AbbyK9

We had been fostering dogs for a while before we got Abby.

We enjoyed Fostering and learned plenty about dogs, their behavior, and dog training in the process, but we did not have any foster dogs that truly clicked with us and fit what we were looking for. When Brian's work schedule changed (he was assigned to Army recruiting duty), we decided to take a break from fostering since we didn't think we would have enough time to care for a dog.

However, that didn't keep us from looking at the local shelter websites. One afternoon, I was browsing the website for the animal control facility in the next county over, and Abby's photo jumped out at me. She looked like a beautiful German Shepherd. It just so happened that Brian had the next day, which was a Saturday, off from work, and we decided to drive to the shelter to go see her - prepared to bring her home if she felt like a good fit.

When we got to the shelter, the noise and smell was overwhelming. There was quite literally a dog in every kennel in the shelter, and all were barking and jumping at the chain-link doors. The dog in the kennel next to Abby's, a Malinois, was growling and barking. Abby, on the other hand, was curled into a ball in the corner of her filthy run, ignoring all of the noise. We went to fill in an application, whcih is required before you "meet" any of the dgos at the shelter, and got to visit with her in a back room stacked full of crates. (It was the only room they had available for meet-and-greets.) Abby was very sweet. She was highly interested in her surroundings and excited to be with people. She breezed through our temperament evaluation with ease and was just an all around good girl.

We made the choice to bring her home that day. The only thing we were worried about was the fact that she had not been tested with cats, and we were taking a risk bringing her home to our two who don't have the sense to run away from a dog since they were used to dogs. We figured, even if she did horrible with cats, we could train her to leave them alone. Either way, it was nothing that couldn't be addressed. We finished the paperwork, grabbed one of the free collars the shelter had available, and headed home.

After getting back home - she did great in the car, too! - we first took her to the leasing office to introduce her to the staff and add her to our file, and then took a walk around the neighborhood so we could get to know her, and she could get to know her new surroundings and go potty before going inside. She was very interested in our cats when we first walked in, but quickly understood that cats are not for chasing or biting. We've not had an issue with her around our cats since, and she even put up with quite a lot when we brought home 8 week old Finn in summer of 2008, who gave her a very hard time.

Abby is everything that we really wanted in a dog. She's very mellow in the house, she's great outdoors, she's wonderful with people, she loves to travel, and she's very smart. What more could you ask for?

My husband and I were looking to rescue a second dog to bring into our home, one that might be suitable to be our next "sport dog".

We originally met a male Malinois who was offered up through Craig's List, but he turned out to be very handler aggressive, so we passed on him. Disappointed, a couple of weeks passed and we kept looking. At one point, I saw a photo of a female Malinois on the local SPCA shelter's website, but we were looking for a male since our female GSD sometimes does not take well to other females.

On Saturday morning, I saw that she was still listed on the website, and we decided to go and see her. She was very similar in behavior to how Abby was when we got her at the shelter, and just seemed like an overall good dog. Shelter staff told us she knew German commands, and as our other dog is trained in German, it just seemed like we were an instant match.

After bringing Ronja home, we found out that she was indeed trained in German - and in the sport of Schutzhund. I brought out my bite sleeve just to see whether she'd know what it is, and she immediately gave me her undivided attention, as well as a nice bark and hold on command, and took the sleeve like she's never done anything else in her life.

From shelter staff, we learned that she had been in and out of the shelter for most of 2008, either being picked up "stray" or seized by Animal Control. She was eventually awarded to Animal Control in a court case in November 2008, because her owner was not providing medical care for her.

At the time she was seized, she was going through a false pregnancy, had hookworms, and had a broken jaw and other damage on her face. She is missing a fair number of her front teeth and all four of her canines have either been worn down or filed down on purpose. But this doesn't stop her from doing bite work at all.