Thursday, May 21, 2009

Big George

George, Toronto Animal Services' giant mystery breed dog is less of a mystery now. A couple of Tibetan Mastiff owners dropped by yesterday to check him out and see if they could more positively determine his breed and while there was some question about his big floppy ears, his huge size and his friendliness, which is not the typical behaviour for the usually more aloof Tibetan Mastiff, they walked away pretty sure George is indeed a TM.

I think they also took a liking to him but it's hard not to fall for such a great big friendly bear of a dog. He's sometimes a little too friendly, though, like when he was out for a walk and passed by one of the female dogs at the shelter. He walked over to her, dragging that slightly inconvenient weight at the other end of his leash over with him, and even though he was neutered a few days ago, his natural urges hadn't clued into that yet and he proceeded to hump the other unfortunate dog who was half is size. It finally took five staffers to pull George off the unhappy recipient of his attention.

Poor amorous George with his love interrupted. It's pretty obvious that his, uh, personality is probably going to be too much for most families to handle. His previous owners certainly felt that way when they had him debarked - either that or the chain they put around his neck was too tight and his vocal chords sustained some kind of permanent injury - and now when he barks, he kind of sounds like a rasping, high pitched seal.

George was actually in a home just this past weekend for a trial run where there was already a big, energetic St. Bernard. The two of them didn't quite see eye to eye on who was going to be boss and I guess the thought of the two of them running through the house playing smash up derby was a bit too expensive for the owners. Monday morning, George was back at TAS.

The aim now is to get George into a rescue or with someone who's already got Tibetan Mastiff experience, where he'll hopefully be taught manners befitting of a giant dog.


video by James Langton

Update: There's a good chance that George might be going down south to sunny California for his new rescue home. Much thanks to James Langton for making the call to the TM rescue down there.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can see why amorous George might be daunting for some families but, as you said, why invest in a rare breed then (after debarking for Pete's sake???), dump the dog to be euthanized. I guess this happens a fair bit, since there are plenty of folks with more money than sense.

Anyway, nice that he still has The Attitude. Maybe there's a lady TM out there that will see him for the big old cuddly bear that he is.

Jan said...

My heart just goes out to big dogs like George who have not been taught to be good citizens and then are turned over to the shelter by morons. I so hope he finds a home.

onequarterdal said...

What a gorgeous lug of a dog! If I was looking to adopt, I'd take him in a heart beat.
D

Anonymous said...

He is just SO GORGEOUS!!!!!!!!!

Miz Minka said...

He's amazingly well-behaved on a leash, for not having "manners" yet. What a teddy bear! I'm hoping he'll indeed find a home here in Califreakia.

Fred said...

TAS should be finding out where he'll be going in the next couple of days. There's also a possibility of a rescue here in Ontario which may actually be better since these dogs were built for cold winters and not hot summers.

George is very well behaved on leash and with people in general until there's another dog around and then he becomes a jumping, barking, freakazoid and it's hard to tell if it's aggression or something else. Unfortunately, with that kind of strength and weight at the end of the leash, they're not letting him get close to other dogs again. He'll be learning his doggie socialization skills at the rescue.

Lynn said...

Fred - I was thinking the same thing when you said he'd be going to California. I have a husky mix here and she HATES summer...it's just too darned hot. Of course, where ever he finds the right home will be great, but I'm sure he'd be happier where it's cooler.

Fred said...

Lynn, funny thing is, I hear California is where TM's were first introduced into North America. Maybe all the TM owners down there have converted their freezers into dog houses.