Temperament
An Owner's Perspective
Sarah's Story
[...] I could write a book on the subject of how devastating it
is to live with a dog with unsound temperment but I will try to keep this
post short.
You see, just last week I had to put my beautiful two year old Bouvier, Sarah, to sleep because I couldn't trust her not to hurt my
friends and my family.
Sarah was shy from the start. She was not equable or stable in
temperment.
There was no stopping point between barking and biting. She didn't put herself between me and what she perceived as danger, she
just lunged and pinched.
At six months her first obedience teacher warned the class about dogs like
Sarah. She said "this is a shy dog, you have to watch out for them as they
can turn into fear biters." After that comment I asked the woman I had
purchased her from (at age 4.5 months) who was not the breeder if Sarah's
litter had been temperment tested. Like a good dog owner I had read "The Art
of Raising a Puppy". She said that while she had temperment tested her litter of bouviers that the breeder of this pup didn't do
temperment testing.
We live on a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood full of kids. I
have kids. Our house is a busy place. In the two years that we had Sarah
she never learned
to accept anyone that wasn't in the family. It was always,
bark, bark,
lunge, lunge. We went to obedience classes, I talked to
people and we
trained and trained and trained.
Nothing worked. We put her away in a back room when people
came in so she
couldn't hurt them. Once they were in we could let her out
and she could
meet and greet people just fine but we had to but her away
before they left
or she would chase them along the front windows barking and
snarling.
Don't get me wrong, there were periods where she was fine
but those periods
became shorter and shorter and you can't always have your
friends make
appointments before they stop by. Twice when I wasn't in
the room when an unexpected guest came she lunged and pinched and bruised men
in the crotch.
In both cases my husband had her by the collar. Both men
were people she had
known for two years, we had gone camping and socialized with
them. That's
when we started private lessons with a canine trainer.
One day she turned on me. I had just let her out of her dog
run after being
in there for an hour (I couldn't take her in the car anymore
because she
went so nuts). She ran out the kennel, turned and growled
at me in a tone
that can only be described as a mad dog growl from the
scariest of horror
stories. Two days there was an unprovoked pinch/bruise to
the groin of
another mail friend that we met after a walk in the woods.
No warning,
nothing.
I called the canine trainer and the handler/groomer that I
had bought her
from. They agreed that I had not only done all I could but
that I had done
more that the average dog owner would have. I called her
breeder to tell her
what was happening and to ask if she wanted to take her
back. The answer was
"no, I can't have a dog that bites here" and "it's been two
years, I would
be a stranger to her" There was and is no acceptance that
she had bred a dog
with poor temperment. I took her to the vet to see if he
could find
something chemically wrong with her. There wasn't. My
handler/groomer friend
tried to place her for me. The canine trainer who does all
breed rescue said
there was no hope for her and that she should be put down.
My
groomer/handler friend agreed. So after many tears and "but
what if's" I
took my beautiful girl and sent her to the rainbow bridge.
My girl has one sister that is untrainable. I hear reports
that her other
sisters come out of their kennels at shows like wild
animals, even more so
that Sarah did. The breeder admits there are situations she
can't put the
mother in without fear of being bitten. The breeder is
still planning to
breed Sarah's sister. Her brother's owners are planning to
breed him to an
OFA fair bitch that bit through the arm of the
handler/groomer that I bought
Sarah from. Oh, and by the way, Sarah's x-ray's showed mild
hip dysplasia.
My point? Temperment has to be the first thing that is
considered when
breeding a dog. If breeders keep bringing Bouviers like
Sarah into the world
then Bouviers will become as feared as Rottweilers and Pit
Bulls. No one
should have to go through what we went through with a
beloved family pet.
I'm sorry that this has been so long and that I have
probably rambled. It
has been a very difficult letter to write but I really hope
the breeders [...] will take their blinders off and take another look
at their dogs
every single time they breed. [...]
Barbara
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