Are you prepared to keep your dog, if its personality or temperament doesn't turn out the way you planned? My present dog is six years old. She was adopted from a shelter when she was 5 years old. I had waited a long time to adopt a dog after my last one had to be put to sleep at the end of a long life. I imagined taking my dog to festivals, parks, beaches, anyplace where there were a lot of people. I was even a bit interested in therapy dog work.

As it turned out, Stacey Dog was fearful of almost every situation I wanted to put her in. When two little girls wanted to pet her, she snarled at them. When people would walk too closely by her when she was on leash, she would bark and lunge at them. When she passed other dogs, whether they were leashed or unleashed, she would lunge and snarl at them. When I would walk her on the busy street during the daylight, she would flinch from the cars. If a human passed by that was somewhat unusual -- with a hat, crutches, backpack, swinging arms vigorously when they walked, rustling nylon clothes -- she would shy and bark at them. In short, she was a spooky dog.

None of this fearfulness was evident in our short visit at the shelter. She was extremely withdrawn, which I wrote off as being due to the fact she had been in the shelter for 6 weeks, and had caught kennel cough and was recovered. She was alert in her pen, standing on her hind legs the whole time and watching everything. I don't think she was abused by her previous owners. I think she has a basically spooky temperament and was not socialized because of this. She is a big dog, and it is easier to deal with a troublesome big dog by leaving her at home, which increases the spookiness.

Well, a year's worth of working with her and training her, and she has improved a lot, and no longer shies at people. But I will never let strangers pet her, or little kids pet her, or take her to those summer art festivals.

And I love her to pieces! I decided before I adopted her, that I wouldn't be putting her to sleep or returning her, no matter what. Unless she developed some condition where being put to sleep was the merciful option. Not having the personality I had anticipated didn't fit my definition of suffering.

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