What'd you do to this dog? She's afraid of everything!
By Jennifer Stoeckl, MAT - Dire Wolf Project CEO, May 16, 2024![LaBrea is Coming Banner.jpg](https://direwolfproject-public.s3.amazonaws.com/images/LaBrea_is_Coming_Banner.width-350.jpg)
Jay and I once met a local dog breeder who was selling his shepherd mix puppies at a Walmart parking lot for $100.
After speaking with him for a bit about his puppies, he told us a terrifying story.
One of his female puppies from the litter was very emotionally sensitive. She was sweet, extremely loving, and very smart, but she became overwhelmed and frightened with change.
Because she had a beautiful short sable coat with a deep black muzzle, a younger couple who happened by wanted her.
They seemed like nice people, so the man sold her to them.
Well, several hours later, he gets a call from the young new owner.
The young man was furious!
“What the hell’d you do to this dog?
She’s afraid of EVERYTHING!
You piece of sh*t animal abuser!
I should turn you in.”
Being non-confrontational, the guy offered to take the dog back, but the young man was having none of it.
His voice darkened into a rage, “I would never give her back to you, you sick bastard!”
Then, he hung up.
The breeder must’ve been seriously affected by this exchange because he lamented at how demonic the young man’s voice seemed.
He told us how he couldn’t get the image of that scared puppy out of his mind.
I felt terrible for the guy.
He was selling his puppies for practically nothing to random people off the street he did not know.
He couldn’t match the different personalities of his puppies to the right families because he didn’t have an application process nor a non-refundable deposit to make sure interested families were serious before committing.
He will never know what becomes of that puppy.
I bet that is the most painful part of the whole experience for him.
Does that young couple know how to handle an intuitive emotionally sensitive dog like that?
Likely not, as the couple had no clue how to mindfully protect a puppy’s feelings in the most vulnerable part of its life; leaving everything she’s ever known to be thrust into a foreign world without her familiar comforts.
They also automatically assumed the breeder must’ve abused her; a common myth people owning emotionally sensitive dogs often believe.
Will that puppy end up in the pound?
Unfortunately, it is a real possibility.
And an emotionally lost puppy like that would not do well in a shelter environment with the rambunctious, constant barking and carrying on that is common inside shelter walls.
Fortunately, for you, Jody-Lynn, the Dire Wolf Project isn’t a backyard breeder like the man selling his shepherd mix puppies for $100 in the Walmart parking lot is.
You know the parents.
Watch the puppies grow up.
See the temperament tests.
And know your breeder works very hard to perfectly match your family to the right dog, not just any dog.
There is a lifetime genetic health guarantee and if you aren’t satisfied for any reason, we’ll take your puppy back within the first five business days after it arrives home.
We are here throughout your dog’s life for any training or health questions you may have.
The work we put into our litters to provide you with a wonderful experience from the time you first inquire about a puppy until your dog passes away is the reason our dogs are not cheap.
Everything you receive from the Dire Wolf Project surrounding your new puppy makes it so much more worth it than impulsively buying that cute puppy from your local grocery store parking lot.
To begin the application process for one of our puppies, this link will get you started:
https://direwolfdogs.com/puppy-application/
And because we are not backyard breeders, we don’t sell our puppies to just anyone. You must prove to us that you understand the American Dirus dog breed and that your family matches with our type of dog.
But, once approved, know that you are among the best families we meet.
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P.S. After a year of building the storyline and writing each episode, the LaBrea Evans email adventure series story is now complete.
We have a few editing tweaks to finish up, and I need to make sure all of the choose-your-own-adventure links work before we reveal it to our loyal email subscribers.
BE FOREWARNED: We are not going to send it to everyone on our list.
ONLY those subscribers who regularly open our emails will get the privilege of reading this one-of-a-kind email adventure series. (If you have image blocking software, or you read our emails in plain text only, you might want to alter that for this.)
We like to reward loyalty around here at the Dire Wolf Project.
And this first-ever in the dog world email adventure series will be sure to entertain. Many who have gone through the original email adventure series with the inventing copywriter, Daniel Throssell, have said it’s like binge-watching a Netflix series.
And indeed that was my experience, as well.
I can’t wait to share it with you and get your feedback before we activate it live for all new subscribers.
Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.