Each morning I take the dogs out separately as I think it's good for them to have some time away from each other and also where they can have my time exclusively to themselves. Weekend walks are pack affairs though.
This morning Larry seemed a bit disgruntled (nothing new there) when pressed it appears that he feels it is unfair that Yogi is getting all the attention and fame, when he (Larry) is an equally interesting character. So, I agreed to write his story for him - although he did say "no pictures". I will try to persuade him otherwise, may need to talk to his agent :o))
At the time we found Larry, we had 2 dogs, Max and Yogi, we weren't looking for a 3rd at all. We had had Yogi for almost a year and had decided that it would be good to "give something back" and help out at the rescue centre where Yogi was from. Fatal really. In one of the kennels was a large thin Border Collie. No-one was supposed to go near him and no-one could walk him except the kennel owner. From a distance I could see that he was very distressed, completely manic, and when approached was down right vicious. If I was to walk passed his kennel, he would go completely demented, fling himself at the bars frothing at the mouth. I know that collies don't always do well in a kennel environment, they find it too stressful. But I couldn't believe the level of his unhappiness. The kennel had a "non distruct" policy. In cases like that, I am not sure that I agree with them. Asking for a bit of background on him, I found that he had been picked up as a stray by the police about 6 months previously. Police report stated that he was a bit "off the wall" and nervy. Then he had been rehomed to a man with another dog. When he bit the man, he was returned to the kennel. That was all I could find out. The only thing I could see was that the kennel owner could walk him but needed to keep away from anyone while doing so. That's where my sleepless nights started. How could a dog like that ever be rehomed? How could a dog like that live out the rest of his days cooped up for the most part alone in a small kennel. Did he just have to wait to die of old age or some stress related condition? At that time, I had a couple of weeks off work and was going to the kennels daily. I decided to make it my mission to see if I could get through to him a bit. It started with me just walking passed his kennel often, every 15 minutes or so, not looking at him, just passing so that he got used to me being there. A couple of times I tried offering a biscuit, but even without looking at him, he would fling himself at the bars frothing at the mouth. After about a week of this, I noticed that he had stopped going mad as I walked by. Still looked very wary but not trying to "go" for me. I tried just putting a biscuit through the bars and walking on. He would eat them (I think) when I had dissappeared. What progress!!! From there, he started to come round a bit. Couldn't touch him (I wouldn't have tried anyway) but he seemed more accepting of my presence. One day I thought that's it, I have to try and walk him. I asked the kennel owner to get him out for me. Talk about scared though. Once he was out of the kennel, I quietly took the lead said nothing and just started walking. He wasn't calm, but he didn't look as if he would bite me. Not unless I pushed any boundaries that is. We walked, saying nothing, just sort of sizing each other up I guess. I cannot put into words how proud I felt. And I think at that point I thought "this dog is not staying here". So now what, I have partially won the trust of highly nervous, unknown quantity. What on earth do I do now? I had 2 other dogs at home, worked full time and a husband (this dog hated men with even more of a passion than I thought he hated me). But the fact that he was coming round meant that there was no way I could let him down now. It had occured to me that if I could bring him round, then someone else could get to know him too. Then they would give him a nice home and all the time that he needed. Pipe dream. Although people loved the way he looked, no-one was willing to take a chance or give him the time to gain trust. Rich was totally supportive and we had to figure out a way of getting Larry to accept him and Max and Yogi. Tall order. What we did was go to the kennel each day with both dogs, I would take Larry out (by this time, I could go into his kennel and put a lead on him) and Rich, Max and Yogi would walk about 20 feet behind. Every so often Larry would turn his head and growl. A low growl but nothing terrible. I would just ignore him and keep walking. Each day, the "Pack" would get a little nearer. Larry would still growl a bit, but their presence didn't seem to make him any worse. Result really. After I think a couple of weeks, we were walking almost side by side, probably with about a five foot gap. But at least we could chat and the dogs could see each other properly. I don't think at this point Rich had even touched him. Sometimes, we would leave the dogs behind and just the 3 of us would walk. Larry still did his turn around and growl thing, but it seemed more like a grumble that anything more sinister. And as we have got to know him better, we have found that he IS a grumpy old dog :o) That's his nature. By this time we knew that somehow he was coming home. It was really frightening to take on something like this. If it didn't work there was NO WAY he was ever going back to the kennel, it sounds awful, but I would rather have put him to sleep.
The big day arrived when Larry was coming home. Had no idea of what he was like in a house, whether he was a chewer, housetrained, barker or even whether he could be left for any length of time. I think that we just thought that this would be his one and only chance and we all had to give it a go.
So, the plan was to introduce the dogs on neutral territory. A walk completely away from home that was new to all of them. I bundled Larry into my little car (had no idea how he travelled either) The other 2 were in the "dog wagon". It was dusk but we wanted to walk quite a way to wear them all out a bit before they all got home. The funny thing was, that day in the kennel, Larry had been so calm and so quiet, almost as if he knew that all his woes were over. It was really very strange. I was worried that he was ill.
The walk went well, all dogs pretty much ignored each other and just concentrated on sniffing, weeing and other doggy pursuits. The humans though were on tenterhooks. What if, what if??? When we got home and unloaded them all from their respective cars, we wanted them all to enter the house more or less together. God knows how, but this worked. Although as soon as Larry started to go in, he sunk to his belly. The poor dog was absolutely petrefied. He slunk through the front door, and as soon as the door shut, he laid down. The other dogs, bless them, just left him completely alone. They were just milling around, asking for grub, and acting like all was normal. Still at this point Rich hadn't touched him and it was the first time that both of them had been together without Larry being on a lead. Rich was sensible and left him alone, Larry was sensible and stayed lying down just taking in his surroundings. We just carried on as normal around him letting him be. After a while, I started to get a bit concerned as to why he still hadn't moved. I had never "examined" him what with his boundary issues, and wondered if all was OK. So slowly, slowly, I squatted down beside him and ran my hands gently over him. This seemed to relax him amazingly enough. When I got to his feet I noticed that they were raw and covered in blisters. The poor dog must have been in absolute agony. He had never shown lameness, but I think with 6 months of pounding from one side of his kennel to another, he had wrecked his paws. He let me wash them and dry them (I think that's when we really bonded) and put some cream to soothe them. It seemed to help because he stood up then and wandered around the kitchen to the back door. At least he had come off his belly now. He wanted to go out but couldn't walk on the concrete to the grass. Now what? He needed to be carried. Another test that he passed with flying colours. I think he knew that we were just there to help.........
Larry's agent has just called and agreed that a picture can be posted. Fee to be agreed. I suspect that it will be in bones, but you can never quite tell with Larry.
So here he is........relaxing in Devon earlier this year....
This morning Larry seemed a bit disgruntled (nothing new there) when pressed it appears that he feels it is unfair that Yogi is getting all the attention and fame, when he (Larry) is an equally interesting character. So, I agreed to write his story for him - although he did say "no pictures". I will try to persuade him otherwise, may need to talk to his agent :o))
At the time we found Larry, we had 2 dogs, Max and Yogi, we weren't looking for a 3rd at all. We had had Yogi for almost a year and had decided that it would be good to "give something back" and help out at the rescue centre where Yogi was from. Fatal really. In one of the kennels was a large thin Border Collie. No-one was supposed to go near him and no-one could walk him except the kennel owner. From a distance I could see that he was very distressed, completely manic, and when approached was down right vicious. If I was to walk passed his kennel, he would go completely demented, fling himself at the bars frothing at the mouth. I know that collies don't always do well in a kennel environment, they find it too stressful. But I couldn't believe the level of his unhappiness. The kennel had a "non distruct" policy. In cases like that, I am not sure that I agree with them. Asking for a bit of background on him, I found that he had been picked up as a stray by the police about 6 months previously. Police report stated that he was a bit "off the wall" and nervy. Then he had been rehomed to a man with another dog. When he bit the man, he was returned to the kennel. That was all I could find out. The only thing I could see was that the kennel owner could walk him but needed to keep away from anyone while doing so. That's where my sleepless nights started. How could a dog like that ever be rehomed? How could a dog like that live out the rest of his days cooped up for the most part alone in a small kennel. Did he just have to wait to die of old age or some stress related condition? At that time, I had a couple of weeks off work and was going to the kennels daily. I decided to make it my mission to see if I could get through to him a bit. It started with me just walking passed his kennel often, every 15 minutes or so, not looking at him, just passing so that he got used to me being there. A couple of times I tried offering a biscuit, but even without looking at him, he would fling himself at the bars frothing at the mouth. After about a week of this, I noticed that he had stopped going mad as I walked by. Still looked very wary but not trying to "go" for me. I tried just putting a biscuit through the bars and walking on. He would eat them (I think) when I had dissappeared. What progress!!! From there, he started to come round a bit. Couldn't touch him (I wouldn't have tried anyway) but he seemed more accepting of my presence. One day I thought that's it, I have to try and walk him. I asked the kennel owner to get him out for me. Talk about scared though. Once he was out of the kennel, I quietly took the lead said nothing and just started walking. He wasn't calm, but he didn't look as if he would bite me. Not unless I pushed any boundaries that is. We walked, saying nothing, just sort of sizing each other up I guess. I cannot put into words how proud I felt. And I think at that point I thought "this dog is not staying here". So now what, I have partially won the trust of highly nervous, unknown quantity. What on earth do I do now? I had 2 other dogs at home, worked full time and a husband (this dog hated men with even more of a passion than I thought he hated me). But the fact that he was coming round meant that there was no way I could let him down now. It had occured to me that if I could bring him round, then someone else could get to know him too. Then they would give him a nice home and all the time that he needed. Pipe dream. Although people loved the way he looked, no-one was willing to take a chance or give him the time to gain trust. Rich was totally supportive and we had to figure out a way of getting Larry to accept him and Max and Yogi. Tall order. What we did was go to the kennel each day with both dogs, I would take Larry out (by this time, I could go into his kennel and put a lead on him) and Rich, Max and Yogi would walk about 20 feet behind. Every so often Larry would turn his head and growl. A low growl but nothing terrible. I would just ignore him and keep walking. Each day, the "Pack" would get a little nearer. Larry would still growl a bit, but their presence didn't seem to make him any worse. Result really. After I think a couple of weeks, we were walking almost side by side, probably with about a five foot gap. But at least we could chat and the dogs could see each other properly. I don't think at this point Rich had even touched him. Sometimes, we would leave the dogs behind and just the 3 of us would walk. Larry still did his turn around and growl thing, but it seemed more like a grumble that anything more sinister. And as we have got to know him better, we have found that he IS a grumpy old dog :o) That's his nature. By this time we knew that somehow he was coming home. It was really frightening to take on something like this. If it didn't work there was NO WAY he was ever going back to the kennel, it sounds awful, but I would rather have put him to sleep.
The big day arrived when Larry was coming home. Had no idea of what he was like in a house, whether he was a chewer, housetrained, barker or even whether he could be left for any length of time. I think that we just thought that this would be his one and only chance and we all had to give it a go.
So, the plan was to introduce the dogs on neutral territory. A walk completely away from home that was new to all of them. I bundled Larry into my little car (had no idea how he travelled either) The other 2 were in the "dog wagon". It was dusk but we wanted to walk quite a way to wear them all out a bit before they all got home. The funny thing was, that day in the kennel, Larry had been so calm and so quiet, almost as if he knew that all his woes were over. It was really very strange. I was worried that he was ill.
The walk went well, all dogs pretty much ignored each other and just concentrated on sniffing, weeing and other doggy pursuits. The humans though were on tenterhooks. What if, what if??? When we got home and unloaded them all from their respective cars, we wanted them all to enter the house more or less together. God knows how, but this worked. Although as soon as Larry started to go in, he sunk to his belly. The poor dog was absolutely petrefied. He slunk through the front door, and as soon as the door shut, he laid down. The other dogs, bless them, just left him completely alone. They were just milling around, asking for grub, and acting like all was normal. Still at this point Rich hadn't touched him and it was the first time that both of them had been together without Larry being on a lead. Rich was sensible and left him alone, Larry was sensible and stayed lying down just taking in his surroundings. We just carried on as normal around him letting him be. After a while, I started to get a bit concerned as to why he still hadn't moved. I had never "examined" him what with his boundary issues, and wondered if all was OK. So slowly, slowly, I squatted down beside him and ran my hands gently over him. This seemed to relax him amazingly enough. When I got to his feet I noticed that they were raw and covered in blisters. The poor dog must have been in absolute agony. He had never shown lameness, but I think with 6 months of pounding from one side of his kennel to another, he had wrecked his paws. He let me wash them and dry them (I think that's when we really bonded) and put some cream to soothe them. It seemed to help because he stood up then and wandered around the kitchen to the back door. At least he had come off his belly now. He wanted to go out but couldn't walk on the concrete to the grass. Now what? He needed to be carried. Another test that he passed with flying colours. I think he knew that we were just there to help.........
Larry's agent has just called and agreed that a picture can be posted. Fee to be agreed. I suspect that it will be in bones, but you can never quite tell with Larry.
So here he is........relaxing in Devon earlier this year....
3 comments:
What an amazing story. You certainly restore my faith in humanity let alone Larry's. If I bring my husband to the computer to read this he will be in tears! I am stunned, speechless, and totally in awe of what you have achieved. All I can say is THANK GOD there are people like you and thank you for letting us know the background on Larry.
Hi Lesley, thank you for your comments, they have made me feel absolutely brilliant! I think that at the time we felt that was all we could do, never really thinking that anyone thought it was special. Actually I think a lot of people thought we were daft. Sometimes though, you just must follow your heart and do what you think is right. Now I can't wait to do "part 2" of his story :o)
You have a heart of gold, and the patience of a saint!
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