This stray dog lived at the Grand Canyon. He became a kind of feral dog, living on what he could scavenge. He was evidently not so wild that he could not be handled, but he was obviously not accustomed to it.
I don’t know whether it is accurate that this dog is part Briard. Briards are not a common breed.
There is one way to tell. Briards have double dewclaws on the hind legs, which is a dominant trait.
If you watched the whole episode of DogTown last Friday, Shaggy makes a transformation from a nervous and very scared dog into an animal that can walk nicely on a leash and play with other dogs.
When this animal first appeared on the show, I didn’t think there was much chance of turning him around. Dogs that live as wild animals don’t easily convert to living in such intimate terms with people. My first thought was that maybe Shaggy would have been better off if he had been left at the Grand Canyon.
But he managed to adapt to these new conditions, and in the end, he seemed happy to be a loved dog. He became nothing like the wild creature that was brought in at the beginning of the show. It was a truly remarkable transformation.
