ISO: Advice on adopting after recent losses

Small snag and I'm totally freaking myself out about it. I already put in a call to our coordinator and hopefully he can reassure me it's OK and/or provide some help.

The male dog in the pair is a real jumper, as are a lot of Great Pyrs. We have a fenced in yard with tall wooden fences on two sides, a slightly-shorter chain link on one side, and the house making up the fourth side. The male dog especially needs at least 5 feet of fence.

We knew the wooden fences are about 5.5ft and the chain link isn't much shorter than that, but I was looking at in from the window and I said... jeez... you know, I better measure that.

We weren't too far off, but it's basically a crooked 5ft. fence so in actuality, it's like 4'10" off the ground.

I've already found a solution that was specifically from a site dealing with a canine escape artist, but I don't know if it will be good enough for the rescue and for the dog's safety. I am fairly confident about it; it's basically adding an additional foot in very stiff wire meshing to the top of the fence, to make it closer to 5ft. 10", and it isn't chicken wire. It's only one side of the fence. But will he be able to launch himself against it hard enough to go over? I don't know. It also doesn't sound like he's as much of an "escape artist" as "typical Pyrenees with wandering instinct." Frankly, the height is too close for comfort anyway. I would want to add something protective to the sharp tops of the links, and this solution does that, too.

Can anyone advise/console while I am waiting to hear back from their coordinator?

Thank you! I'm honestly not 100% certain how most Pyrenees tend to jump but it does look like Bear has some good vertical height from a standing position. Still, it's a 5' minimum and that's what we have besides the crookedness.

The only reason I wanted to bring it up with them is because I might have accidentally listed specifically the chain link as 5 and a half feet on the application (the wooden parts are that tall), and I just don't want the home visit person to say "there's no way that's a 5.5 foot fence" and make it look like we were being dishonest in order to be considered. However, as you say, I also would really hope that common sense prevails here, especially as the fence otherwise meets the minimum height and is the only thing I am concerned about with the house, for a pair of adult dogs.

I already sent the e-mail asking for a quick call but I can always just say I wanted to check in before the home visit and prefer phone calls to e-mail, which I do. The e-mail itself had no details, it just said I had no problems but wanted his guidance on something, so alternatively, I could say that I wanted to double check the fence height as we're getting ready and since it's right at the minimum, I just wanted to ask if he had any advice on whether further safety measures would be necessary, and if so, what the most effective method would be apropos how Pyrenees tend to approach jumping.

Unless you think I shouldn't even say that much, which is exactly why I am asking! Again, my main concern is that I listed the chain link as 5.5 feet and the woman coming to check will be able to tell, and whether that could reflect poorly on us...

The adoption process can be so frustrating sometimes.

Hopefully this is really nothing, but the woman who did the home visit was very complimentary and swore up and down on her own volition that she'd send in her part of our application on Saturday night to say the visit was fine, we're set, and she'd be recommending us. The reason she promised to do it Saturday night was because she was leaving for a vacation on Sunday (I don't know for how long.) We would have totally understood if she said "well, with my trip I'll get to this as soon as I can," but she really went out of her way to promise she'd do it that night so we could keep moving.

Imagine my surprise when the adoption coordinator e-mailed to ask how the home visit went, since he's heard absolutely nothing from her thus far!

I really don't think she would have told us that she was recommending us if she wasn't, especially since I know the rescue wants to find a place for the pair particularly, but it's frustrating nonetheless. We've still got time for things to happen but it really screws up our schedule if we can't do a meeting this weekend as we intended, and we only intended to do that because it sounded like we'd be far enough along by then.

So... really just venting, hopefully it's just a tiny little snafu and/or the visitor ran out of time before her vacation, but it would have been really nice if she could have told the adoption coordinator that it went well, at least. It doesn't sound like he's heard a word from her as of yet, although it's unclear if the material she had to fill out gets sent directly to him or if it goes elsewhere and he was just trying to check in with her to see how the visit went. I guess there's a tiny possibility she filled out the necessary forms and it went right to the board, but it sounded like the coordinator would be putting all the recommendations together.

Sigh.

We had a really lovely meeting with Bear and Sally. Both of us were worried it might be too painful being with dogs who look so much like Sebastian, but neither of us really felt that at all. They were just so clearly different dogs, and knowing they are in need really erased any hesitations we had about the comparisons. We will have to talk a bit more, but I literally cannot envision us saying no. I cannot bring to mind a situation that causes us to say "no thanks, someone else will come along to give these two a home." We didn't really learn anything super new, just things that reinforced what we were already told in multiple VERY accurate descriptions.

Bear is friendly, outgoing, a people pleaser, excitable. He will be happy the moment he walks in the door.

Sally....

Sally is beautiful and gentle and soft and lovely, but her shyness is painful and will be a true challenge. She is not aggressive in the slightest, just terrified of everything. She has been in the foster home for two months and still will not take treats directly from her foster mom's hand, though she will eat a treat left in her crate.

We mostly knew this, though, and feel up for the challenge. I know it will take her a good deal of time just to become comfortable with us, but it will also be different with just the two of them-- the foster mom also has two dogs of her own, it's well-controlled chaos there right now.

I will continue to post updates but I really can't imagine us saying no to these two. We know they've already been there a while because they're a pair, we feel confident we can help Sally with her issues as we have experience with very shy dogs, and we have long wanted two. I think we'd be fools not to.

Next weekend-- Feb 9-10-- was the date they gave us as soonest possible date of adoption if everything went smoothly, which until now it has been. It still mostly is, I mean, there aren't really any problems on the rescue's side or anything like that.

I'll try to keep a long story short but in all seriousness, the real hold up at the moment is that we had an important trip to take this weekend that got canceled short notice and out of our control, but we probably still have to do the trip anyway and try to work everything out here in the meantime so whereas before we had everything planned well and nicely and would have been completely ready to pick up the dogs next weekend, now it's a total nightmare scheduling-wise. The long story is why we probably can't cancel the trip altogether but might be able to postpone, it's just a stupid health-related thing for me.

We don't know for sure they'll be ready to release them next weekend and might be able to squeeze our trip in before then regardless, it's just going to be a lot if both things are true. Not necessarily impossible. It does sound like they've been waiting for a good home for these two for a while, there's a chance they either won't be ready until after or the rescue will work with us on this since they're in foster, or we may still be able to pick them up as planned while getting that trip in, we've just got a lot of details to figure out now.

Anyway, on the point, yes, time and patience! Sebastian was incredibly shy too so we have some experience with the personality type, but it was evident from one meeting that they are not exactly the same kind of shyness and of course they are different dogs. Thank you for the advice, hanksimon! I wish we had known some of this stuff with Sebastian...

Patricia-- yes, no question, if Bear likes it, Sally will come look To a point anyway! She will get there, and for sure it will be different when it's just us. She can have whatever time she needs, we've got a whole room set up for the two of them to have a safe place... though I can't wait to see which spots she decides that she likes on her own.

Speaking of her timidity, we take relatively routine but not super frequent trips to see my parents and we drive and would always take Sebastian. Clearly we can't and wouldn't take new dogs on this trip too soon, and we have some options including J staying here with them and me going down sometimes, or before they're ready or whatever. But eventually we'll take them to New Jersey, do you have any tips on helping a dog as timid as Sally is being as comfortable as possible on a trip like that? For that matter, Bear will have to get used to the new location in his own ways, but he is so easygoing. Sebastian spent his first couple of years with Mom and Dad so he was already familiar with the house. The good news is that foster mom says they're great in the car.

So, clearly there are some things to figure out but we always find a way. Hopefully the shelter can be a little flexible on the exact pickup day (as can we, to an extent), tomorrow we will figure out what the deal is with the trip and if we even have to ask for much flexibility, and we'll keep on moving one way or the other.