Barney

A number of months ago we welcomed the most frightened dog we have ever seen into our training kennel. His name is Barney, and he is only 2 years old. He was given up by his owners because of a new baby temporarily moving into the family home that was making him very uncomfortable. Barney was so shut down we could not get near him for over 7 weeks. He wouldn’t eat, lift his head or leave his kennel. 9 weeks on Barney has made some very small steps towards learning to trust again and will allow our trainer to touch him and let him out for some fresh air on the yard. He is still unable to be walked or played with and is very much a shut down, heartbroken and reactive dog. We hope in the coming days we can successfully get Barney to go out for a walk and show him what the world has to offer, but this is by far the saddest dog we have ever worked with. We predict Barney to be with us several months longer and sadly at the cost of £500 per week to the rescue. We have no idea what the future holds for him as homing this lad is going to be a real challenge. If anything can come from his story we hope it may change people’s minds when wanting to give up their pet and instead consider a behaviourist.