Charly is a very lucky dog. And a good looking dog at that. You and your wife are good people. You won’t regret it.My wife and I have had Shepherds in the past, we love animals and get quite attached. Having lost our last two girls (both at 15 years old), we had decided to take a break from dog ownership and enjoy the freedom of extra time for awhile.
This is Charly. He just turned one on February 1st. Nobody told HIM of our decision.
Charly is a Golden Retriever that comes from an awful situation. Charly's life consisted of a crate that he had to be in when indoors. The plastic crate was too small, he had to curl up to be in it. No room to stand.
Otherwise, during the day, he was left outside by himself. That was his life.
My wife's friend lived right next door to this household, therefore my wife was aware of the situation and felt so bad for the dog, who had been treated this way since he was a small puppy. Whenever my wife visited this friend, she would visit with the dog (through the fence) wishing she could take him home with her. I kept reminding her that we finally had some free time (foolish me).
Well, just over a month ago, the dog's owner told our friend that she was getting rid of the dog. Immediately, we were contacted, of course. Knowing the neglect (no socialization, training or attention) in Charly's life up to this point, this was no easy decision for us. Our previous dogs came from bad situations, so we knew this would be tough.
We took the challenge and picked up Charly about a month ago (so much for the break!). Charly had no toys and had never seen or been on a leash. We attempted the leash anyway, he just cowered in fear. Okay, we'll wait on the leash. It was interesting loading him up in our minivan. The owner gave us the remainder of his dog food and some Milk Bones. That's all Charly had. Since Charly was never neutered, we think that the owner's original idea was to breed.
Once home, we realized that, in addition to the leash problem, Charly had never seen or experienced stairs! It took about a day and a half to convince him to try that one. Now he loves to go up and down them!
Because of the lack of attention in his past, when either of us try to walk away from him, he will bite and clamp down on our clothing or us! The more we try to train him on this, the more forceful he gets. We know that craving attention is the cause, so we are working on that. Even when he is resting, he tries to keep a paw on you to know you're there. So far, he will not go outside unless one of us accompanies him. He doesn't want to be left out alone.
We have a LONG journey ahead, but he absolutely loves it here already!
I'm very sorry to be so wordy.
Tom (Rebellion)
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Bless you all and your new dog!My wife and I have had Shepherds in the past, we love animals and get quite attached. Having lost our last two girls (both at 15 years old), we had decided to take a break from dog ownership and enjoy the freedom of extra time for awhile.
This is Charly. He just turned one on February 1st. Nobody told HIM of our decision.
Charly is a Golden Retriever that comes from an awful situation. Charly's life consisted of a crate that he had to be in when indoors. The plastic crate was too small, he had to curl up to be in it. No room to stand.
Otherwise, during the day, he was left outside by himself. That was his life.
My wife's friend lived right next door to this household, therefore my wife was aware of the situation and felt so bad for the dog, who had been treated this way since he was a small puppy. Whenever my wife visited this friend, she would visit with the dog (through the fence) wishing she could take him home with her. I kept reminding her that we finally had some free time (foolish me).
Well, just over a month ago, the dog's owner told our friend that she was getting rid of the dog. Immediately, we were contacted, of course. Knowing the neglect (no socialization, training or attention) in Charly's life up to this point, this was no easy decision for us. Our previous dogs came from bad situations, so we knew this would be tough.
We took the challenge and picked up Charly about a month ago (so much for the break!). Charly had no toys and had never seen or been on a leash. We attempted the leash anyway, he just cowered in fear. Okay, we'll wait on the leash. It was interesting loading him up in our minivan. The owner gave us the remainder of his dog food and some Milk Bones. That's all Charly had. Since Charly was never neutered, we think that the owner's original idea was to breed.
Once home, we realized that, in addition to the leash problem, Charly had never seen or experienced stairs! It took about a day and a half to convince him to try that one. Now he loves to go up and down them!
Because of the lack of attention in his past, when either of us try to walk away from him, he will bite and clamp down on our clothing or us! The more we try to train him on this, the more forceful he gets. We know that craving attention is the cause, so we are working on that. Even when he is resting, he tries to keep a paw on you to know you're there. So far, he will not go outside unless one of us accompanies him. He doesn't want to be left out alone.
We have a LONG journey ahead, but he absolutely loves it here already!
I'm very sorry to be so wordy.
Tom (Rebellion)
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What a wonderful thing you have done! When people treat pets like that it is despicable. Had a friend that made a statement many years ago. It was about sexual deviants .My wife and I have had Shepherds in the past, we love animals and get quite attached. Having lost our last two girls (both at 15 years old), we had decided to take a break from dog ownership and enjoy the freedom of extra time for awhile.
This is Charly. He just turned one on February 1st. Nobody told HIM of our decision.
Charly is a Golden Retriever that comes from an awful situation. Charly's life consisted of a crate that he had to be in when indoors. The plastic crate was too small, he had to curl up to be in it. No room to stand.
Otherwise, during the day, he was left outside by himself. That was his life.
My wife's friend lived right next door to this household, therefore my wife was aware of the situation and felt so bad for the dog, who had been treated this way since he was a small puppy. Whenever my wife visited this friend, she would visit with the dog (through the fence) wishing she could take him home with her. I kept reminding her that we finally had some free time (foolish me).
Well, just over a month ago, the dog's owner told our friend that she was getting rid of the dog. Immediately, we were contacted, of course. Knowing the neglect (no socialization, training or attention) in Charly's life up to this point, this was no easy decision for us. Our previous dogs came from bad situations, so we knew this would be tough.
We took the challenge and picked up Charly about a month ago (so much for the break!). Charly had no toys and had never seen or been on a leash. We attempted the leash anyway, he just cowered in fear. Okay, we'll wait on the leash. It was interesting loading him up in our minivan. The owner gave us the remainder of his dog food and some Milk Bones. That's all Charly had. Since Charly was never neutered, we think that the owner's original idea was to breed.
Once home, we realized that, in addition to the leash problem, Charly had never seen or experienced stairs! It took about a day and a half to convince him to try that one. Now he loves to go up and down them!
Because of the lack of attention in his past, when either of us try to walk away from him, he will bite and clamp down on our clothing or us! The more we try to train him on this, the more forceful he gets. We know that craving attention is the cause, so we are working on that. Even when he is resting, he tries to keep a paw on you to know you're there. So far, he will not go outside unless one of us accompanies him. He doesn't want to be left out alone.
We have a LONG journey ahead, but he absolutely loves it here already!
I'm very sorry to be so wordy.
Tom (Rebellion)
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Bless you @ckessel you may not know how much that means to me!If you have a pooch that gets scared from fireworks, thunder etc, on your phone/tv/laptop etc pull up "Huskies howling" on Youtube. Tried that on Neko since once when he got wigged as it was too late for doggie downers. Snapped him right out of the wigging and he would chime in too.
Good job Matt, they say things happen for a reason. Well this may be the reason. Enjoy your new addition.Very comendable action on your part Rebellion !
We just lost 2 of our 3 dogs...32 days apart. Its been very difficult.
The other day we found a pup that needs help. He was a stray. Running the streets of downtown at only 7 months old.
We took our remaining puppy, 14 month old Tilly to meet him. They got along great....thankfully. we have no idea of what we are getting, but we have been here once before. We could never give up on a dog. Once they get here they are ours...for better or worse. We pick him up today !
Tilly was kind of down after loosing her pack. Now she will have something she hasnt had, a play friend. Our other boys were too old to play so she lost out on that, but Boomer should be able to provide her with plenty to do.