in the sphere

this blog is for documentation purposes.

it is an attempt to chronicle my work and life with sweetie. sweetie is a 1.3 month old labradoodle that i adopted in august 2008.

sweetie was brought into a limited admission animal shelter in august 2007. she was evaluated at her originating shelter in the central valley of california and deemed suitable for adoption. she was 4 months old and surrendered with two other littermates. she was to be euthanized the day before our team arrived but was not.

upon entry into her new shelter, she was spayed and ready for adoption. she was not as outgoing as her sister (who was adopted within a couple weeks), instead hesitant and fearful in the new setting.

difficulties first surfaced when sweetie growled at a woman who wanted to pet her while she was lying down in the park. then she attended a pet fair and growled there as well. concerned about her behavioral health, we began working with a trainer dedicated to her case and began pursuing foster options. she was made unavailable for adoption.

unfortunately for sweetie, the trainer made some but little progress in the challenging environment and no foster home was found for her at 5 months of age or during her 10 month stay at the shelter. her behavioral health declined considerably. she was scared on her walks, petrified of other dogs and people, would not go to the bathroom outside and constantly wanted to return to the shelter. in the shelter, she would alarm bark at the presence of new dogs or people - and was relegated to a kennel with no visibility of passersby.

despite these considerable concerns and unadoptable behavior, i believed that sweetie had the ability to be rehabilitated and placed as a loving companion into a new home. while she was scared and reactive to new people, she was very social and was completely trusting once she made friends (which usually only took a couple meetings). and while she was petrified of unknown dogs outdoors, she had fabulous dog-dog skills and was a great player. there was hope, but it was dwindling fast.

by the beginning of 2008, sweetie continued to deteriorate, was put on medication for anxiety; however she had instances of growling at strangers and was reactive with barking - and on a couple of occasions, lunging as well. by spring 2008, we were at the end of options, so we call in a renowned board certified vet behaviorist to assess her case. after obtaining history and observations, she determined she had the potential for rehabilitation (given the shelter's resources) but she needed a foster home ASAP.

with no fosters in sight, she took sweetie into her home for a month long foster. while rough at first, she improved, was able to meet new people and live in a multi-dog household. bolstered by her behavior, she was placed in a short term foster home to continue her road to recovery. despite having no training support, the new foster was extremely dedicated to sweetie and provided a dream home environment.

unfortunately, another foster home could not be found (to help her generalize all that she had learned in her two temporary homes) - and despite no decline in behavior health, the shelter had slated her for euthanasia. given the mismanagement of her case and my belief that she had the potential and ability to rehabilitate, i adopted her. this was the least her case deserved.

this is our story together.