Mercedes is back

Mercedes is back, just in time for November's Adopt a Senior Dog Month. She was adopted out about a month ago, maybe longer, to a young couple with a new house. They already had one small dog, which didn't really concern me because Mercedes had been fine with everyone around here and was even fine with cats.

However, as I said in the post announcing Serena's adoption, behavior in a foster home doesn't guarantee how a dog will act in a new home. Apparently in the adopters' home Mercedes became much more dominant and possessive, refusing to allow the resident dogs (they adopted another one after her) any attention from the owners. Mercedes is part shepherd, part husky, and this sounds like a classic case of the "female German Shepherd problem." Why didn't she display that behavior here? I can only speculate, but maybe because when she moved in here she came into a pack with an already established pecking order. That wasn't really the case in the new home and she had the chance to create her own, hence the female German Shepherd problem. The new owners were caring and loving people, but inexperienced, and it could be that they didn't see what was happening and stop it before it got started. I can't really fault them, I know they tried, but having a female shepherd can be very challenging, even if she's not a full blown bitch. We lived with one for enough years (Gypsy) to know that they are not for everyone.

I also said in the Serena adoption post that sometimes behaviors may be caused by things we just don't understand. All I can say is that she came back into our pack smoothly, met the new dogs and hasn't had any problem with anyone here, at least so far.

Theo and Trooper say hello

Mercedes with Maya and Serena

Serena was new to her, of course, and Serena
is still figuring out this fostering thing.

With Diesel and Clyde in the front yard.