Cheesey, the fact is that wpr does not like me and has latched on to another of my post to spin up some drama. In fact I have wished him and his situation a happy ending. Also, I only take personal attacks personally.

I still stand by what I posted. Not adopting a wanted animal only delays the animal from getting acclimated to a new environment. Being caged up in a shelter only prolongs the animals already frightened state. This is my impersonal observation of the case.

Happy Holidays to All

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Smokey I never ever ever said I do not like you. You are fine. Paranoid but fine.

Not once did I attack you personally in this thread. I doubt I have attacked you in any others posts for that matter. The "worst thing" I did was trash talk about the Army-Navy game by asking if you are testy because Navy lost. If you think that was an attack on you, you have serious problems and should seek counseling because that is such modest of a quip. It as many of my comments was meant tongue in cheek. I am sorry if you can't distinguish.

I don't think anyone else found drama in this. You are the one trying to create it.

For the first time it will probably be considered an abuse of the power that Zero gave me but this whole thing has gotten ridiculous. I am locking the thread. I am sorry I ever brought it up. If Zero2cool wants to unlock it he may do so.

One last thing, I offered to pay the fee today and I was turned down. As I said twice, the shelter does not allow you to take the animal until they are confident the relationship will work. They said it will take at least 3 visits minimum. And today's visit does not count because it took 45 minutes to get there because of the snow and they were going to close in 5 minutes. That was not enough time with the dog. Sorry to say this but it's apparent you don't know what you are talking about.

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I unlocked this topic. I will let everyone know I won't have people telling me how rotten I am for not getting the dog immediately. It took 5 visits before her owners, the rescue shelter, agreed to let us have her.

We got her a week ago this past Thursday. She was still very scared but she showing signs of warming up ever so slightly.

I left it out of my original posts (because I don't like telling the whole internet when we are not at home.) but we were going to be gone over the weekend so it made no sense to get her and then try and board her a couple of days later. The shelter agreed that we needed to wait.

Her name is "Lady". We drove down to see her in a snowstorm and got there as they were closing. My wife was able to go back to the kennel and take a peak at her. She came back and told me she looks like a lady.

I am mainly posting this because Cheesey asked me what happened.

Here is some of my comments to him-

I have really had my hands full with her this past week. She is not like any other dog I have ever had to deal with. Including watching/working with my kids dogs, have had 6 in the past 30 years. I have cared for about 6-8 neighbor dogs during that time.

First thing last Friday morning I went to take her out for a walk and she bit me. Or almost did when I went to hook her leash to her collar. It was a warning she was scared. I mean what dog doesn't want to pee after being inside all night?

I backed down and take it real slow with her. I give her treats and pet her for about 10 minutes before I put the leash on her. For the first week I took her for a walk in the morning and evening. Maybe it is too cold or too dark but she even resisted that. She splays her legs and forces me to pull her along for about a foot before she starts to walk. I hate using force but I do it as gently as I can, talking to her the whole time.

I have talked to several people familiar with the breed and no one has heard of an Aussie Shepherd that doesn't like the cold (or at least the snow.) and doesn't like going for walks.

We are very slowly making progress. As of yesterday she has come out of the bedroom while I got ready. I am getting a few tail wags. She gave me a kiss a couple of nights ago. When I am on the floor she will sit beside me or in my lap, sort of, she's 65 pounds.

I stopped taking her on morning walks. Just out into our yard then back in the house. After work we go for a 30 min walk. Her attitude is a lot better. I will add back the morning walks when it is a little warmer and there is morning light.

She's funny she won't go from the garage to the house if the kitchen light isn't on. Or if I am not standing in the doorway holding the garage screen door open.

One last thing, tonight as we were walking her leash broke and she ran off. I was extremely blessed that she didn't run away. At least not completely. She ran and ran and ran but she always was sort of in the area. She would never get close enough to me to get a hold of her. It took an hour but I was able to keep her moving towards the house. Crossing the road from the park was tricky as she is scared of cars. As we got closer to home I was able to use a stern "Alpha" voice and tell her "NO" when she was thinking of running off so she kept following me at a distance. When she realized where she was she ran to the yard and waited for me to come chugging on home myself. I still had to coax her inside.

Tomorrow I use a different leash. A second collar with her rabies id and micro chip tag. Until now I have been trying to let her get a little more relaxed before I put more stuff on her neck. Not any more.

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Congratulations, I hope that you, your family, and the dog will be very happy together.

When you said that you were interested in adopting a nervous dog from a shelter, my highest thought was what is best for all concerned. I did not discover however that you were dealing with a "rescue" shelter until post #19. As this was the case, placing an abused animal into a second bad situation would be a tragedy. The "rescue shelter"s" policy is then most correct and would be different from a pound or shelter.

I read nowhere in this thread where anyone said that anyone was rotten, nor where anyone was testy. I did read calm opinions expressed in an effort to support the thread. Omitting information that's vital to ones effort to be clearly understood is the fault of the writer and not the reader.

Writers are taught that a story needs to include Who, What, Where, When, and Why. Only partial information on any one of these points does not clearly communicate and could then assumes that a full story has been presented.

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Alita

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Smokey, you need to stop trying to overthink things. No one is out to "get you".
You seem to try to "think" what others mean when they say, or don't say what you think they should.
You did that to me when you first came here, and had to have others straighten out what you thought.
Misunderstanding, or reading more into something that's just not there never works out for the best, or for reality.
Wayne, I'm glad things are working out. Lady needs a loving compassionate home, which you will give her.

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Just let it go Cheesey. It's not worth your effort. Some people don't understand this is just a message board. We are not writing books. We don't do who, what, when, where and how much. I certainly am not going to tell him or anyone else all the facts of any situation. I certainly not going to let him know when I am going to be home.

Whether I get a dog from a breeder, a shelter or a rescue should make no difference at all. I should know when I am going to be able to acquire the dog.

All I was looking for is a larger pool of people giving me suggestions for names. I never implied I was going to select the winner off of this list. All I said was I will consider suggestions which I did.

It did make me laugh. He has been stewing over my prior post when I locked this thread last time. Everyone else moved on with their lives but he couldn't wait to bitch about it as if he was treated unjustly.

I can't believe asking for a few suggestions of dog names would get anyone's panties in a twist.

Time to lock it up again. As I said last time, it isn't worth all the crying that has gone on.

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