Originally Posted by
Highmtn
Yep... violence teaches a dog fear... not manners. Just like little kids.
I'm happy to see you are going to invest the time into Cooper to make him a great dog. A rescue I took on 13 years ago was sooooooooooooooo destructive I was horrified. I said "firm" with her for years and about 6 yrs old she finally settled down. Gad... that was bad! I never gave up on her... I actually felt bad she had been ruined so early on. I was her 7th owner by the time she was about 18 months old.
We knew when we were adopting him that he was heartworm positive and we were willing to take on that responsibilty physically, emotionally and financially to get him treatment and give him a loving home. That is a committment that we made to him and we will not fail him as it seems others have. I am currently in school going for my Associates Degree in Registered Vet Technologist (8 months to go!) We work with some of the local shelters so we have animals that we can use in our learning. Plus, these animals get lab work, xrays and spayed and neutered and it helps defray the cost for the shelters. We just had a 3-4 month old black lab puppy yesterday that had been turned into the drop box and the shelter. He was very sweet and docile. We had to take xrays of his right back leg and it has a severe break, both Tib and Fib. Will need pinning done by ortho but not sure that will happen. We can only guess what caused this break, most likely a kick. People will get puppies and then turn them in after they realize how much work they are.