{ God Answers Prayers! }

This last week or so, Jonathan and I have been struggling with a

VERY

hard decision.

One we didn't want to have to make;

but one that had to be made.

Our puppy Harleigh just turned 1 on the 19th of July.

She has always been so gentle, loyal, and friendly.

We've never ever been concerned about her behavior.

That was until recently.

Two months ago, she went into her first heat.

(She is not spayed)

Since this, she has been acting extremely different.

She is still very gentle with myself, and Little A,

however, not so friendly towards other people.

She has become extremely over protective, and have become somewhat aggressive.

She has not hurt anyone, but we have been in a couple scary situations with her.

She is mainly over protective when children are in the picture.

She will play nicely, allowing children to poke and prod,

but as soon as an adult that she is unfamiliar with comes near,

her hair goes up, then she starts to growl and bark.

Harleigh is NOT a barker.

She NEVER barks.

The is one particular person that we noticed she really didn't react well with.

I had no doubt in my mind that she would control herself,

so I took her out of her kennel,

held her collar, and allowed this person to reach their hand out.

She sniffed..

growled..

then got into a "sleep" position and slowly crawled backwards into her kennel.

What the heck?

When my puppy scares people,

it scares me.

I noticed that she just reacted scared though.

It was weird.

We have since noticed that it seems like she is having some vision problems.

We thought maybe she was getting freaked out and the

"Fight or Flight"

concept was kicking in.

The other night Jonathan went to take outside to do her nightly business,

when he shut the door, she turned around and started growling at him.

Fight or Flight?

No clue.

This week we made the decision that we cannot take

ANY

risks.

Little A is our number one priority, and if there is any chance at all that there is something wrong with Harleigh, we can't deal with any bad possibilities.

The decision was made to 'put her down'.

If we took her to a shelter, nobody would take a dog home with aggression issues.

Giving her up to someone was not an option because if she hurt anyone,

we would be liable; and I probably would never forgive myself if she did.

It was literally our only option.

With tears in my eyes, I reluctantly gave my husband the 'Okay'

while praying for a better answer.

It was one of the hardest decisions we've ever had to make,

and it has really taken a toll on me.

Being only 6 months postpartum, I am still extremely sensitive.

I've been extremely exhausted, and literally went into hiding for a few days.

I really don't think I can handle any death right now.

I knew the clock was ticking

and that if I wanted Harleigh to have ANY chance, I had to act fast.

She is just a pup!

How could we?!

I prayed a lot for answers.

For anything.

God knows all the answers, and I knew he would help me if I asked.

As soon as I got out of bed this morning

I got on the computer and went to one of my favorite sites

Yahoo Answers

and asked away.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY PUP!?

I got many answers.

Some were even mean.

I even had PETA fans telling me that I am cruel.

Others told me that we didn't know how to train her,

and that it was our own fault for not socializing her.

She is one of the MOST socialized dogs I know.

She LOVES people (normally).

Despite all the rude answers,

one was extremely helpful.

They mentioned a "fear stage".

I quickly googled

(ps. I LOVE how googled does not come up wrong in spellcheck.. Just Sayin'!)

"Puppy Fear Stage"

with my heart pounding I clicked the first link that jumped out at me

and everything they listed

fit Harleigh's behavior almost perfectly!

I cannot tell you HOW happy this made me.

I called a trainer in the area right away and asked for opinions.

(I had called several vets, who surprisingly told me to have her euthanized..)

The person I spoke to was completely SHOCKED that Vet's suggesting destroying the dog was even an option in this case.

He told me that they could send someone out to do an evaluation on her, and try to figure out if she needs obedience classes, or if its just a phase.

Jonathan and I had a nice long talk and we have decided to give her more time.

We will do everything we can to fix the problems,

all while she wears a muzzle.

We refuse to take any risks whatsoever.

We will have the evaluation done, and go from there.

I am SO incredibly relived that its a pretty common stage in dogs - usually ones who are not spayed or neutered.

I was petrified she would suffer for our actions,

even though

she IS well trained!

&

she IS a good dog!

I really couldn't understand what we did wrong.

I am VERY happy we didn't do anything wrong,

and that my stubbornness stopped us from going through with something that my heart couldn't handle.

Ah.

Thank you, Lord!