Adopter's Remorse

After the let down over little Junior last week, I starting looking at ads on craigslist hoping to find another doggie to rescue. I found Rocko (formerly Maddox). The owner was surrendering him because she had a baby and could no long care for him. She told me he was crate-trained, up-to-date on shots, housebroken, good with dogs, and good with cats. He is absolutely adorable. On Friday, I went to meet the little guy. He was very sweet and calm so I agreed to give him a good home.



We made our way home, but stopped first at Petsmart to buy a new crate. Once inside, Rocko's sweet demeanor changed. He started barking and growling at every dog and person in there. I was so embarrassed. I won't be able to show my face there for awhile. Not the good with dogs pet I was expecting. Once home, he and Bogart seemed to do well. They are still testing each other and trying to determine ranking, but I'm confident they'll work it out. Rocko clearly needs work with socializing and dominance issues so training will be necessary.



Fast forward to bedtime, Rocko clearly has never been in a crate as the owner implied. He yipped and howled forever. I guess we can work on that.



The next day, Rocko tried to attack on of our cats that dared to come downstairs. Not OK with us! We'll have to do serious training to try to make him leave the cats alone.



I emailed the woman after a call to her vet revealed that they had never treated the dog. i mentioned the aggression issues to which she replied "I don't think he's ever been around cats or other dogs."



I wish I could sue her for false advertising.



Don't get me wrong. He's a sweetheart and we have no intention on giving him up, but we were not expecting this much work. The hubs and I are experienced animal owners so we feel confident that we can help him to become a great dog, but if we exhaust all possibilities, we may have to find him a new home.



This is a pic of our little work in progress: