COURTESY POST Please circulate. Thank you. This is Colby. Colby is a 2 year old neutered Doberman mix. He is pulling heavy from the Rottweiler or Beauceron side of the family. Colby is approximately 78 lbs. Colby has not had an easy life thus far, and has learned not to trust humans. This is what we do know about Colby. He was originally adopted through HALO to a family with a two year old child. There was a “nipping” incident with the two year old involving food and Colby was turned back into MCACC. (We do not know if the “food” involved in the incident was Colby’s food or the child’s food.). Colby was circulated within the national Doberman rescue network and a rescue in Pennsylvania put out a plea for someone in Arizona to physically pull Colby, stating they had a committed foster and a trainer lined up to work with Colby. They only needed a local rescue to “pull” Colby and transport him to the foster home. A local rescue stepped up, physically pulled Colby and transported him to his foster home. While everyone handles new dogs coming into a home differently, this particular foster home probably gave Colby too much free reign too soon, allowing him to have full run of the home from the moment he stepped in the door. Later that evening there was apparently a “bite” incident when the husband “kicked” Colby off the couch. We do not know how Colby was removed from the couch – “kicked” was the term used. We also do not know if it was a nip, snap, or actual bite, and if it was an actual bite – how bad it was. After Colby’s transfer to the foster home, the trainer then decided the foster home was too far away and would not go out to work with Colby. After a couple of weeks the foster home decided that they would be unable to keep Colby and demanded from the out of state rescue that he be removed from the home within the next few of days. A couple of ladies familiar with Dobermans went to remove Colby. Although we are not sure exactly what happened, there was a severe forearm bite incident that occurred when one of the ladies went to put a slip lead over Colby’s head from the side. At that point, Colby went into bite quarantine at a local kennel. The folks that transported Colby to the kennels sedated him to the point that his carrier had to be brought into the facility on a dolly and Colby was literally dumped out of the carrier into the kennel. He was in bite quarantine with no outside time and little human interaction for a month. People at the facility, both volunteers and staff, notice that Colby seemed to be a contrast in character from what was being portrayed about him. After he settled in and realized no one was going to hurt him, he relaxed and would approach the kennel gate as if looking for attention. He was given a stuffed animal that he would carry in his mouth (to date he has not torn this toy) almost like a security blanket and comfort item, and was allowing of volunteers to scoop out his kennel without incident. I finally asked permission to be able to take Colby out of the kennel for yard time. After Colby was removed from quarantine, this was permitted for a limited amount of people – myself, kennel staff and we are slowly introducing Colby to other volunteers. Colby has behaved well for the folks who have taken him out. Based on this, evaluations with behavorialists have been conducted on Colby to make a decision on what should be done with him. The first evaluation did not go well. The evaluator attempted to establish dominance over Colby and attempted to assert “control”. Colby reacted badly before he was even taken out of the kennel and the evaluation was discontinued. However, once the evaluator left and the perceived “threat” was removed, Colby relaxed and within minutes was back to wanting to be petted and taking hand fed treats without incident. A second evaluation was done by someone who had a different approach with Colby. This evaluation allowed Colby time to assess the evaluator and Colby was allowed to be “introduced” to the tools used. With this approach, the evaluation progressed very well, to where the evaluator was not only able to get Colby out of the kennel, but was actually handling him, loving on him, and he was responding to common commands from the evaluator by the end of the evaluation. This second evaluator’s opinion was that Colby is a “heartbreaker” and a “special needs kid”. He is an endearing and loyal dog, but is too intelligent for his own good. Colby evaluates everything and is on almost constant high alert. Making a placement for Colby will not be an issue – the issue is that Colby has problems with becoming too bonded to his humans. Training will need to be started after placement in either a foster or preferably permanent home while the bond is being formed so that Colby learns to understand he needs to TRUST his people and that they can make decisions with his best interest in mind. Based on his past experiences Colby has come to feel he needs to make all the assessments and decisions for his own well-being and that of the human(s) he has bonded to. He needs to learn to trust the human. This evaluator feels Colby absolutely needs a foster home (or of course a forever home) in order to properly try to address his trust issues. He needs the structure of a home environment with a primary attachment bond so he can learn what happens in a home and how to properly respond. The evaluator is willing to work with the foster or new owner, and we are doing what we can to raise funds to help with the costs associated with the training. It is not felt that there is anything productive that can be done for Colby long term while he is kenneled. It is urgent from both an ethical and humane standpoint that Colby be in a home environment. If the evaluator were to work with him while he is kenneled, he would only end up trusting the trainer and complying with her, with no generalization to other situations. The first evaluator went back and tried a different method of working with Colby. This time the evaluation progressed better, but it was still very apparent that Colby had issues with trust. The opinion this time was that the evaluator did not think Colby was “impossible”, but he needs a lot of work with someone that knows what they are doing and understands the risks. I have personally handled Colby many times at the boarding facility. If you go slow with Colby and allow him to know what is going on (i.e. show him the slip lead and let him explore it before you put it on him), he is fine. It is when you push him too fast or overwhelm him with incoming information and stimuli that he has issues. Colby has allowed me to have my face right in his (all I got was a bunch of slobbery kisses), play with his toes, rub his ears, offer him a toy and take it back, take tiny treats from my fingers and even take a Milkbone from me while I had the other end in my mouth. At one point he put his front paws up on the chair I was going to sit on. All I did was “Colby – off” with a hand signal and he got right down without any hesitation. While some of this may not be “best practices”, it does show that Colby is not a “vicious” dog. In fact, what I have seen is when approached correctly and allowing Colby to build trust, he is willing to cooperate and follow commands. Those of us who have seen this side of Colby are working desperately to buy him time to find an appropriate placement. He is a good dog, but in order to survive has learned behaviors that are not acceptable in the human world we place dogs. Colby can learn with time, love, patience and training that there are people in the world that will care and love him and he can trust them. Understand that Colby is not a dog that will be able to go into a “typical” family home. Colby will need a special environment. He will need a secure home with very limited “unknown” humans coming in and out of the home. He will need someone who is dedicated to working with him to build a bond and develop trust with him, and who will understand and be aware of the limitations Colby has developed and continuously work with him. Colby does seem to be more trusting of women than men, although once he has become familiar with an individual man and knows the man will not hurt him; he has been okay with men as well. Long term kenneling is not a solution for Colby and if an appropriate placement cannot be found, then our options are few. Do you have a home you can offer Colby, or know of someone who may? If so, please contact Crystal at crystallarnold@msn or Dee at onhanaaminalrescue@gmail or 480-744-5729. Please feel free to share this email and network Colby. We do hope to be able to find the appropriate home in time to be able to save Colby. Thank you.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 01:38:09 +0000
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