Maren Bell Jones

This is a corollary to the other thread, but not the exact same, so I thought I would ask. Under what circumstances would you rehome a dog? I don't mean dumping it at the shelter which is certainly not advisable, but finding a good home where the dog's quality of life was still going to be comparable.

I'm sure answers will be very personal, but here's my situation and apologies for the length...yesterday was a very rough day for me and the dogs. I had a foster dog named Buddy for nearly 2 months from the local shelter. He was a little 20 lbs 10 year old spitz mix that got along with everyone and was very unassuming for the most part. I've fostered dozens of dogs and he's probably the easiest keeper I've had. He hadn't gotten adopted yet I think primarily because of his age, though he was always perfect in the house. If we were both gone for a few hours, he'd get put in the crate, but for very short periods, was left out of the crate as he was very trust worthy.

I left for class yesterday at 7:30 AM. My husband went to go work out at the gym at 10 AM and got home at 10:45 AM, so Buddy was left out as he was gone less than an hour. I got home early from class just after my husband got home and walked in the front door to see Buddy dead on the floor all chewed up. Relatively little blood loss, but lots of saliva all over. He was still warm. My husband was out in the backyard getting all the rest of the dogs away from everything, but we don't know for certain who it was. I am 95% sure it was Zoso, as ever since he turned around 2 years old, he got progressively more dog aggressive (he's one of those insecure wannabe alpha males). He's fine out in public around other dogs, but not necessarily with other dogs at home. However, I have no idea of the trigger.

I had to take Buddy's body back over to the shelter to see if I could bury him (they let me, because otherwise they can't even afford to cremate euthanized dogs, they go to the landfill, which I wasn't aware of! ). They weren't upset with me as they say it does happen from time to time, especially when all my dogs were at least 2.5 times his weight. But obviously I don't feel like I can foster dogs any more with Zoso. You can do your best to crate and contain them, but you can't ever guarantee you can watch ALL the time or that two dogs end up at the wrong place at the wrong time together. Accidents could always happen and animals, no matter how well trained or socialized, always have the possibility of being unpredictable and acting on instinct.

To add this, my parents called me last night to tell me that my dad had brought them to one of the big off leash areas (it's about 20-30 acres of trails) they go to all the time that is fenced in with hog wire, not chain link. His Vizsla and Weimaraner somehow got out of his sight and out of the park. He searched for them for hours, but was called about four hours later by animal control saying that Rudy the Vizsla was found hit by a car. No word on Rommy the Weimaraner, as his collar had no tags, but he's microchipped. My father is really REALLY upset (my mom said he cried more than he did at either of his parents' funerals because at least he knew it was coming) and feels it was all his fault because the Vizsla in particular was not very reliable off leash, but "it was too nice a day to not let him run."

Zoso has progressively gone from my favorite dog when I had two to my least of my current four. We still do lots of stuff together and I train in agility with him when I can. However, Fawkes has way better nerves, food, ball, and tug drive than he does and is honestly much more affectionate than Zoso. As much as he was a nice intro dog to Schutzhund and agility, he is not in the same league as Fawkes. He is well trained for an active pet (CGC, TT, and DSA). My parents are absolutely heartbroken and I worry that my father will pick some random BYB puppy out of the paper if they don't get some sort of replacement soon. I'm considering seeing if they want to do a trial run on him, although my husband would prefer to keep him. Thoughts? Opinions? Similar situations?

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