redwood739

Hey all:

I wanted to get your opinion on what happened to my gf and I this past weekend. We have been talking about getting a dog a for awhile now and after getting the details worked out, went down to an adoption place.

We found a dog we both loved and seemed to fit perfectly into our lifestyle and the few restrictions it has. After thinking about him for awhile we went back and said we wanted it. They offered his file for us to look over and both of us were blown away with what was in there. Basically a long letter from the previous owner stating three occasions where the dog showed aggressive behavior. Two involving kids and another one, while in another kennel, about "taking a female worker down." It even stated the dog doesn't like males with facial hair. Well, i am a male with facial hair and he licked my face! Now all the "incidents happened when the owner was not around, so the solid facts still remain out there. In their defense the last 1/3 were great things about the dog. Anyways we waited to talk to the lead trainer who dismissed every incident in the letter stating it was normal behavior and the owner should have been more responsible. It seemed from the letter that the owner had two more dogs and 3-4 kids....a lot to handle.

Let me tell you, the dog was the sweet thing ever! We both couldn't stop thinking or talking about it after we left the first time and had to come back. All the volunteers loved it too! But after reading the file we developed reservations. I called and talked to my parents (Yea I am almost thirty and still call them for advice) who brought up the good points of just not putting yourself in a potential bad position. Are we being naive to think the dog will be fine? I grew up with dogs but never owned them myself, would this be too much? We were going to go through training for sure. I guess I would just like your opinion on the subject. Is this OK behavior? Or should we move on to find a better fit?

thanks, sorry for the long post.