I swear Craigslist needs to be blocked from me. I'm currently waiting in a parking lot in a less than desirable area of Jacksonville to pick up a husky girl. The ad said Free to good home, I don't know how to take care of her....so of course I answered it.

I'm taking her to banfield as soon as I get her to make sure she is not stolen first off.

I will let you know how much of a mess I'm getting myself into once I get her home and find out exactly what her problem is and why she is being basically thrown out!

Oh boy lol

Good luck! Keep us updated

Well, she is home....and scared to death! My husband had to pick her up to bring her in the house. She just laid in the driveway.
She has no chip....the lady that gave her to me just said here's her leash, she is not aggressive but she likes to jump on the couch. I had to stop her from driving away so I could ask her questions.
Apparently she is in the middle of a divorce and her husband has been keeping her at his office. She is two. She isn't food aggressive (yay!) and they got her from a husky rescue 6 months ago. She couldn't remember the name of the rescue though. This dog has definitely been abused. She hides behind me when my husband talks and lays down when I would rise my hand around her.
She makes snow look small when next to her. She is overweight and is being fed a "high quality food" called Pedigree that she wants me to keep her on.
Um. Ok. Lol

She growled a lot at snow and they had a little scuffle, but I think that has a lot to do with snow jumping on her like a trampoline lol
I haven't introduced her to the other two dogs yet, I don't want to overwhelm her all at once. I think I am going to keep her tethered to me for a few days to help with her being so skittish and see where that gets us. She doesn't want ANYTHING to do with treats, hot dogs or any sort of food, which is the complete opposite of snow.

Poor thing So glad you saved her

Goodness! Stop checking craigslist! lol. It's like when I found 3 stray dogs in one week and my mom's friend who runs a shelter told me to just look the other way next time I see a loose dog. lol. I usually stop and usually the dog goes running off in the other direction, but these three were friendly.

What are you going to end up doing with this girl? If you want to put her up for adoption (if she's spayed of course), I can post her on Petfinder for you.

Heres a few pictures of her. I'll try to get some better ones once we get everything settled.

Sara.....i am sooo terrible with 'just looking' lmao I usually have no problem turning away, but for some reason i couldn't with this one! I want to get her adjusted to the way our house is before we decide if she is going to be just a foster. She is scared to death of our smaller two dogs and I was told she lived with a cocker spaniel, so i'm not sure why she would be so scared of them.
She is fixed, but there was no shot records given to me. She had her shots done when she was spayed last december from what I was told, so I will be taking her to the vet here sometime within this week to get her up to date and get a checkup on her.
She is not dog park material what so ever and I'm scared to let her loose in my yard in fear that I will never catch her for her to come inside again.
She stops and puts the 'brakes' on when it comes to bringing her back in and I can't quite figure out why. I don't want to choke her or force her in so right now we are picking her up and walking her in. lol
What's everyones thoughts on choke collars or martingales? i know there is probably another thread on this somewhere, but looking on the ipad is a pain.
I put snows harness on her to take her out to pee and she completely backed out of it, i had the leash coupled to her collar though thank goodness.

Cockers can be nasty, so that might have something to do with why she's scared of your smaller dogs. Our cocker was super nasty to the puppy I had for the night on Friday, so who knows.

If you aren't going to keep her, we can list her as a referral on our rescue page as well (Siberian Husky Rescue of FL). I have to say, it really breaks my heart to read stories like this. Poor girl, but good on you for rescuing her and giving her a loving home, even if it is only temporary.

Obviously a lot of trauma in her 2 years of life so it will take a bit of time to even consider trusting anyone. In due time she'll eat and then things should start improving. Good luck.

Oh poor baby she is really good looking. So sorry they basic threw her away Glad you rescued her.

He teeth look really quit yellow for only being 2 years old. Both of mine are two and their teeth look alot whiter.

I would get her some dental treats see if it will help clear her teeth up also get her on a better diet sounds like she wasn't a real good diet.

Thank you for being her guardian angel..

I thought cockers were sweet little dogs, shows how much I know! I put her in a crate and she seems to be crate trained, which is good!
her teeth are terrible and she needs a good groom. Her nails are curled under and it's taking everything in me not to throw her in the tub right now. I think that will be tomorrows task.
She seems to be submissive towards people, men especially, but dominate with Snow. She is constantly baring her teeth at the little dogs, so we are going to just keep them separate. I don't think it's worth the risk for anyone to get hurt.
She's currently laying underneath my feet...well, underneath the recliner at my feet and will flinch when I move.
I can't imagine what this poor girl has gone though, but we are going to try everything we can to help her.

My parents three cockers were sweet dogs! But I know there was a time when you had to be really careful because they were so popular!

Thank you for rescuing her, she is going to be lovely!

So glad she is with you now. I hope she settles down in the next few days.

If they are well bred and not mistreated in any way, Cockers are generally sweet dogs. Even Lulu is sweet most of the time, but then she'll just snap and go after Ghost or the cats. She's the instigator at the dog park too, because she's really protective of us. She's the result of both really poor breeding and some pretty extreme mistreatment before Aaron got her.

But that's neither here nor there, you're awesome for taking this girl in, and best of luck helping her through her issues!

So I think a lot of the issues have to do with men. My hubby wasn't home and I took her out and she did so good. She walked right inside with me after walking her and when I took her leash off she let me brush her and then layed down in one of the crates. She came when I called her too.
She lets my two year old pet her and doesn't seem to mind him at all.
She still growls at the other dogs and if she doesn't get used to them I think she will be better suited for a single dog household...but we will see, hopefully we make some progress in the next few weeks.

If we do end up just fostering her I will let you guys know, I'd love to have your help with listing her to find an approved home!

Thank you for taking this girl in. She is a beauty and you are a saint for saving her. I hope you can find her a wonderful home if you decide not to keep her.

Poor little girl ... So glad you took her in! I don't think she could be in any better place I think with some TLC she will be a wonderful pet!

She is really pretty! Awesome job rescuing her.

I agree 100%. making sure she fits in with your life style is not only important for you but her as well. Our main concern with taking Ripley in to our home was Tika first and then Ripley. Tika needed to like and want to be around her, and Ripley needed to be able to adapt to our higher pace. It worked out for us, and hopefully for you as well.

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her teeth are terrible and she needs a good groom. Her nails are curled under and it's taking everything in me not to throw her in the tub right now.

Been there. Done that. Our Vet wouldn't even cut Rip's nails on her first visit. She rounded them down and told us to work her out. The nails will wear down eventually by themselves if they have an active lifestyle and to cut them straight down is SOOOOO painful our vet was scared if she did it Ripley would never let anyone touch her paws again... But like you they were curled in...

If you check our rescue post some of the pics Tori posted of her show how long her nails really were. It's been maybe 3 or so months that we've had her and her nails are still longish but have gone done quite a bit.

Rip's teeth were SOOO SOOO bad.... getting them off the sugary starchy foods helps a bunch... and bones... It is like night and day looking at Rip's teeth.

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She hides behind me when my husband talks and lays down when I would rise my hand around her.

The more we get to know and understand Ripley the more we tend to believe she doesn't like men much either. She has never been fearful to the extent yours seems to be, however she doesn't trust most. She avoids them but will allow them to come up to her and pet her.

She is fine with me and will cuddle and flat out DEMAND to be pet by me, even play and rough-house with me now. But if we meet randoms out on walks she wants little to do with them.

Women and children however is a different story...... Bring them on! They have hands and those hands can be petting me right now!!!!

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She seems to be submissive towards people, men especially, but dominate with Snow.

Seriously did you steel my dog?

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What's everyones thoughts on choke collars or martingales?

I don't like them with RESCUES. I see and understand their place in training, if you are confident with the tool and understand how to use it PROPERLY by all means.

Rip came with a choker, because she pulled. We took it off of her right away. Every time I raised my hand too fast or approached her too fast she would yelp or fold in on herself. Kelly scruff grabbed her once because she slipped out of her collar and we just didn't want her running off and she yelped. I was rough-housing with Tika and grabbed Ripley and she yelped.

Retraining a dog is hard enough on both parties, especially one that is obviously poorly trained to begin with. Just my 2 pennies, but adding a tool that causes pain (no matter how small or how limited) is counter productive to gaining trust this early.

Compassion and understanding go a long way... Taking your time and doing it right builds a lot more trust and respect then fear and harm do.


Either way I wish all of you the very best of luck! No matter what happens from here on out, It`s obvious she is doing much much better.

~Chris~

I think a martingale would be fine to use if you are concerned that she'll try to back out of the collar. Better the collar getting a little tight for a few seconds than the dog slipping the collar and running away! I use a martingale on Siku now, cause she backed out of her flat collar once and took off.

Chris, after reading Ripleys story I noticed they do have a lot in common!

After we went to bed last night we didn't hear a sound from her. We have decided that my husband is going to be her main caretaker and see how she acts. He took her out this morning and she did pretty good. She peed for him and then wanted to come right back in to the crate. He brushed her before letting her lay down and she tolerated it.
When I came into view she followed me around the house until I turned the tub on to bathe her. I figured she would want nothing to do with the water but I had no idea she would freak out the way she did! Ah I thought snow was bad...but this girl is much worse! I ended up getting soaked and needed a shower afterwards lol. She looks a lot better after her bath and a good brush though, and doesn't look as fat anymore. I haven touched her nails yet . Although I am pretty good with my dogs nails I have never dealt with any this bad...so I think I'm going to have the vet check them out for me.
She is territorial when it comes to the crate. When she is in it and the other dogs come up she turns into a pretty vicious girl.
However when out of the crate she is tolerating snow and our beagle, but still won't let the other dog around her.
She pooped in the hallway and when we noticed it she was hiding under my sons bed. After it was cleaned up she eventually came out again like nothing happened. I don't think she was ever included in everyday family life. She seems to want to be either outside or in her crate. When I close the crate she will come lay by me but once the crate is open she goes straight to it.

Another thing that has me concerned is a lot of sores around her neck. She has a really large lump, maybe a little smaller than a golf ball, with a open/semi healing sore in the middle of it, along with maybe 6-7 smaller ones. Almost looks like a dog bite, but It's single sores in random places.
Other than that she is very laid back and just seems to want to sleep.

So are you guys tired of my updates yet lol

Due to the fact that the husband isnt the brightest...he let Ava out back, where Snow, Mia and Goober were. As of right now all of the dogs are in the backyard running around and playing! She seems to do great with everyone in the backyard....so We need to work on liking everyone while in the house it seems lol
I'm sure I'll be updating again in a few hours with what's going on!