u/Legitimate-Stick-187

Hi! This post is going to be long so apologies in advance. A little about me, my name is Liz and occasionally I see a dog that just speaks to me and I decide to foster them on my own. (I am located north of Atlanta forgot to mention that) I don't work through an organization, I just spend my own money usually helping one at a time (mostly seniors or life/death situations). Plus a lot of the dogs I get are through people who have either neglected or got a breed they couldn't handle. If the breed is unknown I do a full embark test that includes health and all the veterinarian work they need done that old owners couldn't afford or didn't want to do. I see this as my way of helping in the world because I never plan on having kids lol!

Now about this girl, She was rescued from my local animal control services and listed as 8yo. I saw her petite size and thought oh she's a perfect senior to help! She was stuck on the emergency adoption for next up euthanasia so I left to go help her. Well when I got her home I started noticing signs of how she was NOT a senior. She played with one of my puppy GSD constantly she she was zooming everywhere. So I did a full embark test AND an age one. Her embark came back 90% GSD and 10% unresolved! Which from what I read is such small trace amounts that she is essentially 100% GSD. Her health came back with only one thing noted being a copper thing. And then age came back placing her between 2 months and a year. Well she had her full teeth in and her coat was still a little puppy-ish so I placed her between 10months and a year.

Behavior, when I had her she was really well behaved and very sweet. She had some anxiety issues and was a little fearful at first. She LOVES other dogs. People take her a second to warm up and then she wants to be best friends. Her only downside, which got a LOT better when I had her was when you move to quickly to touch her she would pee.

I had her for a few months and once her spay healed and she was trained up it was off to find a home. A family adopted her over a year ago and like I tell everyone who adopts from me I WILL take the pup back if anything happens. She really seemed to fit in perfectly in their home but unfortunately the lady contacted me she didn't want her anymore. She told me she was too anxious for their home and the peeing got worse. I told her to take her to a vet to get started on anxiety meds and in 2 months I'd have her here at my place. I told her this because I had to but my oldest dog down and I just needed space and time to process it all. Well the lady refuses to give her anxiety meds so I will reevaluate her when I get her and get her started on them if they are needed.

In the meantime if anyone is in the Georgia area and interested in giving this girl a forever home in the next month or two (I need a month of watching her behavior and getting her okayed by my vet before rehoming) Please reach out to me and let me know! This poor girl has had it rough. She is an excellent dog and I pray the old family hasn't abused her or anything but I will know when I do my eval in a week or so. She never showed any signs of aggression or anything when I had her. Thank you so much for reading my post!

Hi! This post is going to be long so apologies in advance. A little about me, my name is Liz and occasionally I see a dog that just speaks to me and I decide to foster them on my own. (I am located north of Atlanta forgot to mention that) I don't work through an organization, I just spend my own money usually helping one at a time (mostly seniors or life/death situations). Plus a lot of the dogs I get are through people who have either neglected or got a breed they couldn't handle. If the breed is unknown I do a full embark test that includes health and all the veterinarian work they need done that old owners couldn't afford or didn't want to do. I see this as my way of helping in the world because I never plan on having kids lol!

Now about this girl, She was rescued from my local animal control services and listed as 8yo. I saw her petite size and thought oh she's a perfect senior to help! She was stuck on the emergency adoption for next up euthanasia so I left to go help her. Well when I got her home I started noticing signs of how she was NOT a senior. She played with one of my puppy GSD constantly she she was zooming everywhere. So I did a full embark test AND an age one. Her embark came back 90% GSD and 10% unresolved! Which from what I read is such small trace amounts that she is essentially 100% GSD. Her health came back with only one thing noted being a copper thing. And then age came back placing her between 2 months and a year. Well she had her full teeth in and her coat was still a little puppy-ish so I placed her between 10months and a year.

Behavior, when I had her she was really well behaved and very sweet. She had some anxiety issues and was a little fearful at first. She LOVES other dogs. People take her a second to warm up and then she wants to be best friends. Her only downside, which got a LOT better when I had her was when you move to quickly to touch her she would pee.

I had her for a few months and once her spay healed and she was trained up it was off to find a home. A family adopted her over a year ago and like I tell everyone who adopts from me I WILL take the pup back if anything happens. She really seemed to fit in perfectly in their home but unfortunately the lady contacted me she didn't want her anymore. She told me she was too anxious for their home and the peeing got worse. I told her to take her to a vet to get started on anxiety meds and in 2 months I'd have her here at my place. I told her this because I had to but my oldest dog down and I just needed space and time to process it all. Well the lady refuses to give her anxiety meds so I will reevaluate her when I get her and get her started on them if they are needed.

In the meantime if anyone is in the Georgia area and interested in giving this girl a forever home in the next month or two (I need a month of watching her behavior and getting her okayed by my vet before rehoming) Please reach out to me and let me know! This poor girl has had it rough. She is an excellent dog and I pray the old family hasn't abused her or anything but I will know when I do my eval in a week or so. She never showed any signs of aggression or anything when I had her. Thank you so much for reading my post!

Hello! I made a post the other day about adopting this girl and on Saturday I picked her up! I wanted to start out by saying she is an amazing dog so far. I do own quite a few dogs already and 2 other senior dogs. I have experience with Akitas, GSD's, Shibas, Huskies, and Poms. And she fits in like she's just always been there. I could tell from talking with the owner that she had some "annoying" behaviors that I witnessed the owner reinforcing when I got her. She came from a family with a kid and another dog and they kept the younger dog and got rid of her. The one weird thing with her is I have no idea if she's 8 or 9. The lady said 9 but the vet's paperwork shows 8. And when doing some creeping on her FB profile she first posted the dog in 2018 and it looked like a puppy not an almost 2 year old dog. But who knows. When I asked her about it she was basically like "idk". That annoyed me lol like how do you not know the age of your own dog? Anyways.
So this pupper is EXTREMELY overweight(morbidly obese). Its so much worse than I originally thought. She's 70lbs not 60 like they stated. She has a very small body so doing anything is a struggle and challenge to her.(my friend has a husky mix and when they stood side by side they had the same body type and that dog is 47lbs for reference) She's definitely in pain to add to it. I really noticed how fat she was when I groomed her myself for 3h. I'm so happy she wasn't matted(only very oily). Only had some behind the ears I was able to either brush or cut out. She's going back to the groomers on Saturday for a sanitary trim and (if they can) trim her paw pad fur because she is struggling for traction. I believe their baby was basically feeding this dog constantly and according to the vet paperwork she was free feeding with another dog and almost sounded like they were competing for food because I noticed it said she had food aggression which I have also not seen yet and I gave all my dogs treats and one of my idiots went right up to her and she didn't make a sound or react.
Her nose is also dry, which I got a balm for. I noticed her skin was VERY pink when I washed her. She has tear stains as well. Not sure if that is from the horrible diet she was on or what. But since I have had her she will not eat. I don't know if I should be too worried or not. Like she has so much fat she will be fine but I'm not sure how long of no eating I should go before being concerned? I tried a multitude of things to get her to eat but she has absolutely 0 interest in the food. (this is the kibble she was allegedly eating) I'm going to try chicken broth tonight and maybe a wet dog food mix. She's been eating some chews I offer her. But it concerns me a bit. She is going to my vet Saturday as well to get her started on a pain management for the arthritis. I'm praying her losing weight and the meds working that the damage will be somewhat repairable because watching her struggle is killing me!
Is there anything else I can be giving/doing that will help this poor girl? TIA!!

edit to add: I forgot to add I am sure she is sad too. I know this is a big change to come late in life.