Fosters “The life line of rescue” ******* This year MRF has been overwhelmed with surrenders, our fosters have stepped up and many have taken in more than one rescue dog! Some of the dogs come with major “baggage” some of the information we receive with the dog is not really the problem, for example: Bart came from a kill shelter, was going to be put down the day rescue was notified. Bart had come into the shelter the year prior and before he could be evaluated by rescue he got adopted. Well less than a year later, Bart was returned to the kill shelter because “he was so aggressive that no one could come into their house”!!!! Well a MRF volunteer went to the shelter and did not see any aggressive indicators when she met and walked with the dog. The foster took Bart home that day, to 8 other mastiffs waiting at home. When Bart arrived at his new home he was met by the entire group, (the boys are usually not the problem, but those gals put all the new dogs through the “inspection”) no aggression was observed. The next day Bart went to the vet to have several broken teeth removed, no aggression seen! Bart has been the most expensive foster I have had! The behavior described as “aggression” was fear of storms!! The first week, Bart tried to get his 170lb body under an antique chest and caused it to tip over destroying two antique lead crystal hurricane lamps. The second week Bart who liked to hide in the bathroom got himself trapped in there while I was at the vets with another foster and destroyed the door, door frame and door handle, later that night we had a crash of thunder which caused Bart to jump up, hit the TV stand making the large flat screen TV crash to the floor! Then while I was out cutting grass Bart panicked, jumped up on the “stained glass window of the front door” causing it to “splinter” (not sure how to fix that one as yet). With reassurance and the appropriate medications (Prozac & Xanax) we now have almost eliminated the “panic mode” to thunder and storms. Bart was medicated for several weeks with a low dose of Prozac and when he let us know a storm was evident (they hear the thunder and sense it long before humans) he got a dose of Xanax. Now Bart is drug free, he does not need the medications to “ride out the storm”. Bart now goes into my bathroom and if the storm gets really intense he is in the tub! This did not happen overnight, it took patience and a lot of reassurance to get Bart to the place he is now. The aggressive behavior that he was labeled with was never there, it was fear!! Without a foster who was willing to take on a dog abeled “aggressive” and spend the time learning just what Bart’s problem was, then working with this dog Bart would have been put down! Our fosters are the BEST, we depend on their willingness to work with these dogs, their understanding and knowledge of the breed and especially their love and devotion to figuring out the problem and fixing it! Thank you to each and every one of you!
Posted on: Wed, 30 Jul 2014 20:47:36 +0000
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