We adopted a German Shepherd puppy when he was 4 months old
from a rescue organization. He had been
originally purchased from a breeder by a young man. When the dog was 3 months old, he got his leg
caught in a fence and broke it. The
young man however, didn’t do anything about it for a couple days until he
finally asked a friend if he should take it to the vet. The friend was apparently horrified, seized
the dog, and took him to the vet to get the leg fixed. The friend decided the pup was more than she
could handle, so she turned him over to a rescue organization.
We found on him on Petfinders and decided to adopt him. We already have an older Black Lab and German
Shepherd (who is partially blind and deaf), which are both rescues, and had
been thinking about getting another Shepherd. When we adopted Reilly, he was an energetic puppy (as to be expected),
and it was obvious he was going to be a big boy. We found out his leg didn’t heal properly
(the pin twisted inside the bone and couldn’t be removed), so we took him to a
specialist because he limped continuously. We put him on different meds and he seems to be doing well. However, Reilly has always had a ferocious
bark towards people (not us), mainly males. We didn’t think much about it until he was almost 11 months old, when a
[male] friend of ours offered to come over to help with his jumping (mostly on
me – I’m a 4’10” female and everything I tried did not work with him). I didn’t think much of his barking at our
friend until the pinch collar I was using broke loose and Reilly attacked our
friend, fortunately, only tearing his jacket. It was obvious this wasn’t going to work with our friend, so the
training session was over.
About a week later, our neighbor was over in our
garage. Reilly had been around him quite
a bit, but there had been a few times Reilly started barking and lunging at him
on the leash. Things were going okay
that evening, our neighbor was petting Reilly and he [Reilly] seemed fine. Our neighbor left the garage and when he
returned, Reilly and I didn’t see him come back in, but Reilly heard the
door. The next thing I knew, I heard our
neighbor in distress – Reilly had snuck up on him and attacked his leg. Fortunately, we got him off before he broke
the skin, but he left an awful bruise. I
was devastated. I knew I had to find a
professional to see if we could fix his aggression problem, or we were going to
have to put him down.
The next morning I called my vet, who recommended a vet in
Jacksonville that works with animals and their behavior problems – Dr. Colleen
Koch. I must have sounded extremely
distressed when I called, because Dr. Koch called me back that afternoon and
talked to me for almost an hour and a half! One of the first things Dr. Koch told me I had to do was get a basket muzzle
for Reilly. The thought of a muzzle was
a bit horrifying to me, but not as horrifying as Reilly getting loose and
seriously injuring someone. Dr. Koch also
explained that the old methods of training (pinch collars, shock collars, etc.)
all inflicted pain that could be dealt with in a more humane way (head halter,
clicker training). Since it was obvious
that Reilly had already experienced quite a bit of pain in his young life, I
liked what I was hearing from Dr. Koch and it didn’t seem as hopeless as I feared.
I found a website that customized basket muzzles to the size
of a dog’s muzzle. I measured Reilly and
ordered one. When we got it, it was a
bit daunting. But, I followed Dr. Koch’s instructions on introducing him to the muzzle, a.k.a., “treat basket.” Lots of love and a little spray liver (like
you use in Kongs) on the end of the basket (hence, “treat basket”), and it went
on him with no problem. I was
amazed. He was not bothered by it at
all. He was able to drink with it, take
treats, breathe fine, pant if needed, bark, and even chew on some of his
slimmer toys that would fit through the muzzle. He didn’t try to get it off. Plus it has a padded muzzle, so there is absolutely no
discomfort. He’s even fallen asleep with it on a few times
when he’s had it on in the house. I definitely feel better walking him around the
neighborhood with it on. There’s a certain confidence it gives me knowing
he’s not going to hurt anyone. I can’t
believe that I was apprehensive about putting a muzzle on him, and I can’t
believe that there are some people that would rather put their dog down than
put a muzzle on them. I know that Reilly
will always have to be watched due to his unfortunate beginning, but I feel a
lot better knowing the precautions that can (and should) be taken with an
aggressive dog. I would definitely
recommend the “treat basket” and the clicker training methods that we’re
learning from Dr. Colleen.
~Angie, Springfield
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