Max's forever home, be careful what vet you go to.

So after our Friday night disaster, lots of reading on my part and questions to my friends with pets we made the commitment again to give Max his forever home. We were determined to do what was best for all of us. Which meant that we needed to set boundaries for Max as well as us and the children.
I started the process of teaching Max Zen Hand, as I said before I am not an expert if you feel you want to learn more about what I did you can find instructions at http://www.dragonflyllama.com/%20DOGS/Writing/LTD.html.
Max took to the zen training very well and with following the guidelines listed in Lead the Dance we have come a long way. Max is now listening and following simple commands and loves to play the Come game. He will Sit, lay, and stay.

We continued to work with Max, as I was as committed as I could be to providing him with everything he needs we made the choice to take him to the vet. I told the vet to NOT trip his nails as he is so sensitive about his feet. The vet however did not listen to me and trimmed his nails, Max of course did not handle this well. Max was already over stimulated. When we got to the vets office that morning the leash I had been given with Max broke, he snapped it and got away from me. Ran into the road to chase the cars. Thank goodness there was a police officer directing traffic who was able to stop all cars and get Max for me. I am just glad I have been working out and was able to run after him with out hurting myself. So his day is not going well and to be honest neither is mine.

I go into pick Max up and the vet ask me to come to her office, she tells me that Max is not a dog to have around children, that he is unpredictable and if she were me she would put Max down. She went onto say that he has one testicle that never descended and he has heart worms, which she believes to be early on. So the neutered dog that was in perfect health now has some issues. My head is still spinning about the do not have this dog around children and you could leave him here till you decide what to do if you like. I of course took Max home with me, and then went to my pesties, chat board of experienced pet owners and asked for advice and help. With their help I found a behaviorist to come to the house and work with me and Max, to let me know if Max was in fact a dangerous dog .

I call a few other vets and get their opinion, several of them tell me we should retest Max before doing any treatments and that it is unfair for a vet to make that kind of recommendation to me regarding a scared, confused dog's behavior while at the vet. That in fact Max should have received no treatments on his first visit, it should have been a met and great. So I have now changed vets, Max has gone in and met his new vet and the office staff, walked around etc, but was not treated, the vet did pet Max and love on him. We will continue to go back to the vet's office one to two times a week over the next month. During which time I am going to work with Max on the behavior issues we are working with.