Sophie wasn't a good fit in OUR home

Introducing Sophie...
Sophie is a 10 year old Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. This past weekened we drove down to Maine to see if there was a personality fit with her to Beckett.

All indicators were that she was a lovable (and she was) friendly dog (to humans) and potentially would be a good fit with Beckett (which she wasn't).


We left PEI around 6 in the evening on Friday and headed to Woodstock for the night. Beckett came along as he was the final test for her suitablility. Like all good things, sometimes they just aren't as perfect a fit as you would like them to be.

Beckett was a pro at the travel end of things. He was quiet, got in and out of the car easily, peed when we needed him to, and was perfect in the motel room for the night. He was a little apprehensive in what to do as Darrin and I were unpacking our bags for the evening and settling in. After we crawled into bed and started watching TV, Beckett even jumped up on the bed to mooch some chips from us.
There wasn't any barking, any mishaps of the bio type at all! Even when we had pit stops, Beckett was great.

On the Sophie front, she was indeed a sweet dog and you wouldn't know at all that she was 10 years old. Her good breeding and health records show in her appearance. She came out of her kennel and licked our faces and was pretty good about not jumping up in all her excitement. No barking impressed me right off the batt.

The unfortunate event was when she and Beckett were introduced. She wasn't crazy about him and when he tried his "play with me, I'm cute" routine, she snapped at him to ward him off. It was the first sign that it wasn't going to be a good fit. We walked them down a wooded lane with Julie the kennel owner to see if there would be a better way of letting them get to know each other. The lunging wasn't there again but there was the prep for snapping at Beckett and then the total "ignore" move. We had seen it before when we had Phoenix and Hef put together. At first Hef snapped at Phoenix and afte a while it just turned into a case of 'i'll put up with you but I won't be your friend' situation.

Both Darrin and I had heavy hearts in making that decision and recognized that if we were there making a decision on picking up one dog, that being Beckett or Sophie based purely on our meeting, Sophie would have been the one to come home with us. We have so much time, heart and yes, money invested in Beckett now, that getting a dog that isn't going to be his 'buddy' would only freeze his behaviour training.

On the way home we did a lot of heart to heart talk on if we did the right thing, only to decide each time that, yes, we had but that it didn't make it any easier or help our sense of guilt.

Julie, the kennel owner that opened her heart to taking Sophie in, is having to struggle with not having the kennel free for summer boarders which is her business so Sophie's stay isn't without an influence on Julie's life.

We did decide to try and get Sophie into the Wheaten's rescue organization called WIN (Wheatens In Need) so I've sent off all of my info to both Julie and to Gwen (person who runs WIN) in the hope that the link would create a much better chance for Sophie to find her forever home.