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| The original crew. |
But next time, I'd like to be choosy for once. Actually select a dog with an eye to compete, to be biddable, to be stable, to be a dog where I could focus my training energy on training skills and not on rehabilitating or reversing worrisome behavior. Still a rescue-- I have nothing against purchasing a dog from a breeder, I just don't ever see myself doing it, though I can't put my finger on why. I started looking into breed rescues. An Aussie. A vizsla. A golden. A Stafford.
And then I was driving to get coffee Saturday morning and saw a dog in the grass, in the shade on the lawn of an old school building. It was dangerously hot outside. One of mine had a heat stroke a few weeks ago, so I think I was extra sensitive to the issue. This guy in the shade was clearly in some distress. I tried to get out of the car to see him, and he couldn't come near me. I brought him some water, and he ran. When I did catch up to him, he pancaked and looked terrified. He was limping.But seems relatively healthy, otherwise.
I've now spent the last week with this dog, and I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop.
He's mellow and calm. He isn't afraid of people, but isn't overly gregarious. He gets a little nervous with new dogs, but only if they come on strong. He's becoming excited for training. Doesn't seem to have stomach problems. Doesn't bark (at least not yet). May need further investigation on the state of his hips.
And no clue what he is.
He's overly amorous, but we have an appointment for that in a couple of weeks...
I may have accidentally got what I wanted a little earlier than I planned.
Saw some of your posts about Alfie on Grisha's Animal Building Blocks FB page and was curious if he was a pup or an adult. I am smiling now because I have a similar story - had 4 dogs, wasn't really looking. A boxer kept running loose in my neighborhood, eventually she was hit by a car and had a bad limp after. My friend and I picked her up, she stayed at my friend's house for a year why we tried to find a home. I finally took her in the following summer. She's been pretty expensive, but I LOVE her to pieces. I'm looking forward to reading more about you and Alfie!
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's hard to say no!! One of ours was a shelter rescue, and the other three were all dogs that we found. And some have been very expensive, so I feel ya on that-- Andre (the bigger lab in that pic up there) came to us with a bunch of health problems. I blogged about a lot of that on the Materially Raw blog linked up top. :) It appears that Alfie is a young adult-- maybe 18mos. He's very sweet. VERY sweet. But my little brown dog Luna has finally realized he's staying and isn't thrilled. She and I had been doing a lot of Fenzi classes lately, so he's cutting into her training time!!
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