Shadow

The Story Continues

By the end of August, Shadow had discovered the joys of running in stubble fields and playing hunt the toy.

His fitness and condition were improving, he was continuing to cope with people being close and walking near to him and I had started to identify more of his triggers. After being with me for 5 weeks, he suddenly began barking continuously in the van whilst I was driving. He was driving me mad. I guess it was because he had realised that the van meant walkies! This was tied in with my return to work after a 4 week summer break. As I was back at work and had access to sensible dog savvy people, I could once again begin to get him used to people. Work concentrated on his trigger areas (people walking towards him and making eye contact). Loads of treats paired with people approaching and he seems to be getting quite relaxed about the whole thing.

By the end of September he had been in the college training area and met 15 or so canine behaviour students. Things hadn't gone quite to plan and he did have a woof at one or two of them, but by the end of the session he was much more relaxed (and so was I). All the students ignored him and allowed him to get close enough to sniff. He was also no longer food guarding and had learned to sit for his toy to be thrown rather than trying to grab it out of my hands. I'd also finally found out how to shut him up in the van whilst I was driving....frozen stuffed kongs and roast marrow bones.

I had discovered that he was wary of all livestock, not a good thing when you work at an agricultural college, so I had to begin desensitising him to all the scary beasties now as well as people. As with most dogs with problems, you solve one problem and another one appears, a bit like the layers of an onion.

 His lack of impulse control was causing problems as he would grab toys and sometimes wouldn't let go. He tore a great hole in one of my tee-shirts when he went to grab the toy and missed. He was still very difficult to read and you couldn't relax with him for one minute. I thought I was experienced at reading dogs until I met Shadow, who could go from a cuddly monster to Tasmanian Devil in seconds with no warning in between. He was seriously scary when he decide to have a pop at something or someone.

By the beginning of October he had started to guard the crate (probably because of all those wonderful goodies he was getting to keep him quiet), so I had to move him from the top crate in my van as I really didn't like his face (and teeth) being so close to mine when he came out of the crate and I was also in a very confined space with him. He did bite me on the back of the hand in the first week in October as I was getting him out of the crate. Putting him in a lower crate did ease the situation, but he would still try to bite as he was put back into the crate. He had me in tears several times and I was starting to wonder what to do. I hadn't planned on having this dog as a long term foster, but there was no way he was re-homeable at this point.

By the end of October, as his fitness improved, more problems appeared. He took a dislike to one of my other dogs, so they had to be separated. He would get frustrated very easily, wouldn't release toys, if you went to pick a toy up off the floor he'd rush to grab it and take flesh as well, he'd jump up  at me almost none stop. Several things had improved, he was less reactive around people, I could stroke and brush him (he'd even had a bath). Once he'd made friends with someone he was their friend for life (albeit a rather 'in your face' friend).

Things then started to go from bad to worse, and it culminated in me getting a very nasty bite after I'd left him and Saga in the compound together whilst I nipped out, and as I walked back in he just flew at me and sank his teeth into my hand. This incident really shook my confidence, I has some serious thinking to do. By the beginning of December, I was rapidly coming to the conclusion that he was bullying me and enjoying it and that I had to decide whether I wanted to continue trying to rehabilitate him or whether it was time to have him put to sleep. Trouble is, I only had to look at his gorgeous face, and I was sunk and who wouldn't be?

He'd finally lost that 'haunted' look

To find out what the future held for us both click here or go back to the start of the story