Maxwell Smart: Max is a 2 1/2 year old neutered male who has become a recent victim of the economy. Max’s family has lost their home and were unable to find a suitable environment for Max until they got back on their feet. Max is happy, healthy and potty trained. He was raised with children.
Max is now with his new foster mom, Caren. She reports that Max is a wonderful dog, rather high energy and never meets a stranger. He is not destructive and has already been left out of the crate when she is gone from home. He does get a little exuberant and attempts to show you just how happy he is(humping). Not sure if this is a new behavior because of his stress level or if this is a chronic behavior problem. Being raised with children, I doubt that this behavior would have been tolerated and tend to think it’s because of the recent changes in his life. We are working to correct this issue.
pdate 10/06/10:
Max was surrendered to us as a beloved family pet with occasional problems with marking. No other negative behaviors were reported. He was placed in a foster home; where at first he was anxious and stubborn. We attributed the negative behaviors he displayed as secondary to all the changes in his life. Boy were we wrong. Max’s behavior didn’t improve in a few weeks, it got even worse. He regularly marked every piece of furniture in his foster parents home and was very hyper. This progressed to frequent displays of dominance (humping). Despite multiple training techniques…Max continued. His foster parent finally had to give up and Max was transferred to another foster home with a more dominant foster parent…Max became even more dominant and stubborn. He regularly fought with the other dogs in the household and turned the dynamics of the pack upside down. He was subsequently transferred to a boarding facility. His behavior at the facility was good initially, but after a few days he again began to display the aforementioned behaviors and has deteriorated to aggression with 2 members of the care team.
Max has continued to have dominance issues and has become more and more difficult to handle. He has obsessive marking and very stubborn behavior. He is like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. At times he is the sweetest boy but at other times he is the biggest pain and refuses to follow commands and will let you know his displeasure with a “nip”. He was evaluated a few weeks ago and it was recommended that he undergo “doggy boot camp”. He is being transferred to The Dog Spot in Loganville for evaluation and training. Joyce Keeton, owner of THE DOG SPOT and trainer has lots of experience with bulldogs. We are keeping our fingers crossed for Max but are very guarded about his prognosis and whether he will ever be adoptable.
Update 10/12/2010:
Max was adopted by Joyce Keeton!
