NBR-For you dog people

tig594

I have a dilemma I'm having a really hard time with and hope a few of you could offer some good advice.  

2 weeks ago today I had to put my best buddy of 12 years to sleep due to cancer.  It sucked.  It sucked bad.  At home I still have my little old lady dog (yeah, she's a little over weight!) by the name of Reese.  Reese is approximately 11-12 years old, had hip surgery a couple summers ago, and gets around fine but is no longer young and spry and able to jump a 6 foot fence with ease.  Without a companion she literally lays around all day and doesn't get up unless food is involved. This makes her very stiff and gimpy.  I'm sure she's also depressed as she's never been an only dog.  The cat loves her and rubs all over her and she likes it but during the day the cats are all upstairs sleeping on my bed which Reese can't get on by herself.  

No one can take my old friend's place.  However, I have room in my home and heart for a new rescue.  Last week I fostered a dog from the local shelter who was pretty cool.  They let you foster pretty much for as long as you want to make sure the animal is a good fit in your home.  Anyway, I really like Ella but am on the fence about making it formal.  I took her back to the shelter on Saturday morning and have been thinking about the poor thing ever since. She's been there since October.  Here are Ella's pros and cons:

Pros

*She's great around my 11 month old and pretty much ignores her most of the time

*Not food aggressive

*Gets along fabulously with Reese and even got her to play 

*Very smart

*Likes to play

*Didn't tear stuff up when left home alone

*She was "on sale" at 50% off her regular adoption fee which I can probably still get

*She's a coonhound mix.  If I end up having to find a new place to rent her breed shouldn't be a problem.

Cons

*She has blonde hair and I have a green couch.  Ugh!  More dog hair!

*She likes to shake paws and sometimes get a little too excited about it when you play with her.  I'm afraid she might shake the baby in the face on accident.

*My cats HATE her (Which is to be expected.  They are cats, after all.) and she's a little too interested in them.  I think, over time, this can work itself out. In the meantime it's stressful and I worry constantly about it.  When she was at the house I put the baby gate across the stairs at night with Ella upstairs and the cats started coming out at night after a few days.  During the day, though, it's a constant supervision thing.

*You have to supervise her outside on occasion.  She likes to climb snow piles and one day I thought she would just step right over my 6 foot fence.  

*She stole some ham off the counter her first day with us.  Granted, it was ham and who wouldn't steal ham??  That was the only time she counter surfed that week.

*When playing excitedly she will pinch you.  It was probably my fault and again something that may be able to be corrected.  I was messing with her paws and she got a little excited.  

*I think she needs leash training.  Hard for me to do on walks with the old woman and stroller. Something we could work on while DD is napping, I suppose.

*I'd hoped to adopt a dog who was closer to Reese's age

I told myself when my current dogs go that was it.  No more.  I'm not sure I can do it.  I hate thinking about the dogs in the shelter.  Our county recently went no kill but still.  What a miserable life.  If I have the means to support one of them I feel I should.  She would definitely go to a loving home.  On the other hand, I hope to be gone a lot this summer but I also hope to be a millionaire someday.  Hahaha.  I promised Ella I'd still come spend time with her and take her on walks and stuff.  I plan to go hang out with her for a little bit today after work.  I'm not sure I will be able to leave her there again.  When I took her back on Saturday she did great until they started taking her back to the kennel area.  Then she was like "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!"

So, should I bite the bullet and just adopt her?  Or should I take more time to think about it?  Should I just flip a coin?  It's such a hard choice!

Ella:

MinnesotaMomma91

I would say a lot of the issues are trainable and if you are financially able and have the space in your heart for ella you should adopt here

eg214

Oh man. I have no advice for you on this because it's such a hard decision. Good luck! 

20thirteen

It's very important to make sure that an animal has a good fit within your home. My dad has made a habit of getting a dog, realizing after a couple months or a year that the dog isn't a good fit for him (or he'll decide he doesn't want it anymore) and give the dog away. He's been trying to get rid of my dogs for over a year now and I told him he had to see this through.

With that said, I believe that some of the cons you may want to really sit back and think about. The problems you feel that may resolve themselves, are you thinking that they will with training? (Just making sure I'm reading things the right way)

The leash thing especially. I mean, is there a way the shelter could help you with that?

tig594

They may be able to help with the leash thing.  They have a dog trainer on staff which is pretty cool.  I feel like I'm trying to talk myself out of adopting her for some reason.  Like buyers remorse. 

But I hear you with the commitment.  With me it's a life time decision.  Do I really want to commit to another dog for 4-6 more years?  Probably.  A year or so after I got the dog I just put to sleep I thought I didn't want the responsibility anymore (I had just put my rottie to sleep at the time I thought this) and tried taking him back to the SPCA.  That lasted less than a week. I just couldn't leave him there.  omg did I feel guilty.  I couldn't even drive by the place.  It was torture.  lol