We had a soft coated wheaten terrier for a couple of years. What a doll. Even the name sounds cute, right? "Soft coated wheaten" — just saying the name is like falling into a pile of comforters. Well, the name was nothing compared to the dog.
He was about the size of a golden retriever, with melting brown eyes, silky fur and a sweet, helpless disposition. He was always up for a game, and he was willing to play patsy to our two Westies, who bossed him around mercilessly in the house and tussled with him endlessly in the back yard. He had a sense of humor, too. People who train wheatens refer to a trait called "the wheaten bounce," which is the breed's propensity for suddenly rocketing straight up in the air and coming back down with an expression that can only be described as a grin. They are also given to charging madly about the yard for no particular reason — it's just something they do. I have fond memories of the first snowfall after we got the wheaten: as soon as he felt the snowflakes coming down and saw the white stuff all over the ground, he erupted into a blaze of motion. Even the Westies, who were usually able to zero in on him without too much trouble, just stood by dumbfounded as the toffee-colored blur whooshed past.
But something happened to that dog after about the first year. He'd always been nervous around strangers, but suddenly he was unable to stay in the house when anybody came to visit, and when we let him out he'd cower in the back of the yard and drive the neighbors crazy barking at the house. Sometimes he refused to go on walks; when he did go, he would often freeze in terror at the site of a garbage can, or a bit of litter in the roadway. On more than one occasion, what started as a walk ended with me carrying the dog home, his body tense and trembling under all that soft fur.
His behavior problems built to the point that he was already more trouble than a newborn baby, and after our first child was born, the dog graduated from nuisance to liability. What if his eccentricities started making him hostile? How could we trust him around a small child? We realized we would have to get rid of him, and quickly, lest our new child fall in love with him — what kid wouldn't want to grow up with a walking teddy bear? — which would make getting rid of him all the harder. Leaving him at the county shelter was out of the question: he was so cute that he would be adopted almost immediately, but so much trouble that his new owner would instantly regret the decision. I hated to think of the dog being abused or even abandoned by his new owner.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Interesting tale - would've liked some pics of the dog:)
2 - Temple Stark
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3 - DrPat
We bought three sibling kittens from a pet store. The two males were stout fellows with no problems (other than being weaned far too early, having ear mites, and other issues from their ill-bred start in life), but the female was a sweet packet of trouble. She had "failure to thrive," a fancy term for "born sick," and died before she was a year old.
The next time we bought a kitten from a pet store, it was in a Humane Society rescue arrangement, and the female kitten we got is so rambunctious she gives the older, heavier males a drubbing!
If I had it to do again, I'm not sure how I would choose. Our "boys" are great cats, and we love them dearly, but I know our purchase simply encouraged the mother-cat's owner to breed her again and sell the kittens.
4 - Teddybearcrys
I , for a short period of time took a job part time in a pet store. We guaranteed our customers that all our puppys came from breeders. But it wasnt long afterwards I learned they came from Lancaster puppy mills.A part of our jobs was to lie to these innocent customers.When the dogs were brought back ill, and bad tempered, the store owners would put people down telling them they were doing something wrong.I can not count how many pups came in and died from diseases in our back room.I had to leave that job because I could not lie to the public, nor live with what I had to witness.I am a proud owner of to beautiful pomeranians that I fel are saved from the torturous lives they lived in puppy mills.Thay are very insecure, but very loved as they should be.Ive made several calls and contacts to help these pets, but its never enough.They are still operating.and making 500+ dollars in profit per puppy at the pet stores.WE NEED TO BE THERE VOICE! Their wimpers are not enough.
5 - Crys
It may not have been a genetic problem with the dog. By carrying the dog home, letting the dog bark at the house, etc. it tells the dog that their fear is justified. This may have been a simple training problem that escalated.