By Lynn –
I have a problem at the pound.
EDIT: My Problem has been pulled to a rescue organization and placed in a foster home. He’ll hopefully have no trouble at all finding a permanent home, so now I can focus on more pressing Problems.
He’s an underweight (probably should be 90 lbs, right now at about 75-80 lbs), intact marshmallow of a Rottweiler who’s biggest problem is that he thinks anyone around is fair game to give him love and pats. Yeah, he hikes his leg and will use his weight when on the leash sometimes, but we can work past that. His head is probably slightly less than the size of a basketball and his paw is as big as the palm of my hand. I can barely wrap my entire hand around his muzzle. I don’t think I’ve heard a single Woof come out of him the times I’ve been around him, even when all the other dogs are going crackhead in the kennels.
His mate (the female with whom he was picked up) would have been my first choice but she was adopted first. She was just like him, except more feminine and slightly more forward with the concept of “If there’s an empty lap, I will soon be in it.” The first time I worked with her, I had to clip her nails. She didn’t say a word to me…obviously didn’t like it, but didn’t struggle too badly either. The one time she barely put her teeth on me was when I clipped slightly close to the quick, and even then she put her ears back, squinted and then tried to pull the leash out of my hand. “Sorry, I know I wasn’t supposed to do that; can I do this instead?”
But now that she’s gone and no longer considered a problem, I’ve focused on the male, whom I’ve been affectionately calling Big Brother. Just teaching him how to walk nice(r), maybe starting on a redimentary Come, all the usual things in order to make a dog into a good family member who will hopefully be kept inside the house instead of chained to a tree or left in a kennel as an outside-only dog.
See, he’s become something of a Problem, yes with the capital “P” included. Because I want him to be with me in a forever home. I’m glad adoption fees have gone up, otherwise when I move back home for a little bit, he’d be coming with me and no matter what, you wouldn’t hear me complain at all…