Indy News

Unfortunately it’s sad news, everyone.

Gren’s aggression to Indy has been escalating in the past week, not de-escalating, and we brought in an experienced dog handler, Lynn Hyndman of Dogs in Harmony (thanks for the recommendation Danger K) to see if anything could be done.

Unfortunately, what she saw only confirmed the growing suspicion I’ve had in the past couple days that things were not going to get any better – that in fact they were simply going to get much, much worse.

Gren is an anxious dog, always has been. With our limited knowledge we tried to mitigate it as best we could over the past four years. We thought that getting him a companion would be a welcome distraction for him and help to calm him down a bit. Instead, the opposite happened. And if we let it continue it would only lead to a dangerous safety situation for Indy with damaging psychological effects in the future, and would make Gren even weirder than he already is.

So yesterday the Pie and I drove Indy away and gave him back to the breeders, who promised to find him a good home where he’ll get the training and affection he needs.

I am by no means an advocate of giving up on pets for the sake of convenience – that’s why animal shelters worldwide are over-capacity. The Pie and I were willing to do whatever it took to make sure we had two happy and healthy dogs. In this particular case it means that we had to give one to someone else and embark on a rigorous rehabilitation program for the other in order for that to happen.

Lynn will be working with us for the next while to help combat Gren’s near constant level of anxiety in the hopes that we can make him a more chill and happier dog who maybe one day will be able to welcome a new dog into the home. Maybe.

So we are not giving up, though it sure feels like it right now. We hope Indy finds a great home somewhere and grows up happy and healthy and we already miss him so very much.