So as i've mentioned before Murphy is a rescue, and we'd always planned on getting him a pal to play with. We visited Dogs Trust in Ilfracombe a few times, and they paired us up with Rusty! He's a 16 month old collie cross.
He was a 'sticky' dog and had been there for 10 months, after being placed with one family for a couple of weeks. He had originally been bought as a companion for a bed-ridden lady, but as he more collie than anything else that didn't go very well! He had a lot of issues...
We were told that he resource guards, had to be anaesthatised (sp?) to be groomed, would guard sick/poo, wasn't very well house-trained, didn't like guests, got aggressive touching his back end, has seperation anxiety and he didn't get on with Murphy to begin with!
The first few weeks were rocky, to say the least. He HATED our house-mate, would bare his teeth and charge at him - until Murphy jumped on him! We learnt that he definitely wasn't house-trained, that did wonders for the carpet. He decided one night that he didn't want me near a plastic bag, snapped at me, bared his teeth, growled and generally terrorised me! I came down from a shower once to find the housemate glued to the back of the sofa with Rusty guarding Nick's shoes...needless to say we were at our wits end!
HOWEVER! With a lot of patience and hard work we've managed to get through the majority of his aggression issues. Murphy and him get on beautifully, they play 24/7 and are such good fun. I can now groom him all over, with a brush and sometimes without treats! We had lots of guests over and now he runs up for fuss, tail wagging and brings them a tennis ball to throw! Most people don't believe us when we say he had aggression issues. He doesn't guard anything with us anymore (touch wood!) and never guarded poo or sick with us. His house-training and seperation anxiety are on-going issues which we are working on, but the two go hand in hand sometimes!
Overall, things are going really well! I would encourage anyone to stick with a dog with aggression, because they can turn into such wonderful dogs! He gives me a cuddle and a kiss every morning, and bounds over to me whenever I shout 'cuddle!'. I had lots of university deadlines the other week and ended up having a little cry on the bed, and he came and nuzzled me and got his nose in my face and licked my tear, what more could you ask for?
11-12-09, 10:36 PM
Its a wonderful thing you have done by sticking to it and not giving up on him. He looks and sounds like a lovely dog and brill that you saved him from being in rescue for so long 
Well done you for adopting him
Maggiexx
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