Cookie lies just like this. It is why I have mud prints on my walls.

I always have second hand dogs.  Growing up, my step-father worked for the local shelter.  It was a no kill shelter and had some dogs that really, really needed homes.  We took in Grandpa who had been at the shelter over a decade.  He was 12+ if not 15 or 16 with arthritis.  He was a beautiful german shepherd that only lived 3 more months.  He was not comfortable in the house so we had to recreate the shelter experience for him at home but have him much more room to move and several places to sleep and lots of attention.  

Other dogs that crossed our path, a schnoodle who had been beaten with sticks and kept outside in the coldest weather on a 4 foot leash in winter.  He was stolen from the owners yard actually and they never cared.  A poodle whose owner beat it with a broom for reasons unknown but she broke his jaw and never got him vet attention until it was too late to do anything about the jaw.  She said he was "too stupid too learn."  He went through basic obedience in 1 day with me and was reliable with distractions in 3 days.  He developed sever separation anxiety though living with me.  He knew I had to go to school but it broke his heart and he would mope all day long.  As soon as he heard the school bus, he started to get bouncy. My mom worked from home and my dad worked nights so he was rarely alone.  The more dogs we got, the better he handled it.  He was never destructive, just sang the song of his people when I left him alone.  My favorite quirk with him was he trimmed his own nails.  All 4 feet every two weeks.

Next came the dog who introduced us to resource guarding and dog bites.  I think she only bit me twice bad enough that I needed medical attention.  I still have the scars on my bicep.  Everyone in my family has scars from her bites.  Sunny was a cocker spaniel whose owners thought it was cute when she lost her mind from being left alone for a day or more and took over rooms which she defended quiet violently.  She was so mentally unstable by the time she was 4 that she could not be trusted around children or left alone.  We were her last hope...a no kill was actually going to put her to sleep.  By the time she was rehabbed and ready to be adopted, she was 10 years old and we were rather attached.  😉  Then Bandit who just had the misfortune of owners who couldn't afford any basic vet care and he got heartworm as a puppy!  He survived and lived till he was 12.  And then our last german shepherd from a puppy mill who was near sighted and flunked out of guard dog school.  She learned to attack on command but between her hips and her eyes, that was not the career for her.  She much preferred going swimming, hanging out with kids, and was amazingly brilliant.  She watched us bring wood in every afternoon and started to bring wood for the stove every time she came in.  Even putting it in the bin on her own.  No one taught her to do that.  She was very protective and she saved my family when a violent rapist broke into our house in the middle of the night and she kept him cornered until the authorities arrived.  This was out in the country so response time was about twenty minutes.  No charges were ever filed for breaking and entering but a few weeks later, the next family he targeted was not so lucky.  And finally, my Scottie who had been in 6 homes in by the time he was 9 months old.  The first was a local writer who bought a puppy and couldn't understand why it wouldn't be quiet.  He even wrote a column about it in the local paper about how upset he was about his bad purchase and had to get rid of the puppy.  By the time he made it to our house, the list of things wrong with him was great but #1 was "he refused to be housebroken."  Never was an issue.  He was hypothyroid and allergic to flea bites and was naked most of the time.  This was in 94 when the Lion King was big...and he looked like a warthog in his nakedness with most of his skirt gone, just a ruff around his neck, his beard, his eyebrows, and a tuft on his tail.  poor thing stopped traffic all the time.

Our first greyhound, RC Miss Kitty, was the prettiest, most social, extremely gifted when it came to emotional intelligence, not always the brightest when it came to normal reasoning (took two years to realize squirrels ran UP trees.  She was hanging out with a toddler who looked up and the lightbulb went on and for the next week, we had to look up EVERY tree on our walk.), was very emotional when it came to training and could not handle correction of any kind and brought me onto a new path in dog training.  Kitty did have quirks...not sure if I caused them but I got an amazing behaviorist to take me under her wing and teach me a lot about dog training and behavior.   It is still a hobby/passion for me but not a career.

Our second greyhound had general anxiety and undiagnosed chronic liver disease.  He worried about everything and was the smartest dog I've ever known.  He was an amazing therapy dog at the local psychiatric hospital and always found people with anxiety to spend his time with.  Everyone always said, "I feel like this dog understands me."  Of course he does!  We never could medicate his anxiety though because he was a biter.  He was extremely protective of me too and with Kitty, after dark, no one was allowed near me.  Toughie's response to everything after dark was bite first, ask questions later.  My husband worked nights then so he loved knowing Toughie was around.  Greyhounds are not supposed to be protective.  Ever.  Nixon and Toughie never read the manual.  They're also not supposed to bark either but it seems Cookie and Kitty didn't read that part either.