January 31st 2012 Evening

Courage now looks up when you say his name! Today he got active and played tug of war with Motard. Unfortunately a small fight between them followed. He is now again terrified of my husband because when he broke up the fight the yelled and walked roughly into them to break them apart. I was able to lure him into his crate tonight by breaking up a turkey dog. Maybe no more rodeo style herding?!

January 31st 2012

So Courage had a rough night last night. He started barking and thrashing around his kennel when we put him to bed. He ended up breaking the kennel and escaping. He ran around the house and got a hold of one of my socks and shredded it to pieces. We put our dog Motard in the broken kennel since we knew he is well behaved enough to not try to escape even though is was broken. It took some rodeo herding skills to get Courage into the not broken kennel and a quicker hand to lock it behind him. This time we moved the kennels closer together and facing each other so Courage could see Motard locked up and clearly okay. That seemed to do the trick because he was quiet for the rest of the night. He follows Motard around the house like a little duckling. Everything Motard sniffs, he sniffs. If Motard lays down, Courage lays down.

January 30th 2012

This morning we have seen the best signs in him. He has been halfheartedly play with my other dog(an 8 month old GSD mix) all morning. He still shys away from any human contact but he is eating and drinking well. :-)

January 29th 2012

Today I rescued a GSD from the Devore shelter. When I woke up this morning all I had planned out for the day was going to friends baby shower and laying around the house with my puppy Motard. I hadn't even thought of getting another  dog until Motard is one. Well I hoped on fb and browsed through the varies nonsense babble as usual. That's when I stumbled upon a shared picture of a 2 year old male GSD that was being transferred to Devore(aka Hell) and being euthanized all in one fell swoop. This poor boy had been wrongfully labeled 'aggressive' and well I'm not usually a gut feeling type of person I just knew from the single picture I had seen of him that this was false. I read on the picture thread that a lot of people were saying that they wanted to help but nobody would or could step up and actually do something for this poor boy. 2 years old and he didn't even have a name! I immediately volunteered  my services to foster him because I wholeheartedly believed that there was nothing wrong with this poor puppy, no reason that he should be put down. Lisa P. stepped and started organizing everything. Without her the poor boy would not have made it. I frantically searched for a ride to take me the 2 hour drive to the shelter to get him. I appealed to a local animal lover group. Begging anyone available for a ride. By the grace of god a woman named Chrissy was able to take me. When we got to Devore(Hell) we meet with Tanya, a puller for 'Gone to the Dogs' rescue. After some small talk we met the animal control officers outside to finally meet the GSD. The moment I saw him I wanted to cry. They had wheeled him out in the metal crate and were acting like he was going to maul their faces off. However the the dog was curled up in the corner of the crate terrified. The animal control workers were talking of muzzling him and tried to insist that we go get a crate to put him in for the ride home. I asked one of them if he had bitten anyone and if that is why they were treating him like this. The officer snobbishness replied "He could." Are you serious? I COULD bite you but I didn't, that really wasn't the answer I was looking for. Tanya pet him gently and was shaking like a leaf in the wind. He didn't growl, bark or snap when we touched him. He was to scared to move. It was that moment that I decided to name him Courage, after a cartoon "Courage the cowardly dog." When we finally half coaxed half forced him into the car he immediately hide as far under the seat as he physically could. There he stayed for the next hour and a half of car ride, eventually crawling out to climb into the back window. When we got home to my house he once again was  too terrified to move and my husband had to carry him up the stairs to our second story condo. He then slinked to the end of our hall and there he stayed until we decided to go to bed and put him in his kennel. And this is the dog they labeled "Aggressive"