My husband and I have been wrestling with this heartbreaking dilemma now for a couple of months… A bit of background… We have always had dogs, some from puppies and a previous one from an SPA in Normandy… all adored, loved, cherished and lived to a long life with us…
Earlier this year - having been without a dog for 6 months we knew we needed another… We went straight to the rescue centre and immediately fell in love with a boisterous one year old mixed breed dog… While we were waiting for our house purchase to go through we had plenty of time to go and walk him once per week and get to love him…
What we hadn’t bargained for was my husbands hip replacement surgery and having a ‘lively dog’ in your early seventies is very different from you 30’s/40’s/50’s etc etc…
He has had a couple of stints with a dog trainer - all hugely successful… he lived with the trainers family with young children for 10 days at a time and was an angel apparently…
The problem is that now my husband is not as surefooted as he used to be we just cannot deal with his energy. We have tried all sorts of things, buzzy dog collars etc etc… but he is unfortunately not happy with us… He just loves to play with other dogs which we cannot proved. When my grandchildren is here - he loves it… and incredibly sad when they leave…
So now the heartbreaking decision to return him to the rescue centre after nearly nine months with us. We are not sure if we are even capable of doing this thus this post hoping to find him another home ourselves… Please don’t judge us… this is a really difficult time and all we want is for him to be happy… Please contact me if you are you know anybody that may be able to provide him with a good and happy home… Distance is not an issue… kind regards, Jane
If your on Facebook there are lots of groups for dog adoption. Including a few largely expat groups.
They can help if only by showing the dog to a big audience
We had dogs until I retired and we wanted to do some seriousl travelling. So we gave our dog to one of the kids. We had no pets until about four years ago when a neighbour gave us a newly hatched Hermanns Western tortoise which had been found in the road. It was tiny and weighed just 15 grams. It was a great pet. It lived in the garden, responded when it saw us. Liked to be picked up. When the weather got cold it dug a hole in the garden and hibernated. But it was alone. As it is a threatened indigenous species we gave it to a specialised tortoise center who have many such tortoises and an active breeding programme. We miss it but know it will live in a much more natural environment than our garden.
Oh lovely, I can see why your description was a bit vague, and definitely not a trace of Dobermann there. I say that because I am a member of a Dobermann association based in the north which I would have recommended you to, but no point. Everybody there is a Dobie nut and no chance of a home for one so far from that description.
I wish you well in your quest for a suitable owner.
Our current pup (10 years old now) was a nightmare until he was 3. And then transformed into a great dog - not always well behaved but we know his foibles. We are also getting to older end of spectrum, and know we will be even older for next dog. But have had a discussion about whether we would be looking for an older one. An conclusion was that we wouldn’t.
The terrible years don’t last that long, and yours must be around 2 now? So if you can hang on another year you should have a steady companion that will be ideal for later years.
(For context my fist dog was a St Bernard puppy at age 5. A few years later she accidently broke my grandmother’s arm and my mother got rid of her. I never quite forgave her.)
