The dark side of beauty

Humans tend to equate beauty with goodness. Pretty people are popular even if they are assholes. I don't know if other species have the same problem, but we humans have the same attitude towards other species as well as our own. Black dogs are considered mean and scary, white dogs are snatched up out of shelters and rescues almost as quick as they come in. At least they get a lot more looks and therefore have a lot more chances than a homely mutt with a black face.

We had a female rottie once, I believe her name was Isabel. She was a sweet, sweet girl, but god love her, it was not a pretty face. Isabel had some grey flecks on her face, disorganized whiskers, and just didn't quite have that handsome rottie look. People were scared of her because of her looks, but she was as friendly and kissy as any rottie I've known. As I recall, she was adopted by a man and his sister. They weren't going to win any beauty contests themselves, but they thought Izzy was beautiful and they gave her a good home.

All of this brings me to Brody. He's a beauty and I've had a lot of people wanting to adopt him. Brody is also a great dog, but he's not perfect and in fact he has a dark side. Although he is generally good with other dogs, he has a rather nasty, and excessive, reaction to any male who displays male dominance behavior towards him.

A nice couple came to visit with their yellow lab. the two boys romped and played for close to an hour without incident until the lab put his head over Brody's neck and back. That's a dominance move, but the lab was just playing with him, trying to get him to chase and continue the game. Brody nailed him. We separated the dogs before anything too bad happened, but it was one time I felt it was necessary to separate male dogs because Brody wasn't going to stop. Even after they were apart, Brody wasn't going to forgive and forget, he wanted a piece of that lab.

The folks who brought Brody to me told me that he had a similar incident with a male dog who tried to mount him. I still like Brody and think that he's a great dog, but that incident really changed my thinking about the type of home he needs. He's sharing kennel space during the day with a female dog and they play nicely. He passes my boys coming and going through the house without a problem, but I keep and eye on them all and I wouldn't put him with Sparky because I know that he has some similar tendencies.

He will need a home with an experienced owner, no other male dogs, a fence, and no kids. What surprises me, I guess, is the fact that no one seems to believe me. We were at an adoption event last weekend and I was besieged by a constant stream of the wrong adopters. I think it would be a very bad idea to put Brody into a home with little kids. Parents of multiple small children can not possibly supervise the dog to the extent necessary. I don't think Brody would be a danger to kids, but if they were in the middle of a dog fight, they would get hurt and the dog would get the blame. Other people's kids aren't really my concern, but a bite history renders a dog pretty much unadoptable and is generally a death sentence, so why would I put my dog at risk like that?

I pissed off a few people, but you can probably guess that I don't care. I'll find a home for him where he will have the best chance of success. Some people don't realize that I'm the dog's advocate, not a used car dealer trying to make a sale.