We adopted a shelter dog. He was 10 weeks old and had been cared for while at the shelter. We’ve had him for 5 years now.
However, he is an unsocial dog who never adapted well in our family. He gets along with our older dog, our daughters dog, and even our cat. He tolerates women but fears men.
We’d take him back to a shelter, but we know what that would mean. So he stays with us. He stays in the backyard all day except to come in at night (crated). He has our older dog as a companion. But that’s it.
I feel so sorry for him.
Tara is a shelter dog who is currently fifteen yrs old. She is anti-social to all of our newer dogs. Her litter sister and adopted brother brother have passed on, and she does not care for the new crew. She and our youngest, Rosebug despise but tolerate each other. When Rosie first came aboard the first six months were rough and I had to let Rosie know that Tara is higher up the food chain than see is.; Rosie’s will come soon enough. The boys respect Tara right off the bat, and though they are each 125 lbs to her 60, they are careful not to jostle her.
What was interesting to me is that even though Tara keeps them in line, when we are out walking in the woods. and she decides not to join us, if she starts barking the boys disappear and go check on her before returning to me. She is still part of the pack.
God bless you for keeping your anti-social dog. It is interesting that your pup is friendly with your older dog and at least one non immediate family dog. I wonder if it could be a social standing situation with your pup.
He may be happy with things just the way they are.
We tried three times to take in an older dog. In two cases it was a failure. In the third case, it was a 5 year old intact 14 pound dachshund, with three legs and asthma. At the time we had another dog who was very well trained and who taught the Biscuit how to behave. The other dog has now passed away but Biscuit is still here and brings us a lot of joy. None of them came from shelters btw, but just sort of happened to us.