Another of our should we say more *colourful* characters and not yet ready for rehoming! Bryson landed with us from a stray pound in Hull earlier in the year and due to anxiety related issues and being one of the most easily over stimulated dogs I have ever met he is proving to be somewhat of a challenge. Just getting Bryson out of the kennels is an experience in itself that usually results in you being nipped, clawed half to death and in the main nearly maimed! Once out he then if not carefully controlled can have an extinction burst to end all other extinction bursts! He gets so overly animated easily that it has been known for him to turn biting and at times jump and grab at your shoulder. It is not in anyway shape or form being done with aggression or malice just complete lack of control over his own behaviour at that point in time. What in turn makes this so very difficult to handle is that after repeated attempts to muzzle train and introduce the muzzle Bryson will not accept it, he can not handle it and then you just end up with a writhing large dog on the floor damaging his own face whilst clawing away and biting at it. We will not put him through that as it is then much more detrimental. Sadly this makes him much more of a risk when walking and we have to handle him carefully and in the main he is still walked alone without the other dogs company to keep everyone safe although he has currently shown no dog aggression either. If all this was not enough to handle as a big strong dog he is also a lead ragger! So much so that we have had to resort to using a metal lead with him which we really dont like but its the only way to keep him safe when out and about, even then he has had that much of a paddy on the lead he has broken a tooth! Under neath all this though Bryson is a joy, he is quick to engage and extremely intelligent and easily trainable on those occassions you do calm him down enough to get him working with you. We do feel that a lot of his behaviour could be being bought on by a kennel environment and that it may even be a form of seperation based anxiety HOWEVER that does not mean he will be leaving the kennels and placed into either foster OR a home because at the moment I do feel that would be the right move and he could pose a risk. Not out of malice but out of over enthusiasm yet again that could land him deeply in trouble. We will keep working with Bryson safely and in a controlled environment until we feel we have that much needed break through then take it from there.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Nov 2014 07:51:31 +0000
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