Foster Dog: Noah

Noah was out first foster baby and boy was he a hand full. ( I'm writing this after he has already gone back to the shelter because of jumping the fence, if that gives you any indication. )

First lets talk about his good qualities.  He is very affection motivated and loves people. If he could cuddle with you all day he would.  He doesn't bark too much and is house broken.  We got him to the point where he would walk well on a lease with a gentle leader, and would only get distracted by the occasional squirrel.  Though he did require 2 vigorous walks a day to keep him out of trouble.

such a cuddle monster

There were many days when he was the best dog ever, and then many where he would drive us crazy.  He was an American bull dog Pyrenees mix, but he mostly looked like the bulldog, but was head strong like a Pyrenees.  He had quite a few quirks when we first got him but slowly we started to work on them and got to where he only had 1 bad habit left, and sadly it was the one that made him have to go back to wayside.  He started jumping the fence one day and just never wanted to stop.  At first we thought it was just the parts of the fence that were a bit low and easy to jump.  We covered those up with extra branches so he couldn't get through, and things went ok.  Then he got into squirrel chasing mode and realized he could jump ANY part of the fence and went into the yard of the neighbor behind us.  He then proceeded to jump 3 yards down and come back and into the vacant yard by use, where a gate was opened and thank God he was focused on the squirrel or else he would have run out and never come back. 

I finally got him back in the house where he earned and good time out.  Then we decided it was just not safe enough for him to have him with us if he was going to always jump the fence.  he needs a lot of room to run so keeping him on a leash when he goes out was both unfair to him, but tiresome for us.  The neighbor I spoke to was an older woman and she was pretty scared of him since he was big and energetic and I'm sure she had a misconception about bulldogs.  I wasn't worried at all he would bit her, but I was worried he might jump on her, and since she was older that would really hurt.  I was just so worried he would get out again and this time get in a fight with another dog, or hurt someone else while trying to play.  So in the end I had to call Tyler and tell him Noah would be coming back the next day. 

We took him on a last walk and took him to say goodbye to Mark and Linda since they really liked him.  He got to cuddle one last time on the couch and we let him sleep in the bed with us as well.  In some way I was happy to have the house back to just us and get to spend time with the rats more, but I’ll admit I almost teared up when it was time to give him up.  I think back to it now and I get even sadder that we couldn't do more to help him.  I had joined a Pittie Pack Meetup group and wanted to socialize him more, and try going on field trips.  We wanted to see how he might do with a baby gate while we’re gone and then maybe be free to roam the house. 

We went to Wayside for training on dog to dog meetings and we stopped by to see him.  He started whining like he always did when he would have to be crated when we left and it about broke my heart.  I could just hear him saying “why did you guys leave? Don’t you love me anymore?”  I would really like to still go volunteer just to walk Noah or other fosters that have to come back for whatever reason.  I’d like to take him on a field trip to do some dog socializing if we can. 

He is trying to hypnotize me into giving 

someone is tangled in the blankets