My name is Debora de Medeiros and I am one of several volunteers who are desperately trying to save Marlo's life by the deadline we were given, Dec 26th. Our plan is to send him to a training facility where he will be taught how to channel his high drive.
About Marlo:
We can say with certainty that he isn't the dog for everyone. In fact, most people wouldn't know how to channel his high drive personality (not to be mistaken with high energy which he is not). But for the right person who understands the trait, Marlo would be the perfect fit! You see a high drive dog needs a job to do. They have a focused intensity, a desire to work, that makes them overcome all obstacles in pursuit of the goal. A high drive dog needs plenty of mental and physical stimulation to prevent boredom and to expend their physical energy (Those search and rescue dogs? High drive!). This is where the problem lies. With Marlo in a kennel, he has become frustrated and deeply bored. He has begun to act out, most notably by being inappropriately mouthy. With lack of regular stimulation, he gets super worked up when even the smallest amount of stimulation is introduced.
Marlo is very smart and does follow basic commands. Marlo is not dominant or aggressive. You can walk up to his kennel and he is happy to see one and all. The typical triggers that would bother dominant dogs (direct eye contact, resistance to verbal correction, etc) aren't any big deal for Marlo. And if you are working with him and petting him he is happy to roll over and let you pet his belly. His downfall lies in his lack of impulse control and bite inhabition. Marlo has never learned to have a "soft mouth" when it comes to his bite. This is typically passed down from a mom to a pup and is sometimes an issue with bottle babies or pups taken away from mom to early. So the typical scenario where Marlo has made mistakes has been when he has gotten excited, didn't know how to express the excitement and became mouthy. But with a hard mouth it turned into a situation where he broke the skin and hurt someone. This has happened on a few occasions.
Many of us here at the shelter absolutely love him. We are working on his impulse control and have set up a routine to give him regular exercise and training. But we are all volunteers and not everyone has the same level of experience so the consistency isn't what it could be. Not only that, but he must be out of the shelter by the 26th or he will be euthanized. In order to guarantee that he has a good future, we want to have Marlo sent to be trained by a professional who specializes in working dogs, thus removing him from the shelter and heightening his chances of being adopted by the perfect family. We volunteers can see Marlo working as a Search and Rescue Dog in the future and are trying to help him get there.
PLEASE JOIN US IN SAVING MARLO FROM DEATH ROW... ALL HE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS IS TO STAY ALIVE!
This link shows informarion about what we believe is Marlo's breed for anyone who is interested!
