Mismatches occur when people buy or accept a pet without doing appropriate breed or species research or even thinking ahead to when a puppy or kitten will grow up. Tough economic times bring the resulting latent problems to a decision point. The result is seldom good for the pet.

I do dog rescue. Over the past 6 months we’ve seen an increase in dogs being dumped due to both economic crises and simple incompatibility. At the same time, the economic situation has meant that fewer people are coming to us to adopt dogs. The result is that many dogs we would normally be able to pull from kill shelters must be left there to die for lack of foster space.

When people screw up, companion animals suffer. Please invest serious thought and research before committing to a new furry (or feathery, or scaly) companion.

If you want to help, there are ways besides adopting an animal yourself or donating money. Rescue groups are always begging for foster homes, both short-term and long-term. If you can’t do that, we need people who can visit the kill shelters to check out animals, people to drive transports, people to help at adoption events, people to collect donated food and supplies, people to socialize and train the animals, and people to maintain web pages or answer phones. Make sure you’re dealing with a REPUTABLE rescue group or shelter, and do what you can, whether it’s a lot or a little. Seeing a dog or cat you’ve worked with go to a good home is extremely rewarding.

–Jerry Dunham
Volunteer, Etosha Rescue & Adoption Center

If you did not grow up with dogs and did not learn to think like them, please find someone who knows dogs and humans to help you find a dog with the temperament to mesh with your family.

Dog people realize that the puppy/dog they brought into their family is there for better or worse, whether genius, dope or “Special Needs”. They also know that the “Special Needs” ones like troubled teens can have severe emotional problems, and sometimes need to be paired with that special someone who can provide the environment they will be able to live with.

If you do not understand that “Working Dogs” live to have a purpose in life and will go insane if not given that purpose, find out what a lap dog is and buy one. Stay away from hunting dogs, terriers, herding dogs, etc.

Bandit, known also known as Pink when her current humans are disgusted with her is such a dog. She probably was a very cute Red Heeler puppy with a great outlook on life at six weeks old.

The people who bought her were city horse people who having ranch friends with Heelers riding around in the back of their pickups, wanted one. They had a child on the way and the husband worked full time. Heelers are high energy, a house with a postage stamp yard is not a good fit. The couple at the time was working full time and had no clue as to potty training a dog. So Bandit spent her first six months in a pet carrier while they were at work. Being a naturally fastidious animal she tended to not do her bathroom duties in the cage. Being constipated from holding it, she could not go on demand, wasn’t trained to do so and therefore could not be trusted to be loose back in the house. The husband in the family of course did the testosterone poisoned method of handling things and beat her when accidents happened.

Her current people (dog people through and through) went to visit some friends and found upon getting ready to leave their friend’s house, a pet carrier in the back of their truck with a very emotionally damaged dog in it with a note. They were only barely aquainted with Bandit’s owners who heard from their friends that they were visiting and decided to creatively abandon this dog on some ranch workers who might be able to use a cow dog. Bandit screamed all the way back from California.

Bandit was and to a certain extent still is an emotional mess. It took about a year to figure out all the kinks. During this time one behaviorist was consulted who told them to just put her down, that if she was a human, she would be in an insane asylum.

We had to figure out the various layers of insanity. It took about a year. Her current people almost gave up, drove her to the vet to have her put down and broke down a quarter mile away from the office and went crying back home. Jokingly ever since they’ve offered to give her to anyone who admires her followed with “But you really do not want her because she’s crazy”.

Her major problem in her mind was that she was to never go potty, under any circumstances and especially if a human was watching because it would result in a severe beating. She didn’t know that she could ask to be let outside to go because she thought that she wasn’t supposed to go in the first place.

Under duress when she cannot figure out what is going on, she has panic attacks where she will scream until she’s totally exhausted. It’s pretty gutwrenching to see happen. Explaining to anyone who doesn’t know Bandit’s past is difficult, best explained as a sort of seizure she gets. Fortunately over the years she has learned to trust her people so if they’re calm, she can be calm.

She bonds with people and has severe separation anxiety if her pack is not properly together. Despite how her previous owners treated her, she was very bonded to them and never really got over the abandonment, so she expects it may happen again.

She also has severe issues with pregnancy. It is tied to her abandonment and when she smells the human hormones in the air she gets a little wacky.

She had to be taught how to play. To relax, to let loose, to enjoy life, to allow herself out of a constraining emotional straightjacket she had formed as her world view. That people swing their arms around without beating. That arm movement and leg movement around her was not with the intention of striking her.

And then she started connecting with reality. She is a natural at herding and has learned to read cows and get them to do what she wants with ease, minimal encouragement and is easily worth two or three people. This has been her major saving grace, her purpose, her domain where she’s truly happy. I’ve watched her work and feel that she totally forgets her problems while she’s working. During these periods when she’s working the hardest, she’s almost normal.

So on her down days she’s known as “Pink Dog” free to anyone who’ll take her. On her best days, Bandi or Bandit and is admired for her abilities.