may know, i volunteered to take a dog for an adoption day event. it ended up being cancelled, but they rescheduled for this weekend and i will try again.

i spoke to the woman who fostered the dog and she had all sorts of good things to say about him - he's sweet, he's good on a leash, but really shy so it might take a bit for him to warm up to me.

i then spoke to the person at the kennel he's at now - the only thing that's similar is - he's sweet.

the kennel worker told me he's HUGE (she thinks he's a great dane mix), he's very, very hyper - she made sure she told me several times about how hyper he was and that she doesn't think he's had any real training. she said - he needs a choke collar, he's that out of control.

now, i am still going to do this. but, i ******** hate it when people lie! THAT's why dogs get turned in again!

gggaaahhh!


oh, and yeah, my buddy this weekend -

http://search.petfinder.com/petnote/...?petid=6982261

[agilitydog]

That is exactly why dogs get turned back in. The shelter I rescued my lab from almost tried to talk me out of him. Told me he was uncontrollable, untrainable, obnoxious. It was all because he was a 98 lb 18 month old lab without any training. But at least I knew what I was getting. He has a forever home with me but he would have been the type of dog to get turned back in if someone expected an easygoing dog.

[bernicesmama]

they think it helps, but it does not. it's sad.

[NicoleLJ]

When I fostered and I would ahve a new dog brought to me they sometimes tried to sugar coat it so as to assure the dog could be place with me. I would just ask for them to give it me straight so I would know what I had to work on. When the dog would then get adopted I always made sure to write out everything, good and bad, about the dog and what we were working and what had and ahd not worked. I found this helped the new family to keep on working with them.
Nicole & Sheena PSD OFA FD FDX

[Vallencia28]

Faith, your signature says it all. I hear so many times people saying things like "such and such is a bad dog" "I can believe how out of control that dog is". I get so frustrated with these kind of people. Don't blame the animal for being the way it is, blame the owner. Dogs aren't born bad or inept.

[GSDNewbie]

i was almost seriously injured by an akita mix once because the adoption group lied to me about the dog having a flip personality and going nuts after being so good later found out they new but because i was experienced they felt it was okay to lie to me even though i had a small child in the home. they i found out were actually hiding it from animal control who had orders to destroy the dog after three attacks on people and they never hinted he was a problem to me.

[GSR Trucker]

Ok folks, just calm down.... There may well be a perfectly reasonable explaination for this, I have experianced it myself...

I've been doing the rescue, foster home, kennel thing for a lot of years now and this is a CLASSIC example of something that I see every time I attend an adoption event.

Now Faith, you said this dog was in a foster home, and for one reason or another is now living in a kennel. I despise kennels with a passion, and this is one reason why...

These dogs, in many cases young and energetic, are living in CAGES. In a cage they have no outlet for their youthful exhuberance. Most boarding kennels don't do much in the way of exercising or stimulating the dogs in their care. The 15 -30 minute daily walk / romp session which is standard at many kennels is NOWHERE NEAR enough for large, high energy dogs.

I have handled dozens upon dozens of dogs who go ballistic when you take them from the kennels. Pulling, jumping, and generally behaving like monkeys tweaked out on Red Bull. However, after a couple hours of one on one interaction (which is more than most kennels provide) they calm right down, and will actually in many cases bond to you like glue. They just had to get over their "cage fever". Dogs are inteligent creatures and go stir crazy in a kennel enviornment with nothing to do or see.

A real good case in point is a GSD named Rocky, currently in the rescue's care. He is excellent in a home enviornment. Calm, attentive, and loving. But in the Kennel he morphs into Mister Hyde and goes utterly berserk, running, pulling, and trying to escape his cage. Poor guy (Roxy and I actually plan to introduce him to our girls and foster him if they all get along)

So it's very likely that this dog's foster mom didn't lie at all. He went from a home to a jail cell. His world was turned upside down, and his behaviour reflects that. Give him a chance, and don't think the worst of the lady. He may very well have been a saint while he was with her.

You'll feel horrible when you return him too. The dogs know when they're going back, the ears and tails go down and they look at you as if to say "please don't leave me."

[micki]

I agree with you Jake. My sister took in a boxer bitch that was said to be " too hyper." Well what a laid back dog she really is but put her in a crate and she goes nuts, chewing on the bars, squeezing out a tiny slit in the gate. She had to stay overnight at the vet and they lost her, she escaped the kennel, they still don't know how. My sister found her in the woods behind the office and she was her calm little self out of the bars.
You can't always tell.

[Faith]

Originally Posted by GSR Trucker

So it's very likely that this dog's foster mom didn't lie at all. He went from a home to a jail cell. His world was turned upside down, and his behaviour reflects that. Give him a chance, and don't think the worst of the lady. He may very well have been a saint while he was with her.

You'll feel horrible when you return him too. The dogs know when they're going back, the ears and tails go down and they look at you as if to say "please don't leave me."

thank you for that insight. it was very frustrating to me to think that they were sending me in totally unprepared for the dog. i can see what you mean - a dog going from a home foster and it's suddenly in a kennel and desperate for human interaction again.

as for not wanting to drop him off again - my husband has already commented that he'll have a box of tissues for me when i start crying when we leave him there again after the event.