I rescued a dog 7 years ago from the shelter, he was a puppy, maybe 9 months old. Full size puppy. He had no habits, no bad, no good. Well, except for not being house broken. I started working with him, being consistent and using the proper techniques. After a few months, he was almost perfect. He did like to run, he would watch you to see if you're paying attention to him, and if you were not, he would bolt. I'd find him at the neighbors house, playing with their dogs. He still does this from time to time, but not like when he was young. He name is Odin.
I met a guy, on Craigslist, after owning my dog for about a year. He was selling a chain-link dog run for cheap. I went with my wife to look at it. That's when he said that it comes with a dog. He was a mut, full size, maybe 80lbs, about two years old. The owner said he had to move and couldn't take the dog with him, which is why he was selling the run too. My wife fell in love with him, so we decided to take him home. Looking back, I should have walked away from the deal.
First thing this dog did was poop in my truck on the way home. Ok, he is with strangers being taken away from his home. But COMMON!
I got him home and he decided to insert his dominance over my dog, Odin, by fighting. We did the whole leash thing, but it still came to blows. Fortunately, no one was hurt. I set up the run and started working with them both, after all, I'm the Alpha in this pack, and I do not tolerate fighting between the betas. We renamed this dog, from "Fluffy" (he wasn't even fluffy, he had short hair! not that he came to Fluffy anyway), to Diesel. Because that was much better!
Over the next few months, he demonstrated several bad habits. He did not like being kenneled, at all. He ate a hole in his night time kennel, a wire framed large dog kennel. But he didn't eat though just the wire, He chose the kennel wall that was up against the garage wall. He ate though the drywall, pulled out the insulation, and ate though the interior wall into our living room! I woke up to finding him in the living room, a pile of poop, and a gaping hole in the wall that looks out through his kennel!
He also became friends with Odin, and I noticed a major shift in Odin's behavior. It was like your teenage child befriending the most troubled youth they could find and adopting those bad habits! It was winter, and I saw them running down by the pond. I started calling for them, which was hit or miss. Today, was miss. I started walking toward them, all the while calling for them. They had found something and were playing around. I remember seeing Odin jumping around Diesel as Diesel was digging at something in the snow, probably a pocket gopher or something. Does not matter, Daddy is calling them, and they are ignoring me. When I got up to them, Diesel turned towards me and started to growl, and as I reached to grab Odin by the collar, he turned and bit me. My dog, Odin, bit me....
Well, lets just say that I did not take kindly to the situation, and I fell on top of Odin, pushing his neck into the snow with all my weight bearing on top, much like an Alpha wolf would do. Meanwhile, I was concerned about this other, large dog, who was just growing at me, and who was at this moment, running for the kennel at full speed. They got locked up and I made the decision that Diesel had to go.
Unfortunately, the shelters policy is that they dont take in owner owned surrenders. They only take found dogs. So, we had to take him to the Humane Society, where he was probably put to sleep. This was not the decision I wanted, but the County forced my hand by not allowing owner surrenders. I could not keep this bad dog anymore.
I did everything I could with Diesel. In the end, Odin came back around and is the best dog I've ever kept.
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