Loved your story Beth. Thanks for posting it here.
Mary Rue
--- In boxerlovers@yahoogroups.com, "Beth Bowling" <bodad@...> wrote:
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> Jessica,
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> It takes time for any dog to trust…and more time if they have been abused.
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> I live in an area where dogs are dumped often. One day in October 2006 I discovered a Boxer living in a big pile of leaves on my property…just outside of a fence…my little Jack Russell would go over and “visit†with him. When I went to see what was going on, the Boxer growled and snarled at me…the most aggressive dog I have ever come in contact with. I pushed food under the fence and he growled even more….but ate the food when I left. The next day I took a bowl of food and went out a gate and he came to me, wagging his tail, so I put the bowl down and reached out to pat him….he snapped at me….so I never went outside of the fence again…I made a “feeder†I could put over the fence, and I fed him twice a day until April, 2007….all the while he was growling at me until I left. Other neighbors were dropping food for him…and he growled at all of us. He had obviously been abused….and in those months I was feeding him, a pack of dogs attacked him twice and badly injured him…but I could not get near him to care for him. The nasty children across the road shot him with pellet guns twice (they are gone now!)…but he stayed in my leaves all this time except when it got cold, snow and ice, then he would disappear at night but be back in the morning.
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> Finally, in April he decided to come around to the front of my home and stay outside the fence where he could see me in a kitchen window…guess he knew I was having breakfast LOL….so I fed him over the fence in that spot. This went on for about a week, then I realized he was sleeping on my front porch, but when I got up in the morning, he would get up too…at least he was out of rain and wind. Finally he came near me and as I was walking to my shop, he came up behind me and pushed his head into my hand. I patted him and talked softly to him….and he went on his way. I started feeding him in a bowl by my back door…and he seemed to like that. Then the spring storms started and one evening I invited him into my utility room to have his supper there…he seemed to like that, but went back outside when he finished. The storms got worse, lots of hard rain, so one night I asked him if he would like to sleep in the utility room…and he seemed to really like that. In no time at all he was spending more time in the utility room. One day he got into my car when I opened the door, so I took him for a short ride.
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> At this point I decided he should be vaccinated so I took him to my vet…..got his shots, heart worm tests, and he had them so bad that the vet was not sure he could clear them up. Also X-ray showed pellets where he was shot, but they were not in a bad place and so did not remove them. The vet told me that Buddy was about ten years old, and he was a full blood Boxer, and he had been trained …. Knew lots of commands….and had been neutered. So I had him treated for Heart Worms and everything he needed…and by this time I was very fond of him…and he seemed to be fond of me. I started letting him into my house with my other dog, and they got along great….and in another month, Buddy, the Boxer, was sleeping on my bed with me. It took a very, very long time for him to trust me and to let me love him, but he became one of the very dearest dogs I have ever had.
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> Please don’t give up on your new Boxer….it can take such a very long time for a dog to forget being mistreated. Our Jack Russell was a rescue and for many years, if he saw a man who looked a certain way, he would growl….the man could be just walking down a sidewalk ….but each man he growled at looked “alikeâ€â€¦.so we knew that this must be the kind of person who had been mean to him. The rescue did not know where he came from…just showed up at their gate one day….but he was wonderful with us.
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> Lots of love and patience will do wonders for your Boxer, but it can take months…
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> Sorry to be so long-winded….
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> Best Wishes
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> Beth
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> <snip>
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> He doesn't want to be around my dad or any other guy but he isn't agressive. He's about a year old. We got him from a guy who didn't want him anymore and he was going to take him to the pound. My dog was an inside-outside dog before so they are coming in and out a lot and its hard to get him to come inside.
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