I got a call from a local shelter telling me they had two springers they thought I should know about. Although they were not sure I would take either one. A female 11 years old dumped by her owner and a growling male. After long discussions with the shelter they agreed to get the owners to call me.I was able to take the female and quickly adopted her to a wonderful family, but that is not the story today:

Huck was the male. His owner brought him to the shelter because he growled at the Husbands mother . He told the shelter his wife was going to kill him for bringing in the dog to be put down. Fortunately for huck the wife was the registered owner so the shelter had to keep him a week and contact her. During that week at the shelter Huck had been a total doll.
Wife finally calls the shelter and give the OK for putting him down, but she is sad. So shelter calls me. I speak with the wife and she tells me Huck has started growling, every time they put him back in his PEN. I ask pen? yes he lives in a pen in the back yard with the farm animals. How often is he out of the pen. Oh once a day to play ball on the large back yard. He is however never allowed in the front where the children and family play...and of course never seen the inside of the house in his entire 5 years of life since a puppy they have kept him in a pen. Only growls when you put him back in the pen. No bite history.SO I ask is she is afraid of the dog, no not afraid, Is husband afraid of the dog, he answers he is afraid he will kill the dog if it growls at him again.

SO I go get Huck from the shelter and what a beautiful springer. He is a little timid but within a week the most loving sweetheart. I kept him about a month to evaluate his growling, he did growl at me two times. Once when I accidentally cornered him. Once when Bob had a pair of shoes in his hand and was yelling at a barking dog. He always stopped if I walked away and let him calm down. I placed him and he was returned in 2 days. Growling when corrected for potty mistakes. So I keep him another 2-3 weeks. No growling.

Well along comes the magical family from Washington, they fly down to my home and want to meet Scout a wonderful adult male pulled from a local shelter. For some reason Scout is missing a toe, surgically removed and has a little old limp, but a sweet dog. They are coming to meet Scout since they saw him on the site, just after loosing their dog Scout.

Low and behold they want to adopt two dogs....out of my 6 fosters they pick Scout and Huck. Who seem to get along great together. Attached is their second email telling me how things are going. I told you these are magical wonderful people.......

Caryn Pola

Subject: From Rick and Peggy
Date: Fri, 08 Aug 2003 04:47:16 +0000
 
Dear Caryn,
Thanks for your call - we were out walking the dogs. Scooter
(Scout) is doing great. We put some of our smelly clothes on the
floor of the family room and it's his favorite spot. His appetite
is great and he is sleeping good, but he seems pretty stiff in the
morning and has a tougher time negotiating our stairs. I think we
are going to take him to the vet to have a look at his legs and see
what they might recommend.
 
Tuck (Huck) is also doing great. He is a love. He continues to
fence fight with Fritz next door but we are going to introduce them
to each other next week at the dog park and see if they can become
friends. Fritz usually starts the fighting but Tuck usually has the
last bark. It is challenging to get him to go the bathroom and he
has had some accidents in the house, but we are working on that and
I am sure we will overcome this. I think the key is to get him to
stop thinking of the ball long enough to remember that he may have
some business to do.
 
We have friends and family helping with the dogs during the day so
that they are never alone more than 3 hours. They are confined to
the kitchen and family room and do not disturbed a thing when we are
away.
 
We have a great country lane that we walk them on and Scooter is a
classic springer and has his nose in the bushes at all times. He
would have been a great hunter in his hey day. Tuck, on the other
hand, tolerates his walks - probably hoping that we will soon get
home to play ball.
 
We have already bonded as a family and our only real headache is
getting enough sleep at night. Scooter dominates the bed and
sometimes intimidates Tuck so he jumps off and whines at the side of
the bed. Tonight we are going to try splitting them up. Scooter on
Rick's side and Tuck on mine. We'll see!
 
We'll give you a call this weekend. Caryn, thank you to you, Bob,
Marge and Marv. We are a very happy family!
 

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