All our hard work with Dex finally paid off
We have always been a rescue who wants to give a dog a second chance. Dogs aren't born with behavioural issues that's on the humans who have had them.
They will of course carry their breed traits but as long as well socialised, training has taken place and those breed traits have an outlet then you should have a great dog.
Three-and-a-half years ago, we received a call from a vets. They had a nine-month-old German shepherd in to be put to sleep that afternoon due to it 'nipping someone’, but they didn't want to put it to sleep as it was so young and a healthy dog .
The owners brought Dex in to us that day – it turned out it was a bit more than a nip, but the dog had been startled by someone coming up behind them. The current owners had got him via the internet (please don't buy dogs this way) and obviously loved him but something had obviously occurred or he hadn't been socialised at all when with his first owners.
For such a young dog, he did show a lot of nervous aggression. We got the owners to pop him into his kennel and then the hard work began. Dex would not allow anyone near him, so it took a long time of just sitting quietly outside his kennel, not looking at him, talking quietly to him and throwing him bits of chicken while ignoring his reactiveness to us.
As time went on, he no longer barked at us when we sat there and instead started to bark when we left him. We had also noticed him sucking on his blanket which showed us he was just a scared baby.
The day Dex brought his blanket out and pushed it through the kennel bars for me to play tuggy with him, we knew we had had a breakthrough.
After a little while of this and him starting to lean against the kennel so we could touch him through the bars, we cleared everyone out the way and while appearing calm and confident (though shaking a little on the inside), I opened his door for the first time. He just strolled out and walked straight past me.
We then started to play with Dex and slowly introduced him to new people, warning them not to touch him until he let them know he wanted them to. Over time, though still wary of people initially, he started to warm up to them very quickly. The thing with Dex is once he trusts you, that's it, he trusts you. With us, he turned into the most loving teddy bear.
One of our staff had been taking him out, introducing him to new experiences and he had met her parents and spent time in their home. One day, they contacted us and said they would love to continue to work with Dex and help him all they could. As they had dealt with several difficult shepherds over the years, we knew they had the experience and expertise. They took their time letting Dex get to really know them and their own dogs. It was so heartwarming to see how excited he got whenever they came to pick him up.
You can imagine our elation when Dex left with them for the last time yesterday after they signed the adoption papers. Dex will always be wary of new people but they know how to manage him and he is going to have the most amazing life.