Tomorrow we are surrendering the puppy we adopted from a rescue two months ago, and it is devastating.
We have always been dog people and I never thought I would ever be in this position. In fact, I’ve always had strong opinions about people who give up on puppies.
We adopted this “lab mix” as a 12 week old puppy to grow up with our kids and tag along with us as a family. I’ve had dogs my whole life, so I was aware of and ready to handle all of the challenges that come with raising a puppy. But one trait I was not prepared for, especially in a young puppy, is reactivity and/or aggression. From day one, she has been very shy and anxious this has only gotten works in the past two months - she has not allowed anyone outside of our house get near her or touch her. She has become reactive on the leash, standing her hair up on her back and jumping at strangers and other dogs. From my experience, this is extremely out of character for any 3-5 month old puppy. Having young kids with friends in and out of the house, aggression is one thing are not able to deal with.
The hard part is that she is a very sweet dog to those in our household and has already become very attached to us. She will hardly leave our sides.
She deserves a family that is able to work with her advanced training needs and won’t need to put her in situations regularly that trigger anxiety. But we are terrified about how scared she will be to leave without us, and hope she can open up to another family. This is not easy and I hope it is the right decision..
We have always been dog people and I never thought I would ever be in this position. In fact, I’ve always had strong opinions about people who give up on puppies.
We adopted this “lab mix” as a 12 week old puppy to grow up with our kids and tag along with us as a family. I’ve had dogs my whole life, so I was aware of and ready to handle all of the challenges that come with raising a puppy. But one trait I was not prepared for, especially in a young puppy, is reactivity and/or aggression. From day one, she has been very shy and anxious this has only gotten works in the past two months - she has not allowed anyone outside of our house get near her or touch her. She has become reactive on the leash, standing her hair up on her back and jumping at strangers and other dogs. From my experience, this is extremely out of character for any 3-5 month old puppy. Having young kids with friends in and out of the house, aggression is one thing are not able to deal with.
The hard part is that she is a very sweet dog to those in our household and has already become very attached to us. She will hardly leave our sides.
She deserves a family that is able to work with her advanced training needs and won’t need to put her in situations regularly that trigger anxiety. But we are terrified about how scared she will be to leave without us, and hope she can open up to another family. This is not easy and I hope it is the right decision..