Possession Aggression

[Jonnydog]

So sorry to hear that you have to let Murphy go. What a horrible decision to have to make    I hope both you and Murphy find the partnership you've both been waing for.

[JohnK]

We also had a rescue cocker from Caessr, Brodie, unfortunately after 5 weeks his aggression became too much for us and we had to return him. He was sent out to one of their trainers and he went for him and they felt unable to rehome him so he was put to sleep. It was felt he had "spaniel rage".

When we picked him up from the kennels he had been at he seemed fine and Mike the animal behaviourist there had not detected and unusual behaviour with him.

He was such  a well trained boy and 99% of the time he was great to be with and I had instantly bonded with, but he got progressively worse, to the point even I was frightened of him when he went into one of his rages. He would just suddenly turn and when he eventually snapped out of it, it was like he didn't even know it had happened.

I think John & Di and all the other great people do a great job to give forever homes to unwanted spaniels, but if the previous owners were really honest about why they want their dogs re-homed it would save their new owners a lot of heartache. I have been treated for acute anxiety through my experience.

I have had 7 spaniels now and Brodie has been the only one to have ever shown these tendencies and for the first week with us he never flared up, so please don't blame CAESSR, they only look to keep the dogs in kennels for as short a time as possible and if the dogs have shown any aggressive tendencies they make it very clear in the description.

After our experience with Brodie, we bought a puppy cocker to be with our 2 year old working cocker and everything is great, but I'll always miss Brodie, who we got the day after we lost our gorgeous ESS to lymphoma after a twelve month battle on chemotherapy.

[noelleybelley]

jmkenn thank you for telling me about your experience, I'm sorry that you lost Brodie, he was very cute looking.  I remember him being on here.  It is really sad that the people who surrender these dogs don't give the whole story.  If there was just Murphy and I, I'd probably keep him, but we have so many visitors, (kept to a minimum at the moment), who don't have dogs themselves and wouldn't understand when to leave him alone.  I also have my husband & two grown up children living here, plus son's girlfriend half the time, and if he bit one of them, (which WILL happen soon), I'd never forgive myself.  You can walk out of a room, then a couple of minutes later walk back in, and he's changed character because he's got something.  If you didn't realise, you would sit down next to him and that would be it.

Murphy had two 'episodes' yesterday, over silly things.  I think maybe he is bored because, although he's 7, he's a very busy dog and on the go a lot of the time.  He gets 3 walks a day, so isn't lacking in exercise.  At the moment, he's all curled up asleep on his favourite chair, looking like butter wouldn't melt.  Why/how do they change from cute, silly, loving dog to scary dog so easily & frequently?  It's very sad.

Maybe he should be doing something like agility - he would love that I think.  He's very clever compared to our other cocker.  I'm going to mention this to CAESSR.  I really hope they can find a new, more suitable, home for Murphy because the other option is too horrible to think about   

[JohnK]

Maybe he should be doing something like agility - he would love that I think.  He's very clever compared to our other cocker.  I'm going to mention this to CAESSR.  I really hope they can find a new, more suitable, home for Murphy because the other option is too horrible to think about  
[/quote]

Beleive me, when I found out what had happened to him I was devastated, but I could not risk him harming my granddaughter. He was also such a clever dog, but had been trained to be a prison dog and had had at least one other owner and you don't know what sort of treatment he had with them. Brodie was our 6th Spaniel, Dennis is now our 7th and none of the others has ever shown any aggression. When Brodie was good 99% of the time he was VERY good, but he could just turn without any notice.

I still feel if he had been in a household where he was the only dog and with a couple without children he would have been fine, but that was not what his assessment showed. Unfortunately Caessr cannot afford to have every dog assessed for 4 weeks before letting them go to new owners, so it is inevitable some problems will occur, though I suspect they are very few. John loves his dogs so much and wants them to have a happy life, he would not knowingly ever re home a dog he didn't think was not right for the person.

[jaybee]

So sorry you are in this difficult situation. It must have been a very difficult decision to make, but in some ways maybe it is a good thing your husband made the decision for you. Hopefully now Murphy will be properly assessed and be able to find a suitable forever home.

Big hugs to you
 

The right decision is sometimes the hardest to make.

[Mudmagnets]

Sorry to read you have had to give up Murphy.

I think in the circumstances described, you have to do what is best for the safety of yourself and your family.

a for you all

[Cockertime Blues]

I'm sorry about Murphy.  You shouldn't feel guilty or be hard on yourself.  Occasionally in spite of best efforts on the part of the rescue, adopters, homechecker etc., it takes a couple of shots at it for a rescue dog to get into the right home.  Maybe he'll do better in a quieter home.  You did the right thing by him anyway, as it sounds like he was stressing out.

We are Genie's second shot at a home.  Her first adopters kept her for six months and then returned her.  But we can't imagine why as she's such a lovely little dog and fits in great with us.

[Nicola]

We are Genie's second shot at a home.  Her first adopters kept her for six months and then returned her.  But we can't imagine why as she's such a lovely little dog and fits in great with us.

Ask the guinea pigs... oh no wait

To the OP I'm also very sorry about Murphy, it's a horrible situation to be in but it sounds like he's just not right for your family situation and vice versa; I don't think you have anything to beat yourself up about

[noelleybelley]

Just to close this thread off, Murphy went back to CAESSR last Sunday, to be assessed.  The couple who took him were so lovely, so if you're on here and reading this, thank you so much.  It was a bit emotional!

I'm hoping John will keep me updated about his progress.