I'm off on a rant here so slide on past if you want to. Using initials for people here ...

A couple of months back, the dog of one of the people (S) in the area had an oops litter of GSD puppies. At the 8 week mark he had homes for several of them - one to a mutual friend (D). (Actually three to two mutual friends (D&C), but I digress.) After about 10 days he called them all back for their second round of shots - C gives his dog their shots and adding a bunch of puppies to the list was no big deal. During this, though, he found that D's pup have lost like two pounds (in 10 days!) so S kept the pup (well, he gave it to D he should have that right<?????>)

When S said he'd let D have one of the pups, D over the course of a couple of weeks strung up wire for a good sized dog yard.

Earlier - 6 month or so - I'd suggested to D that he take a trip up to Alpine to the shelter and rescue a dog. Nope, didn't want to do that! Okay, that's your call.

So, after S took his pup back explaining to D why he did. (And since has given it to an ecstatic couple who are spending beaucoup time loving and training her) D looked at the Shelter's web site and decided he was going up to get a lab mix puppy after she'd been spayed.

I and others were concerned that since he, obviously?, wasn't aware of what a puppy needs so we called the shelter and spoke with the manager. She immediately decided that D wasn't going to get one of her dogs and definitely not a puppy! Now, I have considerably less qualms about D getting an adult dog (say 1-2 years old) since an adult is going to make demands (have their own expectations) that a puppy just wouldn't know.

So today D went up to Alpine and she told him "No." He spent about an hour there, helped walk a couple of the dogs, got to spend time with the puppy he wanted and the shelter manager and D apparently had a good talk about dogs and what goes into raising them.

I talked with her a short time ago which is how I knew what happened there. While I'm concerned about his ability to care for a pup, I'm also concerned about his mental state. (( Aside, he had an accident a few years a go that has left him somewhat impaired. He's still physically capable of doing most of what he needs to do, he just forgets that he needs to do some things. That's why it took two weeks to put up a fence.))

Okay, I feel like a heal! Here I am with two dogs. ((No, I'm not giving either of them up!!)) Had she not been forewarned, D could probably have come home today with a pup. If he came home with a dog, I think he could have worked with it ... but not certain.

After I talked with the shelter manager I asked if D could volunteer up there. She'd love him to! My logic, as I told her, is that would give him time to see what a dog needs, work with someone who could help him learn how to keep and train an adult, give her a chance to actually get to know D and maybe let them work their way to an agreeable solution. Or maybe he'd realize that a dog's a lot more work than he really wants.

it sounds like volunteering would be good for him. If he's forgetful then that can help him form a routine with them while there's still someone around to keep an eye on if things are getting done. Your shelter sounds much easier to get along with then most of ours. They love volunteers here but they seem to lack the desire to teach so they often won't take volunteers that don't have dog experience. Though I think some of that could come back to insurance as well.