Since my wife and I have been together, we have “rescued” all of our dogs with mixed results. The first was a mini dachshund named Guinness. He was a good dog and we loved him very much, but had to foster him to another family when we moved to Alaska in 2010.
Our current dog, a shepherd mix, we adopted about a year ago. Came up to VT from a kill shelter down in SC. When we brought her home she wouldn’t even come near me or look at me. She was great with the wife and kids, but as much as I tried to be sweet to her, she still to this day rarely will even engage with me. It’s very clear that somewhere along the way she was abused by an adult male. It sucks.
I often say to her jokingly (and my kids get a kick out of it) “I not going to kill you today, Cricket, not today.....” ?