Bittersweet Cheyenne
Cheyenne is a wolf dog of high content. She came to us almost 2 years ago; found abandoned behind a house, in a very small chain link kennel…no house, no food, no water, standing in old feces with no place to even lay down. She was very aggressive, not trusting people, especially men. We had to call an expert out to dart her with a tranquilizer gun to remove her from the property. Below is my best guess at what happened in her life from what I have been told, it contains many reasons that people fail their dogs.
Cheyenne was a product of a breeder who sold her for monetary profit to an incompetent and inexperienced owner who had her for a year and kept her chained to a car in their driveway, until she became aggressive and unmanageable.
A young woman found her there, bought her from the owner and took her to a veterinarian for vet care and to be placed in another home.
The veterinarian place her with a wolfdog breeder who claimed to be an expert, however he could not manage her issues and put her in a very small kennel where her aggression towards him and others became worse, until he would no longer care for her or clean out her pen etc. Then he left his property and would seldom come to check on her. He had her like this for a total of six years.
The same young woman and her Aunt found out about her and even though she lived out of town, she came a couple of times each month to feed and care for the wolfdog until she could actually enter the pen just long enough to clean it out some. She then found us and asked us to take Cheyenne in because she was moving too far away and could no longer visit the wolfdog and take care of her.
A wolf belongs out in the wild in a pack and a dog belongs with its family, in the house. Those who create wolfdogs for profit and those who purchase these animals for status and because they think it’s cool, are wrong! Cheyenne has no place to go and has not been treated fairly throughout her life. In the bible it states “A good man is concerned for the welfare of his animals” Proverbs 12:10 and I believe it to be so.
I would like to point out the ways we humans have failed this dog, and did not show concern for the welfare of this animal (and this stuff happens to all breeds and mixes everyday):
- The breeders were only concerned about making a profit and not about what would happen to this dog for its life.
- The breeders sold her at six weeks, instead of keeping her until she was at least 8 weeks old when they could have tested her at 7 weeks and placed her in an appropriate home depending on the results of the test.
- The owners paid money to a breeder for a job that was poorly done and incomplete, this does not help anyone. In fact, if you purchase a dog from a bad breeder you are not “rescuing” a puppy. You are paying the breeder to abuse dogs and you are also to blame for the abuse.
- The owners wanted a “wolfdog”,…. and got one without thinking about the needs of the dog and the commitment to fulfilling those needs.
- The owners failed to understand the behavioral development of a puppy and had expectations that were impossible for a puppy to achieve.
- The owners failed to hire a trainer to learn about normal dog behavior and how to train the dog to be a member of a human household.
- The owners failed to get full veterinary care for this pet.
- The owners put the dog outside and allowed the dog to feel isolated and get frustrated, and be “teased” and harassed by neighbor kids; they failed to protect the dog.
- The owner failed to value anything in the dog, except what it meant to their egos and the value of the dollars they spent on it.
- The veterinarian did not responsibly place or follow up on this animal, which really was not adoptable or at best needed a more committed reasonable placement.
- The “wolfdog expert” was only a breeder (which does not make him an expert) who created several of these littersfor a profit throughout the years and really had no experience working with the issues this dog had.
- The young women who found us to take this animal really were thebest to her and for her, however they can only think of saving her life and not totally thinking of her quality of life.
- We took in this wolf dog in for experience and to see if we could improve the quality of her life, we had plans to possibly get her a kennel mate, but due to her aggression we cannot risk the life of another animal. However, because she lives in solitary confinement for 23 hours out of a 24 hour day, we have failed her as well.
No social animal, such as a dog or wolf, should have to live like that for their life!