Dog I wanted to adopt and snapped at my rough collie twice

Post date: 2023-01-24 23:04:25

Hi, i have a 18 month old blue merle rough collie and i was quite excited about a second collie as his playmate. Coincidentally, there was one family giving their 6 years old collie away due to family issues. When we visited with my collie, we noticed the following :

-they walked along each other nicely but my boy didn't want to play and seemed a bit uncomfortable. He's otherwise friendly, extremely playful in-your-face dog, has crazy playtimes with most other dogs

-my boy barked like never before in his life when he saw the owner's father arriving home. He's not a barker and is generally a quiet boy otherwise, even outdoors. The other collie was of course happy to see him

-the other collie started growling at me and showing teeth when i had treat in my hands and didn't give them to him immediately. Owner said two other dogs were regularly stealing food from him and he's sometimes impatient and possessive

-they didn't play together at all, my boy kept close to people while the other one was playing on his own.

-the collie was fed very low quality food and has awful teeth color and infected gums; I guess that should not be too complicated to treat, right?

-he snapped at my boy aggressively outdoors and indoors. I'm not sure i saw a particular reason, maybe coming too close to the owner or toy?

-the collie he's otherwise very cuddly and social, knows commands and seems happy and healthy, he's rather dominant though and I own a rather dominant collie already

My guess is he was abused and since I have cats and boyfriend comes over with a smaller "food thief" dog, I'm concerned. On the other hand it breaks my heart to see him being left behind to the owners who are possibly awful and see just a pretty dog. I really wanted to offer him nice remaining of life.
My question is, has anyone experienced that? Is it possible that this is just an initial/territorial behavior or does it need serious intervention? Does it go away with time and I should "risk" it? Should I rather leave the collie behind for other owners?

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