A Big and Fateful week

It has been quite week in the Potterveld / Burnham household. At the beginning of the week we said goodbye to Amama and Grandpa. They had a lovely visit with us, but it was time for them to head home. We are so happy that they made it out here for Gadget's Birth and Homecoming. It was a big help having them around to watch Gadget and help around the house. Grandpa and I even managed to clear out the guest bedroom.

On Tuesday we brought our pups home from the kennels to introduce them to Gadget. Unfortunately, we did not get the reactions we where hoping for. Medium dog (who we had been more worried about) reacted fine. She sniffed around, very submissively sniffed Gadgets toes, licked them a little and then went and laid down. Big dog on the other hand was very intensely interested in Gadget. Not aggressive, nor anxious, but focused on Gadget. Any time Gadget would move or make a noise, Big dog would try to nose his way into Gadgets crib. When introduced to Gadget, Big dog very determinedly and repeated nosed him.

Both Karen and I released that this is the same behavior he would display towards a new toy or small animal. This troubled Karen and me greatly. It was not at all the behavior we expected. Big dog had always been very good with children at the dog parks, but newborns act and behave quite differently from small children. We talked with a few animal behavior experts and they agreed that this was not good behavior. But it is also instinctive and could not be trained out.

While heartbroken over this, Karen and I both agreed that we would need to place Big dog outside of our family. We are fortunate in that we found a no-kill rescue shelter that specifically work with Big dog's breed. The agreed to take him in and find him a new home. They have a very nice facility where they will work with Big dog. There he will get to socialize with horses (they are also a horse rescue) cattle, pigs, goats, and other dogs. They have a very strict adoption policy and very good placement success rate. They even encourage us to go visit Big dog while he is with them. We think Big dog will be quite happy up there. For more information you can find them at:

http://www.spindletoppitbullrefuge.org/

In happier news, Karen's sister-in-law came to visit us on Saturday. It is great to have Shiho down to visit, even if Med. dog is still a little unsure of her (it's been a big week for Med. dog).