Beautiful Female Sable Working Lines GSD at Kill Shelter - Page 3

I hope you can MCRPRES! jackie harris

can we please refrain from  turning this into a rescue bashing thread. lest we all post our credentials of what we have done to support the piles of discarded, unwanted dogs and much loved dogs that some unfortunate owners had no choice but to give up.

rescue bashing has become the new breeder bashing....just sayin

Sometimes rescue bashing is in order,vk. Especially when they reject offers for a dog that is not going to benefit by their recommendations of being bounced around in "foster".

How can this happen? These morons get these dogs, don't care for them, take them to a shelter........ Then they get another dog..... These assholes should never get a dog/pet again.... How do we stop this? This weekend I took a wonderful GSD away from a neglectful and looser owner and took him to a wonderful new homw.... I can't tell you how good that feels!!!! What can I do to help this beautiful girl?

MCPRES,
If you can present a convincing request to have Lexi released to you, please do so, and know that there are people who are ready and willing to work with this sweet dog to rebuild her confidence in trust and love.  I have someone who can be with her every day.  You may make your own assessment of her needs before sending her to any home, but at least, let's get her out of that shelter.

Would you be willing to call the shelter?  Mary did ask me for a recommendation of a good rescue center.

Thanks.
Betty

MCRPRES its great that you're interested in Lexi but you need to call the shelter ASAP. Here's the shelter contact info again:

The shelter phone number is 260-356-0355, and you should ask for Mary. The shelter hours are Monday, Tuesday and Friday 12 pm until 6 pm and Saturday 10 am until 12 pm, They are closed on Wednesday and Thursday.

If you don't call the shelter tomorrow (Tuesday), you won't be able to call them until they open again on Friday and by then Lexi may be dead.

Jenni, I agree that way too many GSDs are nervebags because of poor breeding but I have no reason to believe that Lexi is a shy, skittish dog with a nervy temperament. She may have had several homes before her latest owners left her at the shelter. She sounds like a sweet, loyal, sensitive GSD who is quite reasonably frightened in a noisy, crazy, strange place with her people gone and the smell of recently killed dogs everywhere. For sure your Aria must have a great temperament or you would not have bred her, but how would she react if you dumped her at a high kill shelter? (I know you would never do this to her, of course.)

It was suggested to the shelter that they contact the owners and let them know that free training and a free escape proof crate would be provided if they wanted to try again with Lexi. The shelter absolutely refused to do so. Not because they thought the owners were terrible people but because they claimed they thought the owners had already made up their minds.

It is disgraceful that the shelter would rather kill Lexi than give her a good chance at a great home.
 

But why was she dumped in the first place? Granted, the people may have been lying but separation anxiety, timidity, fear of crates and men, etc.....not the soundest temperament. And where is her breeder?!  If her owners had a relationship with her breeder, perhaps they could've called and she could've avoided all this.  There are all sorts of reasons dogs end up in the pound but quite often, it's due to genetic temperament perpetuated by breeders who don't give two $hi+s and sell to idiots who have no business with any dog, let alone a dog not totally sound temperamentally. There will always be irresponsible idiots. But if we concentrate on producing the soundest dogs possible, they are exponentially more likely to end up in good places...or at least have a better shot if they end up in a bad place.  Makes me angry. 

Yes, most shelter volunteers are utterly clueless about temperament but unfortunately, there are also lots of sketchy GSDs out there. Maybe she was just busting out of crates because she felt like it and was bored. But maybe she really does have temperament issues/separation anxiety. The point is better temperament and a breeder who cared enough about it and her would've prevented her from being there in the first place and it pisses me off. No doubt, if her issues are genetic and everything said is true, that her breeder has probably produced many before and since that are just like her and when their less-than-dedicated owners decide the burden is too great, they'll meet the same fate. 

Has anyone heard if she's still there or not? I posted on FB and I saw a few others did as well and were trying to get some of the IN trainers to step up.

 

They "thought"....this shelter is really ridicules.
     It will be a real shame if this poor girl gets put down, due to no fault of her own, while people are offering to get her.

Jenni, Lexi may have separation anxiety (if that's what the crate escaping is) for the same reason you figured your mixed breed dog that you lost some months ago was afraid of men--she may have had an awful time. You didn't figure your dog was a skittish nervebag and I can't see why anyone should assume that about Lexi. My girlfriend talked to the lady at the shelter who kept saying things like "She's a Shepherd so of course she's anxious." They don't think much of GSDs there. But the shelter lady also talked about how affectionate and non-aggressive Lexi is. I can't figure any reason to bash Lexi and thereby cause people to lose interest in getting her off death row so the chance of her being killed goes way up. Everything we know about Lexi leads us to believe that she would be a wonderful companion for a sensible, patient, knowledgeable owner.

Another forum would be a better place to talk about the general problem of weak nerve in GSDs. Again I have to wonder how your Aria would do if she was bounced from home to home and was treated very badly by some of her people. GSDs are incredibly loyal dogs and too much loss and bad treatment can cause separation anxiety even in genetically sound GSDs.

I've worked with a lot of dogs with separation anxiety and many of them are just fine after several months, with no sign that they have terrible nerve. Once they start to believe that they finally have a permanent home, they are happy, confident dogs. Their joy in having a real home at last is a wonderful thing to see. I would like Lexi to have a chance to feel that joy.

Maybe we could focus here on getting Lexi out of the shelter alive instead of letting the thread go off on a total side issue. I still think calling or emailing the shelter director and board members is a real good idea. If they know that killing Lexi will cause a huge public stink that might affect their fundraising and cause people to take a real hard look at what they do to dogs, I think they'll let her out of there pronto. Not much else is likely to matter to them. This is a high-kill shelter where dogs are routinely killed, so one more dead dog won't matter to them unless we make it matter. Please get the word out to as many people as you can about how the shelter would rather kill Lexi than give her a good chance at a great home.

We're the only ones who can help Lexi. She has no one else.
 

Maybe she'll wind up in one of the "fosters" like the one in Ten within the last week....let's hope not.
Jenni, how about the OWNERs of this dog and others take some responsibility for their dogs. There are LOTS of GSDs who break out of crates, GOOD GSDs. Just because she breaks out of a crate doesn't mean she's got a crappy temperament and that her breeder is producing dogs with crappy temp. I don't know who this dog is nor her breeder, but you seem to be passing judgement based on comments coming from 'shelter' people. Why do you suppose in the BH and SCH, the judge is not allowed to touch or interfere with the dog being tested? Is it because all GSDs have crappy temperaments, or is it because the GSD, by nature, does not greet strangers like his long lost friend as a golden will? That dog is dropped off, left in a concrete cell (by the looks in the pic) unfamiliar people who are probably looking at her like she a bug on a pin, and you think she should be HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY? I can tell you right now, that any GSD worth their salt, would not be happy in that situation. That's jmo.

I hope she gets to live with people who know the GSD.