BARRK Dogs in Rehabilitation
Cody is an Australian Collie and he was nine years old when he came to the croft for rehabilitation. He was a BARRK dog and had been adopted having been in his new home for eighteen months and though he was much loved things had started to go wrong. When visitors came to Cody’s home he would circle them menacingly, barking, growling and quivering his lip. A dog behaviourist was employed and they tried to break Cody’s behaviour using diversion therapy but it did not work and things just deteriorated, his owners becoming scared of him and everything came to a sudden head when Cody bit one of his owners in the face.
On the day of his arrival at the croft, after a walk on the lead several times around the paddock, I led Cody to the kennel that was to be his new home. I unclipped the lead, he went in, walked to the end of his kennel turned suddenly and charged at me snarling. Instinctively you want to jump back and slam the kennel door shut but that is the wrong thing to do, the right thing to do is to stand your ground resolute and unflinching, which is what I did. Cody came to a sudden halt just inches from me. Sensing that I had the advantage I drove home my authority by moving strongly toward Cody and he retreated, a clear sign of submission.
At feed time I put down his food and was stepping back to give him access to the bowl when he went for me with his mouth and it is a very big mouth full of strong teeth, fortunately I had anticipated this would be the case and had with me a brush, the perfect tool for fending off a dog attack, you do not hit the dog with it you just use it like a shield to keep the dog at a safe distance. I then moved in to take the food away from Cody, you cannot allow a dog to eat food that he has aggressively driven you away from, if you do you will make him very powerful and intensify his aggressive behaviour. All feeding from that point on was done with me holding the bowl in two hands with my body bent slightly forwards. If Cody snarled or went to bite me as he was eating I would lift the bowl up swiftly toward my chest, which has the effect of raising the dogs head and this combined with the rapidity of the movement snaps the dog out of its attack, though I do not suggest you try this yourself, it is an effective technique but you can get bitten.
Controlling the food in this manner however puts you in a very powerful position of authority, though in Cody’s case, due to his high level of confidence and tenacity it took several months of feeding in this way for him to completely yield to my authority where food was concerned. When it came to the pack Cody integrated with them in less than half an hour, he loves to run with them and due to his easy going nature with the other dogs he was given complete freedom to roam over the entire holding.
One afternoon I heard Cody barking loudly and rushed from the barn to see what he was up to only to discover him running round mother in circles, like Indians circling a wagon train in the old western movies. Mother, fortunately, was taking just the right course of action, standing completely still and showing no sign of fear. Circling in this way is not a good behaviour, it can very easily become aggressive and was the behaviour that the behaviourist had failed to correct. My brother and I rushed in and drove Cody away chastising him for his behaviour. On four more occasions he circled mother and four more times he was chastised and at that point he completely gave up the behaviour, the next time he saw mother he went up to her with a smile and a big wagging tail and presented his head to be stroked.
Touching Cody is not for the faint hearted he must be touched at just the right moment and in just the right way, this is achieved by reading his body language, get it wrong, touch him when he is not inviting a touch and you will get bitten by his very large mouth. Because of his issues regarding being touched, not surprisingly, he had never been properly groomed, there was matting between his legs under his tail and under his belly. Once confident that I was Cody’s pack leader I decided to tackle the hazardous task of grooming him, it took three weeks of patient grooming and clipping to get him sorted, during which time I was nearly bitten a dozen or so times.
Cody will never be offered for re-homing for the simple reason that you have to read Cody correctly one hundred percent of the time, get it wrong just once and he will bite you. But here on the croft we have learnt to read him inside out and he is a sheer joy to have about the place, a lively, affectionate and happy old fellow who wants to be involved in everything from tending the goats to cutting the grass.