Our bad boy Buster came into rescue with lots of aggression issues, is owners were so scared of him they basically just let him do what he wanted.
Thanks to some great support on here we raised funds to send him off for some behavioural training to try and help him. It id not go well.
The trainer we took Buster to has years of experience of both working dogs and aggressive dogs and came highly recommended by ESSW who use him regularly. However, despite his experience and spending upto 5 hours a day with Buster, he was making no headway. Buster was trying to bite him numerous times a day – basically every time he was asked to do something he didn’t want to do (go in the kennel, go in the car, go on a lead if he was having fun, even to touch him caused a reaction).
The trainer said that most of the aggressive dogs he works with when they go back to their owner/rescue he can confidently say that the training has been successful but obviously the dog may still bite in some circumstances so some sort of training will need to be continued. His assessment of Buster was that he should not be rehomed at all and even with many months of training he felt that Buster would continue to bite and on a regular basis, he also said that when Buster “goes” he would continue to come at you even when you had stopped doing whatever it was he didn’t like. He consulted with his vet but there was nothing medically he could try to help improve Buster’s situation.
So we were faced with three options.
1. Send him back to his previous owner (our terms and conditions mean we can do this) – we did not feel that this is appropriate as to a certain extent they have contributed to his situation and would not keep him so he could end up anywhere. Plus they had recently had a baby and Buster would not be safe with a child. On the one occasion that we have tried to send a dog back to owners she ended up being tied up outside the RSPCA, she bit one of their staff and ended up coming back to us anyway as they were going to put her to sleep as she'd bitten.
2. Keep him in kennels for the rest of his life. We do have a couple of dogs who will spend their final days with us but this is not really an option for Buster. He really does not like being cooped up and If we kept him he may have 13 years of 23+ hours a day in a kennel on his own, which for a dog that doesn’t like kennels is just not acceptable. We knew he would definitely bite someone seriously at some point especially as we couldn’t handle him so couldn't groom him or take him to the vets (or even walk him safely) etc. He'd had a go at a couple of people already (luckily not too seriously) but it was only a matter of time before someone was badly injured.
3. Have him given sleep – After lots of discussions with the trainer and consulting the vet we are very sad to say that we made the decision to have Buster given sleep.
This wasn’t an easy decision for us and not on we wanted to make, we do what we do because we love the dogs (even the grumpy ones) but we have to face the fact that we can’t always help them all. The only way we could be 100% sure we could help every dog is to not take problem dogs in the first place. This isn't something we ever want to do as the ones with problems are the ones that need our help the most.
All we can do is our best for each dog in our care, we feel that Buster’s circumstances mean that this hard decision was the only one for him. Whilst we will continue to do our best for our other troubled dogs. Arthur and Archie (and maybe Ralf) will probably stay with us for the rest of their days but the difference is that they are content (well most of the time anyway) in kennels and are more manageable so we can properly care for them both physically and emotionally.
We thank our supporters for their help in seeking and paying for this specialist help. Regrettably it hasn’t achieved the happy outcome we were hoping for.
We know some of you will not agree with our decision (and all of you will be upset) but we who knew him best and loved him made the decision based on what life held for Buster .We hope that you will understand and continue to support us and the Springers, helping so many others to happier lives and giving every dog the best possible care we can.
Thanks to some great support on here we raised funds to send him off for some behavioural training to try and help him. It id not go well.
The trainer we took Buster to has years of experience of both working dogs and aggressive dogs and came highly recommended by ESSW who use him regularly. However, despite his experience and spending upto 5 hours a day with Buster, he was making no headway. Buster was trying to bite him numerous times a day – basically every time he was asked to do something he didn’t want to do (go in the kennel, go in the car, go on a lead if he was having fun, even to touch him caused a reaction).
The trainer said that most of the aggressive dogs he works with when they go back to their owner/rescue he can confidently say that the training has been successful but obviously the dog may still bite in some circumstances so some sort of training will need to be continued. His assessment of Buster was that he should not be rehomed at all and even with many months of training he felt that Buster would continue to bite and on a regular basis, he also said that when Buster “goes” he would continue to come at you even when you had stopped doing whatever it was he didn’t like. He consulted with his vet but there was nothing medically he could try to help improve Buster’s situation.
So we were faced with three options.
1. Send him back to his previous owner (our terms and conditions mean we can do this) – we did not feel that this is appropriate as to a certain extent they have contributed to his situation and would not keep him so he could end up anywhere. Plus they had recently had a baby and Buster would not be safe with a child. On the one occasion that we have tried to send a dog back to owners she ended up being tied up outside the RSPCA, she bit one of their staff and ended up coming back to us anyway as they were going to put her to sleep as she'd bitten.
2. Keep him in kennels for the rest of his life. We do have a couple of dogs who will spend their final days with us but this is not really an option for Buster. He really does not like being cooped up and If we kept him he may have 13 years of 23+ hours a day in a kennel on his own, which for a dog that doesn’t like kennels is just not acceptable. We knew he would definitely bite someone seriously at some point especially as we couldn’t handle him so couldn't groom him or take him to the vets (or even walk him safely) etc. He'd had a go at a couple of people already (luckily not too seriously) but it was only a matter of time before someone was badly injured.
3. Have him given sleep – After lots of discussions with the trainer and consulting the vet we are very sad to say that we made the decision to have Buster given sleep.
This wasn’t an easy decision for us and not on we wanted to make, we do what we do because we love the dogs (even the grumpy ones) but we have to face the fact that we can’t always help them all. The only way we could be 100% sure we could help every dog is to not take problem dogs in the first place. This isn't something we ever want to do as the ones with problems are the ones that need our help the most.
All we can do is our best for each dog in our care, we feel that Buster’s circumstances mean that this hard decision was the only one for him. Whilst we will continue to do our best for our other troubled dogs. Arthur and Archie (and maybe Ralf) will probably stay with us for the rest of their days but the difference is that they are content (well most of the time anyway) in kennels and are more manageable so we can properly care for them both physically and emotionally.
We thank our supporters for their help in seeking and paying for this specialist help. Regrettably it hasn’t achieved the happy outcome we were hoping for.
We know some of you will not agree with our decision (and all of you will be upset) but we who knew him best and loved him made the decision based on what life held for Buster .We hope that you will understand and continue to support us and the Springers, helping so many others to happier lives and giving every dog the best possible care we can.
