bobby

Meet Bobby.  He's a year + old pit bull at my local rescue organization.  I fostered him back in March for about 2 weeks.  He was adopted very, very quickly, especially for a Pit Bull.  This dog is such a love, it's unbelievable.  The family that adopted him had 2 kids, and Bobby was kid-tested and approved.  The guy was used to having Rottweilers, so he seemed to understand the importance of taking extra care of a dog whose breed is stigmatized.  I spent a lot of time with this family to make sure it was the right fit.  And the family loved this dog, or so it seemed.

Three months after he was adopted, the guy called me and said they needed to return Bobby.  I was dumbfounded because I hadn't heard from them in 3 months despite giving the guy my phone number and telling him to call me with ANY issues, that I could get him in touch with people that could help if I couldn't.  He told me that Bobby was too dog aggressive and he was scared for his family, despite him showing NO aggression towards any people.  He refused to understand the difference between dog aggression and people aggression, which are vastly different things.  Anyway, I offered to come down to his house 1x a week until they were back on track with him, but he told me no way, that he'd tried everything.

Anyway, it turns out that they had been tying Bobby up outside for long periods of time.  And Bobby has a lot of barrier frustration issues, so this only exacerbated the problem.  So eventually, Bobby broke off of his tie-out and attacked a small dog, injuring it badly.  The small dog's owner took the family to court, and Bobby was deemed a dangerous dog (supposedly) and required to be walked on a muzzle and a prong collar. This, I know, is a lie.  The law does not dictate that a dog must be walked on a prong collar.

So the guy tells me that Bobby is too dog aggressive for him to handle anymore, and he needs to return him.  He tells me he tried the muzzle and prong collar, but he couldn't walk him because Bobby was so reactive and aggressive.  So he just stopped walking him.  Then he complained that Bobby was trying to jump through windows to get out of the house. Well yea, DUH... the dog needed exercise.

Whatever.  It's better he was returned to us, obviously that guy had no idea what he was doing.  So Bobby has been back with us now for 6 months or so.  I've been working with him a lot on his barrier frustration issues, self-control issues, and manners, but because he doesn't get exercised daily, which is what he needs, it's been a struggle, to say the least.  But I love this dog, and no one else takes him out of his run except for me.  The kennel frustrates him, a lot.  It's can be a very anxiety-causing place for a dog, especially a high-energy dog who doesn't have an outlet for that energy. But the moment we get away from the kennel, he is a totally different dog.

Interesting to me is that, since he's been back, he's shown very little, if any, dog-aggression.  He may be selective, and he can get over the top during play but that's because he doesn't get regular exercise. After he's been exercised to a normal degree, he can be around other dogs without a problem.  In October I had him at a Halloween parade for dogs, and he was walking amongst hundreds of other dogs, large and small, and he was an angel. Yet another reason I know this adopter just plain failed at life.

I've told Rob that, if we move and Bobby is still not adopted, we will need to try to integrate him into our home and take him.  I won't leave him behind. I sure hope he's not still there when we move, though... we won't be leaving for at least a year and a half. It will break my heart if Bobby is still there then.