CathyM

A huge shout out to Garnali. I have just spoken to Hershey's owners, who was groomed today, by Garnali. ????????????????????. What an awesome job you have done. Hershey is home after being groomed without any anxiety and is sound asleep on the couch. Hershey's owners are so relieved that he was able to be groomed without sedation. A Great Leap Forward. Thankyou so much for coming to the rescue.

He is a very interesting mix and I must say I could not pin point any specific breed when I rescued him, but like you said he's a spunky little man. Thank you for seeing Hershey. I'm so glad we posted about Hershey's issue and thanks for coming to the rescue. I will look forward to hearing about Hershey's progress.

Fantastic, thanks Garnali. I will be interested to hear what you think will be the best course of action for Hershey, and hopefully one day it won't be such a traumatic experience for Hershey and his family.

Hershey's owners will sign up to DOL tonight. So hopefully she'll liaise with you, with further info on Hersh and hopefully the possibility of getting together and maybe coming up with a plan. Thanks again Garnali and everyone formall your help. :)

Hi Garnali, That's a very kind offer indeed. I will send Hershey's owner the link to this forum, so hopefully she'll pop in and have a look. Thank you all very much for your tips and advicehopefully going forward they'll be able to ease his suffering at grooming time. Cheers

Thanks for all your replies. Certainly a few new things for the owners to try. Here's a few pictures of Hershey. First one was when he was picked up and impounded. Second one after his desexing and I suspect his first ever groom. Third one is in his new home after he was adopted from me. He looks like 3 different dogs

thanks for your replies. Certainly some things for the new owners to try. Here are a few pictures of Hershey. He's certainly getting the love and attention he deserves now. He lives just in the next street from me so I get to see him often. :D 1st picture was when he was picked up and impounded 2nd picture after his desexing and i suspect his first ever groom 3rd picture in his loving new home. He looks like 3 different dogs

Thanks for your reply Clyde. The new owners have tried to brush him (he won't have it) I've also lent them my clippers so they could try and get him used to them, but it doesn't seem to have helped. Hershey was one of the most extreme cases of matting I have ever seen. I don't think Hershey had been shown much love in his life before arriving into foster care.. I suspect he'd been left to his own devices for 6 years and is I suspect he'd never been brushed and clipped in his life. Maybe he did have a burning sensation that was causing him great discomfort. Maybe the proper groomer in a vet clinic may be the way to.

Yes, they have tried to brush him and he hates that as well. I have also lent them my clippers to get him used to the sound, but it hasn't helped him either. I suspect Hershey made it to 6 years old without much love and I certainly suspect he'd never been touched in the grooming sense (be brush or clipped) he was one of the most extreme cases of matting I have ever seen. A little dog left to his own devices for by his previous owners.

I have also posted this in the grooming section but thought I would post in here in case someone has had a foster with a similar issue. Hershey is one of my beautiful ex foster dogs, (I foster for a rescue group in Canberra) who was adopted by a friend of mine. He has thrown up a few challenges along the way, but none so traumatic for my friend as the issue he has when being groomed. I was hoping someone in this discussion forum may have experienced anything similar and might have some advice on how to cope going forward. See below. Thanks Hershey is a beautiful cross-breed 6 year old dog with a thick woolly coat. We adopted him as a rescue dog 12 months ago and were aware early on that he becomes easily anxious when in pain or threatened. He is particularly wary about having his feet touched. We suspected that having his coat clipped would be a challenging experience, as he had probably only been clipped once and this was done under general anesthetic during his surgery to de-sex him (before we adopted him). We chose a dog groomer who had experience with rescue dogs, however Hershey became so frantic that she was unable to finish clipping him, even though he was muzzled. We tried again 3 months later. This time Hershey was sedated and clipped by our vet. The vet advised that she could only do a short clip (as for surgery). Although his coat was short, Hershey returned to his usual self within 24 hours. We couldn’t have his coat clipped short over winter because he would be too cold, so it was 7 months until his next clip, again with the vet. His woolly coat was quite matted and the job was difficult. The result was a very short clip with some razor scrapes and raw areas. Over the next couple of days, Hershey was in constant distress. He curled up in his bed trembling and growled when people or our other dog tried to comfort him. We contacted the vet 3 days later and she prescribed sedatives to help calm his anxiety. These made him sleepy but he continued to tremble and growl. By now he had also developed a constant habit of flipping around to reach his tail and flapping his ears. He was still doing this a week after his clipping and had taken to hiding in cupboards for hours on end. He wouldn’t engage with us at all. However during this whole period he continued to eat, drink, poop and go on walks. Exactly a week after his clipping we took Hershey back to the vet. Based on his usual nervous personality, she suspected that his behaviour was an anxious response to the procedure. She prescribed a series of steroid tablets to help relieve his physical discomfort (short hair and raw patches) and suggested behavioural modification tablets might be needed if his anxious behaviours didn’t stop. Thankfully, at this stage, nearly 2 weeks after being clipped, it seems that the steroids – or simply time – have helped relieve his physical and mental pain and he is starting to recover. He is now affectionate with us again and the frantic behaviours have reduced, though not yet gone. We’re grateful to have Hershey “return” to us, but are worried about how to handle his next clipping which he will need before the summer heats up. However we are really wary about going through the sedation process again, not knowing whether his distress has been caused by the clipping process under sedation (being aware but unable to do anything?); the physical discomfort of really short hair and raw skin; or a combination of both. Any thoughts or advice on similar experiences would be really appreciated.

Hershey is one of my beautiful ex foster dogs, (I foster for a rescue group in Canberra) who was adopted by a friend of mine. He has thrown up a few challenges along the way, but none so traumatic for my friend as the issue he has when being groomed. I was hoping someone in this discussion forum may have experienced anything similar and might have some advice on how to cope going forward. See below. Thanks Hershey is a beautiful cross-breed 6 year old dog with a thick woolly coat. We adopted him as a rescue dog 12 months ago and were aware early on that he becomes easily anxious when in pain or threatened. He is particularly wary about having his feet touched. We suspected that having his coat clipped would be a challenging experience, as he had probably only been clipped once and this was done under general anesthetic during his surgery to de-sex him (before we adopted him). We chose a dog groomer who had experience with rescue dogs, however Hershey became so frantic that she was unable to finish clipping him, even though he was muzzled. We tried again 3 months later. This time Hershey was sedated and clipped by our vet. The vet advised that she could only do a short clip (as for surgery). Although his coat was short, Hershey returned to his usual self within 24 hours. We couldn’t have his coat clipped short over winter because he would be too cold, so it was 7 months until his next clip, again with the vet. His woolly coat was quite matted and the job was difficult. The result was a very short clip with some razor scrapes and raw areas. Over the next couple of days, Hershey was in constant distress. He curled up in his bed trembling and growled when people or our other dog tried to comfort him. We contacted the vet 3 days later and she prescribed sedatives to help calm his anxiety. These made him sleepy but he continued to tremble and growl. By now he had also developed a constant habit of flipping around to reach his tail and flapping his ears. He was still doing this a week after his clipping and had taken to hiding in cupboards for hours on end. He wouldn’t engage with us at all. However during this whole period he continued to eat, drink, poop and go on walks. Exactly a week after his clipping we took Hershey back to the vet. Based on his usual nervous personality, she suspected that his behaviour was an anxious response to the procedure. She prescribed a series of steroid tablets to help relieve his physical discomfort (short hair and raw patches) and suggested behavioural modification tablets might be needed if his anxious behaviours didn’t stop. Thankfully, at this stage, nearly 2 weeks after being clipped, it seems that the steroids – or simply time – have helped relieve his physical and mental pain and he is starting to recover. He is now affectionate with us again and the frantic behaviours have reduced, though not yet gone. We’re grateful to have Hershey “return” to us, but are worried about how to handle his next clipping which he will need before the summer heats up. However we are really wary about going through the sedation process again, not knowing whether his distress has been caused by the clipping process under sedation (being aware but unable to do anything?); the physical discomfort of really short hair and raw skin; or a combination of both. Any thoughts or advice on similar experiences would be really appreciated.

Thank you for all your advice, it's not often I feel out of my depth, but today, when they called, I did. I'm hoping we are on the right track to resolving Oreos issues. His owners are prepared to bring in the professionals to assess him and we will go from there. I'm hoping it will be positive outcome, but we'll see. Plenty more for me to learn though.

I have also spoken to a trainer who said maybe something has happened whilst they've been out at work as he's in the yard when they are out. So I have rung them back and they are first of all going to take him to the vet to see if there's anything obvious going on. Phew! I also asked if anything had happened in the yard at some point whilst they had been at work, and indeed it had. Someone tried to break in and came in throu the yard and it was exactly the time he started to exhibit a different behaviour and became aggressive towards strangers so,they are going to seek professional advice. They hadn't realized that it could have caused an issue for him. I have my fingers crossed that the situation is salvageable but at least they are going to seek professional advice now. Thanks for the advice. Cathy Edited so it now makes sense.

Thanks for the replies. I will suggest a trip to the vet, but their opening line when I answered the phone was " we need to get rid of him". I hope they will be up for some investigation as to what's going on, as I believe there has to be an explanation. Apparently he started exhibiting human aggression about 6 weeks ago and he's been getting progressively worse, but attacking the son was a tipping point. He also tried to get out of their gate to attack someone walking by, which he'd never done before.

Hi all, I am a foster Carer with a rescue group and have been fostering for 7 years. Today I received a phone call from an adopter, who adopted Oreo an Aussie terrier x in 2010. He was about 12 months old when adopted and had spent about 4 weeks in my care, before being adopted. He had the most gorgeous nature. He went to a fantastic home and they kept updating me on his progress and it was all good. They loved him to pieces and was the perfect dog. Today I received a call from them saying he has suddenly turned into a very human aggressive dog, who wants to attack everyone who comes to their house and even attacked there son the other day who lives a the house, yet whilst on the phone to me he was a calmly sitting next to his owner. I have no idea what is going on. Can a good dog suddenly become bad? Has anyone had this or know of this happening? Any advice on what could have gone wrong? Any advice on what they should do? Is it a salvageable situation? At al loss as to what's gone on. Thanks for reading. Cathy