He is obviously going to be a very well loved dog, I wish the very best for you both in the future. He is one lucky dog to have you.
Gosh, I didn't expect to see that! You obviously love him very much and will ensure that he's well cared for, so I hope it all turns out to be as good as possible. Meanwhile, can you tell us his name and share some photos? We will all want to continue this journey with you!
This pup is really going to be looked after. Tough decision & I wholly understand why you went the way you did. I hope we get to share your pup's life with you x
I was faced with exactly the same dilemma almost 2 half years ago. There have been plenty of difficult times but we have come through it. I have to manage her exercise carefully and at times I can’t take her on some walks I’d like to but I don’t regret the decision I made to keep her. I wish you the very best of luck.
I knew at that moment I could not question what the future would be like without him. I committed to giving him a good life and sticking with the plan. He is family now and we are moving forward with him in our pack! What heartwarming words! Hopefully his hips will not give you many issues going forward. Welcome to the forum from Ariel and I, and we look forward to sharing your adventures. And like the others said......pictures please!!!!
Awww - how lovely - know I couldn’t have taken him back either - good luck -I,m sure they will be well loved.
Thank you all for the support. His name is Chuck. Some pictures below. This new puppy has a lot of history behind him. Not sure how much I will write on this so if it seems boring, just scroll down to the pics of our new boy. Would take more but I think he wants to eat the camera. We had a beagle for almost 17 years. Absolutely love that dog and sadly lost her this past March. She had some health issues and we took care of her including a very expensive surgery that the surgeon gave us terrible odds for her survival and coming out of being paralyzed. She made it through and had 10+ happy years. However, we did not realize how much of an affect she had on our lives. Fast forward a bit and we have our son who has been wanting another dog and we delayed for months as we were interviewing breeders and doing our careful diligence to ensure we get the right pup. Actually been doing this for 2 years and decided against a 2nd dog as our beagle would have not done well with a pup. I manage risks and educate on risk management for a living so to me logical and calculating decisions are the norm. I may have been heading in this direction and was probably bad because our 15 year old son is a bit of a perfectionist on his own. While he is an academic scholar (desire for MIT) and very well rounded overall, he does not take many risks and had some "anxiety issues" this year. During the start of this school year we attended a seminar on how to help kids cope with anxiety and stress. To our surprise it was very focused on the parents and an eye opener to the things we do that shape how our kids act / think. Don't fall, stay away from.., watch out for.., don't risk it, and BE CAREFUL are common language for most parents and usually for good reasons. However, I think we may not help with them questioning how much risk they take on or how to manage it. To our defense, our son was born severely premature (3 months early) so we have been overprotective of him his whole life and yes, controlling his risks and risk taking. Still learning though... When we received this report from the vet, everything started to become a calculation to me and the smart choice would be to reduce risk of pain, reduce risk of having to deal with any issues, etc. So when my son challenged this with such vigor and questioning what we know/don't know and taking the risk, this decision was heading into the other direction. Chuck is SUPER smart. He has been house trained almost completely now for several days. We have been studying how to best manage his health and a lot of that begins as a puppy from the food he eats, weight control, managing his activities/rest/exercise, and of course a lot of love and attention. Additionally, we will keep an eye on what the vet reported and @4 months old possibly get a penHip test done to see if he may be a candidate for the JPS surgery (Juvenile Pubic Symphysiodesis). As I understand, this has been quite successful for dogs with early indicators. Still researching this but does sound like it reduces the affects of arthritis for dogs with moderate or severe ratings of HD. That said, we are still not sure of a prognosis.
You sound happy with your decision, which is really great. I’m sure you’ll handle whatever comes. Maybe there won’t even be much of a problem to deal with at all. If there is you’ll deal with it as a family. There are still absolutely no negatives in having considered your options in a careful way. You have arrived where you are now after thinking through all the angles and for some people that’s really important. Enjoy life with Chuck He sounds totally delightful. Ps. Photobucket won’t let you link to pics here. You could give Flickr a try. We’d love to see pics of little Chuck
What a journey all of you have been on recently. Chuck sounds delightful and I'm sure he will fit into your family really well x
