Karma - I felt exactly the same and said the same to my best friend in a very guilty feeling phone call, that i didnt enjoy owning either dog at the time. I told her that i felt absolutely terrible about it. My friend who has an older dog (so has been a dog owner a lot longer than me) advised that it could be that Diesel would never except another dog, she was very shocked when she popped round and witnessed how Diesel was, she also never believed Diesel could react in that way. Although it was heartbreaking giving Riley away ill be 100% honest and admit that it was more heartbreaking at the thought of keeping him, It got to the point where i looked into that pups eyes and thought Gosh i really want you to have what diesel has but i cant provide it to you under the circumstances as just keeping him safe was taking up all of my time and energy. So although it was heartbreaking that the pup had to go, i must admit that i feel so much better on the couple of occassions i have been up to see him that he is so content there at OH parents. He has what i wanted to give him but couldnt and im very lucky i still have the opportunity to see him still.
OH was talking again last night but feels that we just 'got rid' of Riley without giving the 2 dogs enough time to settle, I advised him that after 2 weeks if Diesel is pinning the pup down at the neck and has to be prised off them that tells me that no amount of time is going to help and that the pup was extremely stressed. it wasnt fair and as much as i knew he was devastated about it i had to hurt him to do the right thing.
Christal - I think that your right, after being seperated from me and all the trauma from his first month or so with me it may be that we are too close - I may be talking utter rubbish but it may be that i also have given him 100% attention 100% of the time and he and i are to close to accept another pup.
Like i say i never will get another pup whilst i have Diesel as i am petrified it would happen again and i wouldnt want to put another pup through that or Diesel. It has also made me see that although i would love Diesel to have a sibling, i love Diesel just the way he is on his own. I love our one on one time of pigging out on the couch and watching girly stuff when daddy out and that he likes to lie beside the bath and listen to me sing when im in the shower and everything. Its mabey been that i have made him so that he cant share me as such - mabey i have given him all of my attention and he wont be able to share that. But you know what i have learnt alot from it and i am just glad to have Diesel back to his normal self - well he is a bit more demanding at the moment but he is slowly settling down again. I hope they can be friends in the future but i would rather they were both happy. Time will tell though fingers crossed
Hi Charlene, I'm sorry you've all had such a distressing time but it sounds like all's well that ends well to me. I've not read about the controversy but they may have got on or not got on, and you'd no way of knowing until you tried it. It sounds like you've resolved the problem very successfully and can still see Riley. To keep him would not have been right.
My only question (not to you but to all COLers) is that it sounds like Riley and Diesel didn't get on from the word go. When you buy a puppy, do you not do a meet and greet first between the pup and the dog you already have and have them spend a bit of time together? Before purchase? Or is that not the done thing when a breeder is involved? Or was it just not apparent till they'd been at home a while?
I had asked about that and wether i could take Diesel to meet the pup - As many pointed out alot of breeders wont allow this as the pups are still very young and they would not allow an unknown dog to be near the pups for their own safety - Some others have been able to but most breeders will always put the safety of the pups first
Topic was:
http://www.cockersonline.co.uk/discuss/index.php?topic=88679.0However i must say that sometimes as previously said by others sometimes the problems dont arise til mabey a couple of days or a week or so later when the current dog sees that the pup is going to be staying. It may be that if he was introduced to Riley in a different enviroment he might have been ok there but with the severity of his reaction i honestly think that he would still have reacted that way once the pup was in Diesels home enviroment. I dopnt think it was anything to do with the pup personally - i think regardless of what pup it had been he would have reacted the same but i am not willing to ever test out that theory
