Yesterday I went to meet a neutered 10 month old Berner boy who has lived all but his first 10 weeks in a fraternity house at an Ivy League college. Gee, does anyone see this as a less than ideal situation for a puppy?
Living with 20-plus fraternity brothers did not provide Sarge with the structure and consistency that that he needed as he tried to learn how to get on in the world. So, since no one else stepped up to the plate, Sarge figured it was up to him to manage his environment - which he did - using his mouth and teeth.
When we learned about him, Sarge was headed off to "boot camp" with a "trainer" who planned to use an electronic (i.e. shock) collar to address his behavior. Fortunately, we had a chance to change the direction his life was taking. But in order for this story to have a happy ending, Sarge needs to find a patient human with solid training skills who can help him learn to be a civilized good citizen. Basically he needs to be demoted to buck private and start his training from scratch. The good news is that he's smart and food motivated. He's modest in size and is agile.
Sarge will be a project. Work is involved. No question about it. This smart, loving, "bad boy" needs a human with good training skills who will be patient but won't be a pushover - someone to make up for the human stupidity that put him in the position he's in at this early point in his life. Are you the special person who has what it takes to give Sarge the future he deserves?
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ReplyDeleteSarge update: Much to his delight, Sarge had a long road trip last Saturday (5/1). He finally made his way to Vilma Briggs in Ohio - from MA through CT, NY, PA & MD - thanks to Ben and Maggie. Maggie was hors-de-combat with her leg in a cast but Ben, a wildlife biologist who crawls into bear dens and wrangles wolverines, had no trouble with a bratty Berner boy!
ReplyDeleteSarge had an assist through MD from Sharon and George Hasenauer (thanks guys!), a sleep-over in MD with Elaine and Bill Lawrence and then Bill woke at the crack of dawn to drive Sarge to WV to meet up with Vilma for the drive back to OH. Whew! What excitement! I'm looking forward to hearing how he settles in chez Vilma and how he progresses under her tutelage! I expect he'll be a new Berner!