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Cookie is a 5 year old neutered male Springer who is house trained and had been living with a family who had children aged from 12 upwards. He is fine with other dogs but we were told he chases sheep and cats and his recall was iffy. Unfortunately he was re-homed directly from his old home to his new home and did not come into kennels where we could assess him. In his new home he snapped at their five year old grandchild who they think stood on his foot and then bit the owner when he went to grab his collar.  They also found that Cookie had issues with regard to having his lead taken on and off. Cookie came to Rose Tree Farm where it quickly became clear this he was a very troubled dog. He avoided eye contact and tried not to interact with any of the staff; when we tried to get his lead on he was very panicky and tried to avoid it but once on his lead he either pulled and rushed around or he sat dead still and froze. Cookie went to stay with our trainer for a while and he has reached the following conclusion;

Somewhere in his past Cookie has been badly and consistently abused probably either by his lead or whilst on his lead. To borrow a description from child abuse field Cookie suffers from what is called frozen awareness. In children this is displayed by children who are systematically abused for no reason that they can understand (i.e. not punishment for an action on their part) this leads to a child who simply freezes and does not interact in the hope of avoiding abuse or panic if trapped into interaction. Unfortunately for Cookie he cannot tell us what has happened to him he can only demonstrate it (act it out) and this he has done.

Jake and Tio are 4 year old litter brothers who have been together all their lives and have been in the same home since they were 12 weeks old. Understandably we are looking for a home for these two together because they are very bonded but they could be parted if they went to a home where there was already another dog. They are house trained and used to children from the age of 8 upwards, until a couple of years ago they lived with a cat who has since passed on. They are great with other dogs however they do play fight between themselves but it is nothing more than that.

We don’t know what they would be like with livestock because they haven’t met any to speak of. The boys are used to being left for up to 4 hours and are left in kitchen and are fine. Both of them pull on the lead and because of the area they live in have rarely been allowed off the lead, their owners do not drive so they have not been able to take them out into the country or to a park to allow them to run free. They have only travelled once and were not a problem. 

Jake is the more active of the two dogs and loves to retrieve but will not always give back he is also a thief who likes something carry around all the time, the television remote, your mobile phone, shoes, socks he is then inclined to destroy rather than give back so some work is needed here. 

Tio is more of a couch potato but very wary of strangers. He does not have the attention seeking streak that Jake has and is somewhat dominated by his brother who hogs the available attention. Their owners are separating and these two need to move on urgently. We did have a home lined up for them but unfortunately they let us down at the last minute so we are running short of time and they may have to come and spend some time with us in kennels