Shadow
Shadow arrived at our doors with the local dog warden in September 2021 as he was found straying in Newcastle City Centre. He was microchipped to his previous owner; however, we were informed that he had been living with a homeless man for a while. Shadow was only seven months old, a puppy.
He was extremely nervous on arrival and due to this he was display aggressive behaviours. The team let Shadow settle in and began working with him, taking things step by step, bit by bit to gain his trust. Eventually, the team started to see some progress and were taking steps forward with Shadow.
The progress was unfortunately short lived as Shadow’s behaviour started to regress in the kennel environment – he started to become aggressive with staff in his kennel. He wasn’t happy about being in a kennel and he was telling us this in the only way he knew how to.
We moved Shadow to the spacious space we use as a playroom but as our only indoor play/training space at our Arrivals Centre, it was impossible to sustain long term. Although Shadow still had more work to do, we decided to look for a foster carer to work on his behaviours away from one of his trigger’s, the kennel environment. This also allowed us to free up the playroom again which is invaluable space for our dogs.
Unsure if we’d even find anyone, we set out to do our best. Along came Conor who agreed to take Shadow home on a foster basis after meeting him several times. Initially, Shadow’s behaviour regressed in his foster home, he was showing signs of separation anxiety, he was alarm barking, reactive towards strangers and dogs.
We got in touch with Lauren, who works for Petsercise for her assistance (Lauren and the Petsercise team help us out with any dogs who need behavioural training) with Shadow. Conor has worked very hard alongside Lauren from Petsercise and Shadow has shown great improvements.
Although he still needs a lot of work, he is constantly improving. Shadow is still working with our team and his foster carers who hope to rehome him soon.