I started watching the Dog Whisperer, a.k.a Cesar Millan a few years ago. I had adopted two mixed breed dogs and was fostering a pit bull mix and planning to adopt a German Shepherd. I was fostering the pit bull mix (Baer) to see if I could handle three dogs. Baer was one of the most energetic dogs I’ve ever seen. When he wagged his tail, his entire body wagged back and forth. I took him out to the woods and let him run with my dogs for miles at a time.
Then, I found a beautiful German Shepherd on petfinder.com. He was gorgeous. He had darker coloring and was not crippled like the AKC-approved German Shepherds. Perhaps because he didn’t confirm to this particular aesthetic standard, he had been abandoned. When he was rescued by animal control, he was emaciated, had open and infected wounds on his neck, and had heartworm. A rescue group that focuses on this breed ended up taking him in and spending hundreds of dollars and several months worth of time nursing him back to health.
I fell in love with him and drove 2.5 hours just so I could meet him in person. The next 5 hour round trip was to pick him up to keep him forever.
The homecoming didn’t go as I’d expected…not that I knew what to expect. I was hoping to gradually introduce all of the dogs (Baer hadn’t found a permanent home yet) and Baer got out the back door and ran to the front porch where I had tied the Beast up. The Beast immediately went into “kill” mode and tried to tear Baer’s head off. I may be exagerrating slightly. There wasn’t much bloodshed, but there was some.
One of the Beast’s rescuers thought he had been used as a bait dog. If this is true, he had been tied up and had to endure attacks from unleashed pit bulls. The other rescuer didn’t believe that. What I do know is that the Beast really hates pit bulls to this day. Even if he was never used as a bait dog, I’ve noticed that dogs sometimes “stereotype” particular breeds.
Thanks to Cesar Millan’s show and books, I quickly realized that Baer was provoking the attacks. This “puppy full of energy” also had an extremely dominant personality and continually challenged the Beast’s status. Fortunately, we found Baer a home within a few weeks, before any more blood was shed.
Thanks to the Dog Whisperer for helping me get through that situation and learning how to deal with my crazy German Shepherd.
Posted by Cindy Thomas 