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We adopted Odin! Welcome home buddy!
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We had been debating getting a second dog for a while, after the behaviour of our blue girl Athena got more and more out of hand. We noticed that her temper tantrums, and general antics like collecting things when bored, counter surfing, chasing the cats, and utter hyper excited insanity were a lot better to control when we had other dogs around. We were dog-sitting for some friends every now and then, which was a huge improvement.
Problem; our girl seems very breed specific. While she does play with some dogs in play group, her focus is mainly Weimaraner oriented. Our trainer told us that this is not that unusual, and some dogs tend to lean towards their breed-kin because that’s what they are used to in their litter.
Considering some of the …ahem …”challenges” we had with her, we but off by the idea of adopting. We’ve had a good number of adopted cats, and we love them dearly, they always seem to come with a certain amount of baggage and health related issues. So, a puppy it will be then.
While researching breeders, I stumbled across an ad by accident. Family looking to re-home 10 month old Silver purebred due to family circumstances. He was absolutely adorable. And literally around the corner from some friends a few hours away wich we hadn’t seen in a while. Sounded like the perfect excuse!
After a few emails back and forth, we agreed to meet them at home, and then take him to a neutral location to have him meet our girl. As soon as we rang the door bell, we were greeted with loud, uncontrolled barking and jumping at the door, with the owner telling him “it’s OK, it’s OK”. Re-enforcing bad behaviour. Not the best start. Things did not improve when we stepped inside, where he was clearly afraid, and straining at his leash. It took him a few minutes to calm down, and the back story explained some things.
The owner was a 15yr old girl who got him as a puppy. Dad wasn’t in the picture since recently, and as it turned out, mom was allergic to dogs. Her brother was mentally challenged, and couldn’t provide any reliable help either. As a result, he was benched for most of the day, or locked in a bedroom while the girl was at school, or working her evening job. So in short, a poorly socialized dog, that dropped out of petsmart training after two classes, because he was hard to handle.
I was ready to just go home, but my wife, the sucker that she is (she worked with foster kids), insisted we take him on a walk, and have him meet our girl. I was just hoping they wouldn’t get into a fight.
Armed with treats, we went to a basketball court around the back, and introduced them to each other. …where they promptly started playing, and haven’t stopped playing up until this very day. The rest was very simple. Too simple, actually. We wanted to sleep on it a few days, but the owner preferred it if we took him right away. We loaded up his meagre possessions in the car; a crate, a bowl, a blanket, a bag of food and two toys. He jumped in right after our girl, and didn’t even look back once as we drove off.
They were awesome on the 4hr drive home. Both of them. After his play time, he curled up and slept besides our girl like he hadn’t slept in ages. Our girl curled up to him, and didn’t give a peep the whole way, which was a relief for a change. Things got even better when we got home.
I’m not an expert when it comes to re-homing, but I consider this a win.
Forever Weimanamanama
I love him to death. I am so happy we worked so hard with him. He now has much more confidence and he us building lots of muscle.
Weimanamanama Weimaranermama
Great story. I think weims do awesome in pairs. And their play/zoomie sessions are hysterical with two!
Kate, River & Izze
What a great happy ending to a wonderful story! Congrats!!
"My windows aren't dirty...that's my dog's Nose Art."
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