On Feb 26 this year, Tia joined the gang. Yep, dog number 8! O.o
Well, of course, it's number 7 now; but Soli was still very much alive back then.
Tia is not a newbie as such: she was brought home by my brother in mid 2000 from the Dogs Trust, having spent quite some time in kennels up north with no interest and finally being brought south to Kent to try her luck there. Within a week she was free.
Unfortunately, it wasn't a good match. Although her first year or so was great - bro was with his ex then, and the ex was very responsible, giving Tia and the other 2 dogs 3 or 4 hours of free running every day, training classes and so on - once they split up it all went downhill. As soon as bro had sole responsibility, walks dropped to a 10 minute on-lead walk round the block.
Once bro moved out, and back home with me and my Dad, it got worse; walks went to 10 minutes on lead every other day; then every 3 days, then every week... until eventually nothing at all. I had hoped he would see the damage he was doing in the end - she was going insane from no input at all (she has always been a very high energy dog, working level drive) - but no such luck. Eventually I reached a point with my own two dogs (I only had Remy and Opi back then) where I could walk them together, so started to work with Tia. She'd always had serious aggression problems with other dogs - on-lead only, fear aggression from the lack of flight option and terrible social skills. She would fling herself around trying so hard to attack that she would often go blue from choking herself - even on a harness!
Anyhoo I took to the bigger park in town; ideal for such a thing as the main path runs around the edge of a HUGE playing field (we're talking 5 or 6 football pitches here), with the vast majority of people sticking to that path with their dogs, so I could plonk us in the middle and manipulate the distance to passing dogs easily and with minimal risk of loose dogs running up. It worked a treat. Within just 3 weeks, I had her politely saying hello to any and all dogs while on lead (never could let her off, her recall was non-existant no matter what I tried), calm and happy.
Alas, then we all moved away: my parents to Spain, bro and his then-GF to the next village, me all the way up here to Lincolnshire. I offered to take her with me then - I was studying canine behaviour, he'd seen the difference in her with my input; but no, he loved her too much. I left with a very clear offer: if anything should ever happen that meant she needed a new home, she would come here. He poo-pood it and basically ignored me, but I made sure to tell his then-GF and she listened.
2 years on, he visited to swap cars with me (a decision I have regretted since), and told me that she was starting to stiffen up (she would have been 11 by this point); but still, his young son was jumping onto her from the bed and she still wasn't even growling, what a wonderful dog! (I can hear you all cringing from here...) The next time I spoke to the GF I reiterated my offer, now with the fear that Tia might bite said son, despite always having adored children.
I never got that call, sadly. Another 2 years later; the relationship dead, my brother homeless by his own inaction, and Tia needing somewhere to go temporarily so she wouldn't be living in his car. Good thing too, seeing as she couldn't get into mine when I picked her up - I had to lift her in. I knew then something was up; she's always been able to leap head-height, no problem.
I got her home after the long journey and started the intros to the others - although she remembered Remy and Opi after a while, of course she didn't know the other 5 (and Soli still being there then, would be the hardest one as she always took a few months to get used to new dogs). And she'd had 4 years of being a solitary dog, going nuts on the lead and being kept away from other dogs apart from the neighbour's springer (of course, selfish, lazy bro didn't bother to keep up my work despite seeing it working), her social skills would be terrible. So, safety gate in place we began.
She spent the evening sat by the gate, wanting to come in but a bit wary; but clearly in pain. She was uncomfortable but fidgety from the stress of the day. This was the typical look of things:
Soon enough everyone was together, and I was able to watch her better. Over the first few days it became clear she was in considerable pain; I took her out around the block, and despite seeing several dogs quite close by she didn't so much as growl - she was simply in too much pain to even think about reacting. She was stiff and extremely sore; she couldn't squat at all to toilet and couldn't go beyond the briefest of trots. She had also been chewing at her tail so much it was bald, and I was told by the ex that it had bled a lot as well; and scratching at her chin.
To the vets with her then, to be given exactly the diagnosis I expected: severe, very advanced osteoarthritis. I knew from Soli how unbearably painful that condition is. She was put on rimadyl, which duly had no effect on it at all; we had a fortnight's worth but less than a week later I took her back and had her put on Trocoxil (my drug of choice for Soli and a lifesaver for her, as not even tramadol would touch her pain). Her anal glands were full and incredibly painful, hence the tail chewing - and had been that way for months, as the ex had told me she'd been chewing for a long, long time. Her chin was infected - and again, had been that way for dog knows how long. She also had a nasty ear infection that was causing her to scratch and scream with the pain of the scratching. And on top of all that, she was overweight - as a younger dog I'd had to get weight off her when she moved in after totally random feeding, and her ideal weight was 28kg: allowing for age, I'd have put her at 29-30kg now but she was 34kg. Not at all helpful with osteoarthritis.
And just as with Soli, overnight the difference was incredible. She lost years - the very next morning, having had her first dose only the night before, she was bounding around like a puppy again. And reacting! Ooooh yes. Just as she used to, although with slightly less vigour thankfully - but at this point, she was far from fully treated.
So the work began again. Thank dog, she seemed to recall some of what I did with her; she was keen on food straight away and calmed down considerably in the first few weeks. But she was much more stressed outside than she used to be - in part because her eyesight and hearing were very impaired with age.
A few weeks after the trocoxil began, I called on Soli's chiropractor. I'd noticed that if I walked her on a collar, she would yelp with any pressure from it. Back to the vet. Damage from years of pulling like a steam train on a lead and collar; and of course her severe reactions, also done for years on a lead and collar; and being walked on a flexi and collar, being allowed to run full pelt to the end of it and getting snapped back (this is not assumption, incidentally; I saw her being walked that way many times but was never listened to about it). The trocoxil helped but not enough; she couldn't lie down straight for very long as it hurt.
The chiropractor got to work. Tia was a mess; vertebrae out of line from all the years of pulling and lunging and so on, and her neck was just horrendous. Muscles in spasm all over the place, especially in her back. Even with the trocoxil helping the arthritis, she'd been trying to compensate for pain all over for so long that everything was out of whack and her muscles were just too tight.
After that treatment she improved dramatically again - her aggression lessened a bit, and she was happier. She still couldn't lay down flat for long, but early days. She had a second treatment following an incident - she'd tried to barge past the others out of the car, and had managed to pull her back doing it. That was a horrible moment - she sank to the floor crying out, trying to stand then sit then lie down, totally unable to stop herself hurting and her back was spasming so bad it was clearly visible. It did settle thankfully, and the treatment a few hours later sorted it out.
Following that, she could lie properly and without pain, and these days her neck doesn't hurt her at all - something we didn't expect!
Three months after her arrival, I had the conversation I'd been dreading with my brother: the one where I told him that I would not be giving her back to him as he clearly didn't give a damn about her and I knew damn well he'd never bother to look after her properly. Bad enough when she was younger but simply not an option with her medical needs now. He tried to blame everyone else and the situation; he couldn't take her to the vet because he hadn't been allowed in the house for the last 3 weeks, so on and so forth. When I pointed out that she'd been in pain and ill for a very long time - far, far longer than 3 weeks - oh yes, she'd been ill but she was getting better. Funny, she wasn't getting better when I picked her up, and he'd told me then he was worried because she'd been crying out when she stood up for quite some time. As usual, just another attempt to make it look like it wasn't his fault.
In the course of that conversation, it transpired that he'd seen her scratching at her for a long time, and heard her crying out with it; he blamed that on her bad neck. She'd been at her chin for dog knows how long - possibly a couple of years if not longer - he blamed that on food, although he'd 'tried every brand in pets at home'. The tail he'd 'tried to treat himself' - sorry, but any dog that has chewed its tail so badly that it bled and looked like it might be bald permanently (thankfully not) clearly needs veterinary attention.
All in all, he'd seen so many signs that she was in pain and in desparate need of a vet, but he just couldn't be bothered to take her and deal with it. Apparently (though I'm not sure how true this is, willing to bet it is though) he was told repeatedly by a number of people that she needed to go, but always said 'she's fine'.
I have often thought, over the years, that this poor dog would wind up like this in her latter years, being ignored by that self-centred arse; I had also often hoped that it wouldn't happen, that his oft-touted 'love' for her would come to the fore when he saw his companion in massive pain and discomfort from the itching but no such luck. I can only be grateful that he swallowed his idiotic pride long enough to send her here (even though he didn't ask me, I offered to my sister who'd asked if I knew anyone who could take her), even though I know he never would have if he'd known I would refuse to hand her back. Of course, if he'd looked after her properly, I would have done - I didn't particularly want 8 dogs...
Still, all done and dusted now. He no longer speaks to me, which is just fine; I still find it amazing that we are related.
Tia is much happier - her dog issues are far improved now, although thanks to those 4 years of nothing she's still not as good as I had her after those 3 weeks all that time ago. But age and pain has played its part. She's still a bit stressed at the park but getting better. And I have just got my copy of Grisha Stewart's new Behaviour Adjustment Therapy book - which looks very promising indeed!
Most of Tia's problems with meeting dogs now are frustration and manners, although there is still a little worry there; but for the most part, she wants to run up and say hello but quickly gets overwhelmed if she does and becomes extremely rude and overbearing; but being on lead, she can't rush up, which pushes her into frustration which then sometimes triggers aggression (less and less though). She can be lovely if the greeting is good and has made some friends at the park - she had a lovely play with William (a little patterdale X something or other I think) a while back, and it was so nice to see that side of her intact still.
I don't know how long she has left in this world - she'll be 13 in January, give or take, and her back legs are slowly getting weaker, but very slowly. She still turns into a puppy after her monthly trocoxil dose - so much so that when a friend looked after her for a day in June, her friend actually thought she was a puppy despite the grey face and ears!
Still, she's fine to live out her days here. She still enjoys her walks - the last walk that Soli did she was with us for, for the full 90 minutes, although that is too much for her now I think. But she still happily does 45 at the park once or twice a day, and she enjoys having a dog flap again to go mooching in the garden if she wants to, whenever she wants to. Her chin is an ongoing battle - all that time with no treatment means the infection is pretty set in there and flares up from time to time, but the flare ups are getting less and clearing up quicker. Likewise with her ear; and the last round of antibiotics for her chin seemed to help with that. Her hearing improved a bit too. Her anal glands I can manage myself thankfully, although they've only needed doing once since the vet trip when she first arrived. The difference in her is striking from that poor, miserable picture above. She's happy, and she's loved, and that's the most important thing.
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