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By Jack Beresford
Senior Reporter
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A senior shelter dog twice adopted and returned for the same heartbreaking issue is approaching three years without a home.
Auggie, aged 8, was first brought to the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter in Wantagh, New York, as a stray in 2023.
“We don't know much about his life before the shelter, as he was left in a crate at a police department,” Brian Devine, from the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter, told Newsweek.
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Whatever he had been through before had clearly had a profound impact. “When he first came to the shelter, he was very nervous,” Devine said. “He shied away from handlers and would be skittish with quick movements.”
Over time, however, Auggie began to acclimatize to his new surroundings and grew close to staff at the shelter. “As time went on and he was exposed to more people, he became more social,” Devine said.
Auggie’s newfound confidence had the desired effect: he caught the eye of a shelter visitor and was adopted out.
Sadly, however, it did not last. In fact, Auggie would end up being adopted again from the shelter only to be returned for the same reason: guarding issues.
It’s a heartbreaking reason and one that is likely rooted in Auggie’s difficult past.
Resource guarding, where a dog becomes protective over valued items like toys or food, resulting in a display of aggressive behaviors, is a common issue among rescue dogs.
It’s often the case that these guarding issues can be traced back to some past trauma and are rooted in the anxiety the dog involved suffers as a result. Living as a stray can often play a part.
The shelter knows nothing about Auggie’s life before so it’s difficult to know the cause, but it means Auggie needs a very specific kind of forever home.
“His guarding issues make him a special adoption that needs the perfect home,” Devine said. “An adult home that understands he needs training and management of his guarding and will keep him in a structured house with a consistent routine.”
Sadly, after more than 840 days at the shelter, that perfect home has yet to materialize.
A video posted to the shelter’s TikTok channel, @the.invisible.8, saw staff appeal for someone to take a chance on this sweet senior pup. “He’s a sweet explorer at heart who’s spent too long without even a window to look out of,” they wrote alongside footage of Auggie appearing quiet and withdrawn within his kennel.
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By the time Christmas rolls around, Auggie will have been at the Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter for nearly three years. That kind of extended stay is sure to have taken a toll and could impact the prospects of them being adopted.
A 2002 study published in the journal Animal Welfare looked at the kennel behavior of long-term shelter dogs. It found those who had stayed at the shelter longest spent more of their time at the back of their kennels, more time resting, and less time barking than dogs housed in the shelter for shorter periods.
It’s a description that bears more than a passing resemblance to Auggie in the TikTok video and adds weight to the idea that long-term shelter dogs often end up stuck in a vicious cycle of going ignored, becoming further withdrawn, and being ignored even more as a result.
Devine insists Auggie is coping well with shelter life though.
“Auggie has become very comfortable with the people he knows and enjoys going out with them, playing with toys and relaxing outside,” he said. “He’s a resilient and good boy who has become very accustomed to his routine and does well with the structure of the shelter routine.”
The hope now is that someone comes forward to adopt Auggie and that it proves to be third time lucky for the sweet pup.
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