ABBEY KATZ Rehomed June 2010
ABBEY
DEAF – almost blind in her blue eye
DOB – 23.03.09
Abbey first came to West Yorkshire Dog Rescue aged 4 months after a lovely family saved her from being shot by a farmer once he discovered that she was deaf and therefore could not be worked. She was a very unruly pup with no training and a lot of in-built self-amusement techniques such as chasing shadows and pacing over short distances at full speed repeatedly. The focused working collie instinct made it difficult to break these habits and she still does them although now she will respond if you distract her. She had no concept of playing with toys and was totally food orientated. However, she was the sweetest little pup with no aggression issues with humans or animals.
She was adopted by a family but due to her new dad becoming very poorly the heart-breaking decision was made in February 2010 to ask us to find her a new home.
Abbey is now just over 1yr old. Her previous family have obviously put a lot of effort into continuing the sign language training, she is house-trained and up-to-date with all her vacations She loves people and considers that every child was put on this earth especially for her, although as a pup she can be a bit over enthusiastic and since she has been back with us we have been working on her assuming a calmer approach rather than the bouncing technique of an express kangaroo. We are working on her sitting to greet people nicely.
There is one major issue that we have been addressing and that is socialisation with other dogs. She has extreme anxiety about other dogs which manifests in aggression and she will fight regardless of any distractions made towards her. When she is in the house she will go out of her way to bait the other dogs in our pack and set about them even to the point of seeking them out if they are in another room. Having said that she is living in the foster home with my 3 collies of which 2 instantly put her in her place when she first started on them and she is fine with them now with no aggression at all - our other one is too placid to do that and so is now the focus for her dominance.
Outside the house she is stressed by all dogs, even if they are paying her no mind and are a fair distance away. If she spots them then she lunges towards them so hard that she knocks herself off her feet (she wears a harness because I was afraid that she would choke herself or cause damage to her windpipe). She becomes so agitated that she is unresponsive to anything. I have started to use a soft muzzle on her because I was worried that if she pulled the lead out of my hand she does fight really aggressively. As you can imagine this makes walks a nightmare but we are working on overcoming this.
At home with us she has her own bed at night. She is crate trained which she goes in when we go out and is for her alone to go to when she wants to. Although she has no recall as yet I think that once she learns to watch for signs she will have no problems learning it but until the issue with other dogs is resolved I have not been prepared to work on recall off-lead as yet. She is cat friendly.
Abbey just wants to be loved, amused and have the attention of people and in return she will give you her all. The only thing that lets Abbey down is the aggression towards other dogs.
DEAF – almost blind in her blue eye
DOB – 23.03.09
Abbey first came to West Yorkshire Dog Rescue aged 4 months after a lovely family saved her from being shot by a farmer once he discovered that she was deaf and therefore could not be worked. She was a very unruly pup with no training and a lot of in-built self-amusement techniques such as chasing shadows and pacing over short distances at full speed repeatedly. The focused working collie instinct made it difficult to break these habits and she still does them although now she will respond if you distract her. She had no concept of playing with toys and was totally food orientated. However, she was the sweetest little pup with no aggression issues with humans or animals.
She was adopted by a family but due to her new dad becoming very poorly the heart-breaking decision was made in February 2010 to ask us to find her a new home.
Abbey is now just over 1yr old. Her previous family have obviously put a lot of effort into continuing the sign language training, she is house-trained and up-to-date with all her vacations She loves people and considers that every child was put on this earth especially for her, although as a pup she can be a bit over enthusiastic and since she has been back with us we have been working on her assuming a calmer approach rather than the bouncing technique of an express kangaroo. We are working on her sitting to greet people nicely.
There is one major issue that we have been addressing and that is socialisation with other dogs. She has extreme anxiety about other dogs which manifests in aggression and she will fight regardless of any distractions made towards her. When she is in the house she will go out of her way to bait the other dogs in our pack and set about them even to the point of seeking them out if they are in another room. Having said that she is living in the foster home with my 3 collies of which 2 instantly put her in her place when she first started on them and she is fine with them now with no aggression at all - our other one is too placid to do that and so is now the focus for her dominance.
Outside the house she is stressed by all dogs, even if they are paying her no mind and are a fair distance away. If she spots them then she lunges towards them so hard that she knocks herself off her feet (she wears a harness because I was afraid that she would choke herself or cause damage to her windpipe). She becomes so agitated that she is unresponsive to anything. I have started to use a soft muzzle on her because I was worried that if she pulled the lead out of my hand she does fight really aggressively. As you can imagine this makes walks a nightmare but we are working on overcoming this.
At home with us she has her own bed at night. She is crate trained which she goes in when we go out and is for her alone to go to when she wants to. Although she has no recall as yet I think that once she learns to watch for signs she will have no problems learning it but until the issue with other dogs is resolved I have not been prepared to work on recall off-lead as yet. She is cat friendly.
Abbey just wants to be loved, amused and have the attention of people and in return she will give you her all. The only thing that lets Abbey down is the aggression towards other dogs.
New Start
Saturday 12th June 2010
Abbey has a new family ...
And they still refer to her as 'our little probem child' whenever they update me.
She has settle well but still has issues, especially with other dogs (including the stone statue but the door - lol) but she loves the other two collies in the house and is still making progress.
And they still refer to her as 'our little probem child' whenever they update me.
She has settle well but still has issues, especially with other dogs (including the stone statue but the door - lol) but she loves the other two collies in the house and is still making progress.
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