Barney is our only dog that was loved and adored by his previous owners.   He did not come from abuse at all.  We got a call from a friend that a registered, seven-year-old Australian Shepard desperately needed a new home when his older, retired, parents got to the point they could no longer care for him due to their own health issues.  Unfortunately, none of their children were in a position to take Barney, and by that time he had already been boarded for more than three months while they tried to find him a new home.  The family had started talking about euthanasia, and my friend hoped we could help.  

 

We thought it would be simple to re-home a full-breed Aussie from a loving family, right?  Unfortunately, by the time he came to us he was pretty severely traumatized from his time in the boarding facility.   He was used to being with his family 24/7 as they were retired and took Barney everywhere, so being boarded for three months had to make him think he’d been completely abandoned.  He was also not socialized with other dogs (or even other people) at all, and as a result it was just not possible to rehome him.  By the time we had earned his trust, he had become extremely bonded to David, and we knew there was no way we could let him feel abandoned again.