Her big round eyes drew you to her. She was everything you'd been looking for in a companion. The way she sat in front of you, adoringly watching your every move. Her playful antics assuring you that this - THIS was the one you had been searching for.

But today, two weeks after getting her home, the fire has gone out. You can hardly stand to be in the same room together. She looks away when you try to get her eye. Where did the "Love" go??

Okay, just in case you missed the title we're talking about a fictitious dog. This kind of scenario plays out all the time and sadly leads to the return of many shelter animals.

Some dogs brought into shelters wind up living there for months or in some cases years. Initially they go through a tremendous amount of stress adapting to their new, noisy environment. Eventually they acclimate to their surroundings and the things that terrified them become the norm.

One such dog was Tony. For Tony, his stay at the shelter was long and arduous. Tony was a submissive dog that would give in to most other dogs in the play area…but had little "human" experience and if frightened by a human would demonstrate his uneasiness by snarling and if pressured would fear bite - with no pressure, just show. Eventually he found a home and left the shelter.

After a week or so in his new home the people called and had me to their house for an emergency visit…he was being aggressive.

When I rang their doorbell, it sure sounded like he was!!

The door was opened in fractions as a tirade of growls, barks and the odd bit foaming dog spit made me step back a pace. Eventually the dog was restrained from within and the door opened enough for me to see the people and ol' Tony. I stepped up saying his name, which putting an end to his fit. We went inside and sat down as they gave me the story of the past week. They had given Tony the good life, walks by the lake, hikes down the river, rides in the car for ice cream, obedience class, more hikes. Then the trouble began and he was grabbing socks and jumping on the bed, and standing over his possession, threatening anyone who would come near.

As they filled me in, concern and apprehension in every word, Tony walked past and got into his travel crate and lay down. As they continued speaking I glanced at Tony and everything became perfectly clear…the boy was exhausted, completely fatigued and unable to think straight. His eyes were glazed and he couldn't hardly stay awake except for the nerves firing off in his brain not letting him relax enough to sleep…like a truck driver after too many caffeine pills.

Tony's people had felt so sorry for him living in the shelter for so long they had taken him to a veritable Disney land for dogs…but had failed to notice the slowly progressing exhaustion that had crept in. For over a year his routine had been play, eat, sleep. Suddenly it had exploded into a massive utopia of data input and his tiny little mind couldn't keep up. Over stimulation ruined Tony's chance in this home. His menacing stance over the captured sock had defeated his first-time dog owners' confidence and he was returned. Fortunately he left the shelter right away and never looked back, without there ever being another incident like the "sock attack" again…

Allowing shelter dogs time to adjust to their big new world helps to avoid this sort of problem. Regulating the amount of time they have to socialize and explore will keep them from "Over-loading" and becoming stressed-out. It boils down to finding the right balance for the dog, understanding canine language and slowing down the world before the newly released dog becomes unable to cope.

Here's the Catch-22. Starting training right away, giving the new dog a purpose, a job (i.e. obedience training, parlor tricks, etc…) will start giving her a clear perspective of who's taking care of who and begin to awaken and stretch the fabric of her mind to a point where it is resilient and can better deal with the massive stimuli of our busy "Human" world. Helping her to succeed in her training will give her the confidence to follow you, into all those scary or exciting places, us humans take for granted. Her trust in you will reduce the stress she feels. And your understanding of her "tiredness" levels will help you to push her just far enough to help her grow…but keeping her rested enough to allow her to make good decisions.