Sheryl,
I think that you made a nice and fitting summary to this thread. I agree that every parent has a different definition of risk, and even that can vary among the same parent at any given time.
My daughter is consistently alone with Cabeza. Now, those of you that have met Cabeza would probably find that humorous that I've even mentioned that...hahaha. .but, in any case...I know that I've taught Molly well, and I know, I mean, I KNOWCabeza is not going to bite. Anyone. Ever. But that doesn't mean I'd feel the same about any dog. Or any kid. Everyone's situations are different, ya know?
Its sad that you had to send Sol back to his breeder, but the point is that if you did everything right or everything wrong, does it really matter if you don't feel comfortable? That's the most important thing.
And, I'm not going to mince words here. Some people just do NOT want to involve their entire lives in creating/maintaining/establishing/WHATEVER a pack order or anything. And, that is OK. I'll tell ya what. My grandmother has always had dogs. I had 8 aunts and uncles. Most of them lived at my gramma's while I was growing up, because many of them were young. (My dad was the oldest) Anyway, do you think that my grandmother had all of those 8 kids work on establishing the pack order? Do you think they did any kind of obedience or anything? I'll tell you. Nope, they didn't. And their dogs were always the sweetest, nicest, most loving little scoundral mutts you could ever hope to meet. (Oh, and by the way, they were also fed the crappiest dog food in the universe, rarely went to the vet, etc. Most of them lived into their teens)
Anyway...my point is that all families are different, and all families have varying amounts of time, energy, interest and motivation for training and stuff. So, do what you can and what is appropriate and don't beat yourself up about the rest. Heck, Cabeza only knows "sit" and "lay down". And that's only about half the time. I've put very little into training him. And, I'm OK with it.
