Instagram Inspiration :: “Your Dog has Dwarfism”

Sometimes people can say the darndest things!  Like the time I brought our 3 month old new puppy in to our local PetSmart to find out about puppy training.  I was speaking to one of the trainers about our puppy, Max,  that we had adopted from the German Shepherd Rescue Group of Orange County.  The rescue group is run by  a great group of volunteers that have helped saved thousands of dogs through the years and was the first group we went to when our sweet Duke passed away last year.  Max’s mom was found in a field alongside a Ford car dealership along with her 4 week old puppies.  Luckily, she was taken in by the German Shepherd Rescue group and the puppies went to a great foster family to get acclimated with people and other dogs.  I chose Max because he just had the cutest disposition and at 11 weeks was just adorable!  I have always loved black and tan dogs (my past three dogs had this coloring) and I try to get a German Shepherd mix as I love their loyalty and make great family dogs. The rescue group thought that Max and his brothers and sisters were a mix of German Shepherd and Lab.  But no one really knew and it was anyones guess on how they would turn out.

Back to my conversation with the trainer over at Petsmart.  I was explaining that Max ‘s mom was a German Shepherd mix and we thought he might be mixed with a Lab – but we weren’t sure.  She looked at him and said “Well, you know he probably has dwarfism.”  To give her a break, Max was growing pretty funny.  He reminded me of a gangly kid who trips over his own arms and legs because he is growing so quickly. His body was really long, his legs were stumpy and he was a bit of a chub-a-lub.  He liked to eat!  I immediately stopped talking and said “What? What do you mean?”  She went on to point out these physcial attributes and said not to worry – I would love him no matter what.  Of course we would – but after having taken care of a blind dog for 3 years I was looking for a healthy puppy and didn’t know having a dog with dwarfism would entail on our end.

On the way home I called my husband in a panic – “Lou, the trainer at Petsmart said Max has dwarfism… what does that mean exactly?!”  He attempted to calm me down and said he would Google it and get back to me.  What did we do in the days without Google?  He called back immediately to let me know that Max indeed did not have dwarfism as they tend to be the smallest of the liter – significantly smaller.  And since Max was one of the largest of the liter, this just didn’t make sense.  Now at almost 105 pounds and not quite 11 months old – all I can think about is when he will stop growing.  To this day, we call Max our little dwarf and get a chuckle out of it since he is anything but!  I am tempted to bring him back to that trainer at Petsmart to introduce her to Max…