Buddy began to suffer with more and
more health problems and so he has now been put to sleep. There is a big hole in
the pack.
He had been with me since 1997. He was a multi-pedigree from a rescue centre. He
had not managed to fit into several homes and kept getting returned to rescue
centres. I could see the character underneath all his undesirable behaviours (he
demonstrated almost all of the problems you can think of to some degree). I
thought I could help him. I did what I had always done – teach to sit, stay,
walk with me, fed him, gave him a home and loved him but it wasn’t working, He
soon made it clear he was thinking of me as ‘home’ it was just in his own time…
He would go for his own walks, not come when I called him, in fact, he would go
faster in the other direction; he just came to check I was OK and off he would
go again. He would chase anything that moved including going out to sea after
seals and once getting into a pheasant enclosure. When I got angry or
distressed, he understood it as needing to try harder and so the cycle
continued. So it was Buddy and all these problems that made me search out
alternative ways. I found out about Amichien Bonding and the work of Jan
Fennell.
As I learned Amichien® Bonding I began to understand that I had been asking him
to look after me. He took the responsible but as a dog he just didn’t have the
ability and he carried the strain of that. As a result he was a very stressed
dog. This often resulted in moments of absence – he would just stand not really
looking at or listening to anything. He was doing his best to look after me.
It did not leave either of us happy or relaxed!
I began to use his language. By this time he was about 10 years old. I never
really managed to convince him fully that I was up to the job as leader but we
did reach a much more happy and relaxed life together.
Having learned dog language I have welcomed others into the pack. All of them
have responded to this process. Buddy became part of the pack rather than
staying separate. At first he did not get on with the terriers, especially
Ellie. After 3 months he and Bobbie were great friends and after 5 months he and
Ellie had found a way to live together. I never left them alone together for any
length of time because Ellie is in her prime and Buddy was very old but when the
people are around I had no concerns. |
