October 12, 2008
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My wife was contacted by an animal rescue group, concerning a 2-3 years old black/white female dog that was surrendered to a shelter, and was going to be put down because it was having problems socializing with people. This dog apparently also arrived there with a sister, but that one was more sociable than this one is. My wife and I volunteered to rescue the dog by fostering it, to give it a chance for survival. We would then allow the dog to get used to socializing with people, by being around me, my wife, and my dogs.
This past day, we picked up the dog already, and sure enough it really was apprehensive and shy around us, our friends, and our dogs. Our white male dog did not seem to care less about her presence, but our brown female dog seems to either be intimidating her or she just wants to play (they would growl at each other). In our yard, she would hide behind one of our trash cans, and would occasionally growl at us if we approached her. She attempted to bite me twice already as it is, when I made a wrong sudden hand movement to pet her. After several hours though, she started opening up to me, my wife, and my friends. She was willing to approach us, get petted, get walked, etc... We even brought her in our house to see how she would react, and she seems to like it. She mostly gravitated towards seating underneath one of my "director's chair" though, which we found amusing.
It's going to be another learning experience having a third dog in the household. Right now we are just happy that she's more open to our presence, although I'm concerned about whether she can get along with our female brown dog. In a few months though, we are hoping that she will be completely sociable to people and dogs, and we already have at least one prospective owner that will take her in afterward. This is our first time rescuing and fostering a dog, so we're hopeful that this will be a success.
Comments (3)
haha that IS pretty funny that she likes that spot =P good luck!
Not to scare you or anything but 3 dogs is the magic number for a pack. Since Kita's the dominant dog in your household she'll continue to growl and intimidate the new dog. This can escalate into an attack if at any point Kita thinks the other dog threatens the status quo.
I'd probably keep them separate whenever they're not supervised and whatever you do, always pet Kita first when they are in the same room. Female vs female dog fights are typically the most vicious.
The brown one already dominated the new one. New dog already knows who is the boss of the pack and simply submits to her will. It's kinda funny that way.
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