A bit of history on my boy first:
I re-homed him at 7 months old from a rescue centre, they didn't tell me he was blind, they claimed to have not known when I called them!! According to the centre he was seized from the house due to him being badly mistreated, reports of him being trained with a horse whip, lived in a shed with his mum and dad, who were also brother and sister
and malnourished, had no muscle tone whatsoever
I got him home and realised almost immediatley there was something wrong after trips to the vet and specialist it was confirmed he was 95% blind. No sight whatsoever in his left eye and he could only see movement in his right, he couldn't work out distances etc
So fast forward 2 years and after a lot of hard work and tears, I got him trained to a level where you just wouldn't know he was blind, I built him up via good food and exercise, initially with hydrotherapy then walks etc Considering hs start in life he wasn't too bad with other dogs, the only thing he didn't like was dogs bouncing up into his face, he would pin them down !! I can't really blame him it must've been scary for him, I tried as best as I could to keep these types of dogs away, however it's impossible as we all know there's too many 'my dog is friendly' (and totally out of control) owners out there
His behaviour really started to deteriorate about 6 months ago, he started to attack Kiara indoors, always in times of over excitement etc, this behaviour then started outside with any other dog that came close, he would grab them on top of their shoulders / back of neck area and just shake, scruffing I think it's called. he would then go through a period of calm then suddenly it would be back again, the slightest thing would set him off again. I was now at the point where he was on lead when we were out. I tried emailing and phoning soooo many people for help but due to his blindness many behaviourists etc said there was nothing they could do, I did speak to the behaviourist who works for many tears and she gave me some good advice however nothing worked long term, he would just come back worse then before, I then spoke to a lady - travelled all the way up to Cumbria and she gave me some tips, which seemed to work and we wen through quite a long period of calm, which is when we got Lily, I really thought I'd cracked it with him, he was brilliant with Lily, played so gently with her considering the size difference
then he started again with his scruffing only this time he managed to get away from my OH cross a river and track a dog 2-300yds to scruff it, unfortunatley he killed the dog
it was a small terrier, I was distraught when OH came home to tell me, as was the dogs owner, we obviously offered to pay the vets bill - the little dog was taken alive to the vets but due to internal injuries had to be pts
Luckily for us, the dogs owner didn't want to involve the police but we promised from then on whenever he was out Bailey would be muzzled. We also offered, when he was ready to buy him a puppy/dog. I still can't believe how accepting and good he was about it all, as I can honestly say I don't think I could've been.
I took Bailey to the vets for a general check over and asked for some bloods to be taken, I just had the feeling something was not right the bloods came back OK. His scruffing and behaviour gradually got worse we were walking him seperatley and keeping everything calm indoors. Kiara spent her time in her cage and was skulking about, he was seperated from then if we went out. Oh's daughter was playing in the garden with Lily and Poppy and Bailey just shot outside, I don't know what it was about it but I just thought Sh*t he gonna have her, so I screamed at Bel to stand still and shut up, which che did and Bailey recalled to me. I don't know what would've happened but you know when your stomach drops and your heart goes BANG - it was one of those moments.
So, back to vets for some advice, the vet said from his behaviours etc he thought there could be a possibility he had a brain tumour and refered us to the specialist, I went home and like an idiot started googling !!! it did however invetween all the bad stuff give me some questions to ask, then one evening my OH came home a little earlier than usual and the dogs ran to the door to meet him (I'd been keeping hold of Bailey as this was a time of excitement which could set him off) Bailey grabbed hold of Kiara and started scruffing her, OH grabbed Bailey by his collar to pull him off and as he was Bailey turned and bit Oh's arm and started trying to shake it (like a ratting dog shakes a rat) he wouldn't let go, I shot outside and grabbed Baileys legs the furthest away from me from the side and pulled, he went down and the ooomph made him let go
Luckily Oh's arm was ok as he had a thick coat on, just some bruising, Kiara however was a different story, she had 2 holes in her shoulder and she'd hurt her back leg which she'd only 5 weeks previously had a cruciate op on, back to the vets with Kiara she got put back on Tramadol and Metacam and complete bedrest, luckily it was just badly bruised. While I was there I asked the questions about Bailey: if it was a tumour was there anything they could do etc etc etc the vet said probably not, they could try different things but as far as he was concerned this scruffing thing had become ingrained and now he'd bit a human he was like a ticking time bomb.
I went home and cried some, stamped my feet, ranted and raved, calmed own some and had a chat with my Mum (good ole mums eh
) and my Oh we decided to have him pts, we were worried about having a child in the house and it just wasn't fair on the other dogs, Baileys behaviour was just too unpredicatble and with his size we just couldn't chance it.
So, a couple of weeks ago, he crossed over to the bridge and as the light went out of his eyes, my heart broke into a million pieces
When he was in the rescue
A few months after he came home with me
Random
With Lily Bug
Goodnight and God Bless my Baby Boy and run free
