Coco - a Case Study
Coco definitely didn’t have the best start in life, but with a lot of help she started to engage with the world.
When Coco’s owners contacted me for advice, they told me that Coco was a six-month-old Border Collie and Standard Poodle cross who was born in a puppy farm. They had rescued and adopted her and had brought her to their home in Monmouth. She shares her life there with Ruth, John, and their other dog Archie. I visited them a few days later and recall seeing a bundle of black, curly fur underneath the worksurface. Coco was terrified and not about to emerge to greet someone she didn’t know. She had no experience of the world outside whatever dreadful pen she had been born in and had no skills to draw on when faced with new experiences. Her owners were doing all they could to support her, but she was not responding to their love and concern.
Her fears were overwhelming her, and on top of that, she was an adolescent with all the insecurities that stage of life brings. Coco could communicate with Archie but was petrified of the rest of the world. Going out was difficult for her. She loved being in the garden once she was there, but getting there and back was a challenge!
Coco would run away from approaching people and dogs when she was walked. Basic obedience, like the recall, was a challenge for her. It was so important for her to learn to have enough confidence to trust Ruth and John to keep her safe wherever she was, and to learn that they could protect and guide her in slowing expanding her experiences.
What could we do?
The initial stages of Coco’s rehabilitation centred around gently supporting her to engage with the world. She clearly needed a safe den. Where she was hiding initially allowed her to cut herself off from the world completely and this was not helping her. We gave Coco a warm, comfortable crate next to the kitchen cupboards rather than under them, where she was still safe but could observe what was happening around her. She was encouraged to come out for her meals and to engage with things to sniff at, chew and play with.
Everything we did to help Coco cope with the world involved huge amounts of patience on our part. We needed an understanding of how dogs think, and an underlying and continuous demonstration to Coco that her owners were always going to be able to take responsibility and would care for her without overwhelming her. Coco was given many opportunities to explore the world safely outside her hiding place, starting in the kitchen. She was always given the space to come forwards in her own time with the awareness of the presence of Ruth and John giving her emotional security and positively enforcing boundaries. Without those factors Coco would always have struggled to relax.
reality intervenes
Ruth and John have busy lives and regular formal training wasn’t always possible. Dogs are learning all the time though whether being trained or not, so Ruth and John kept in mind the behavioural guidelines all the time. Coco had to contend with strangers in the house and her family being away occasionally. Through it all she had her safe places and routines and began to grow in confidence.
She had a tummy upset in late October (perhaps from jumping into the garden pond) and Ruth was anxious that when she had to bath her, she would totally be totally terrified. Amazingly she seemed quite happy during the bath and even wagged her tail. Ruth wondered if they should just keep her wet all the time!
Life can get in the way of training, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world!
progress
Slowly and steadily, Coco gained confidence and started to enjoy life!
Ruth and John brought Coco to the FIDO Training Centre for individual help, and we laid out all sorts of exciting items for her to sniff, chew and lick. Instead, she spent several sessions hiding under the chairs. We waited and waited, and slowly Coco started to explore and come out of herself. There were many tiny victories: the first time she ate a treat from the floor; when she approached me for the first time; when she found a large chewy treat and triumphantly took it home!
Three months after we had started working together, Ruth and John brought Coco along to a FIDO Training and Socialisation Course, with their hearts in their mouths. She spent a good deal of time under a chair as we might have expected, but slowly started to creep out to speak to the other dogs. Humans were strictly instructed not to look at or touch her and by the end of the eight weeks she was even doing some of the obedience work.
Adding the lead
Ruth and John continued to slowly increase Coco’s exposure to the world, whilst making sure that she felt as little stress as possible but wasn’t over-protected, so she didn’t take a step back in confidence.
Six months later Ruth and John decided to bring Coco along to my Follow-On Course. There were eight dogs there in total and their owners. Coco did so well! She was able to learn all the skills we covered on the course, including off-lead heel walking right down the middle of the hall, trotting along beside Ruth and John’s daughter. I could see that she was beginning to act like the puppy she hadn’t been able to be when she was young. She would dash suddenly, play bow and rush back to her owners in delight or dash up to me, touch my hand and leap back again with a wagging tail.
the New Coco and bad news
Coco is now almost like a normal dog, as Ruth would put it! She barks and wags her tail when it’s time for a walk, pulls on the lead more than she should and generally enjoys life. But the joy that Coco’s family feels in her progress and evident happiness have recently become tinged with great sadness.
Coco, at two and a half years of age, has been diagnosed as suffering from a maternally transmitted infection which has left her totally blind in one eye and suffering from glaucoma. She is probably at least in continual discomfort if not pain and may need to have her eye removed completely. Hopefully the condition will not affect her other eye.
A Cautionary Tale
As Ruth says, this is a cautionary tale for anyone considering adopting a puppy from a puppy farm. Consider how these puppies and their long-suffering parents live and die before contributing to the survival of this appalling practice. Coco is the luckiest and happiest of dogs now despite her problems, but her life could have been so different.
With time, patience, and knowledge we can change the way a dog feels and acts and veterinary science can perform marvels of medicine and surgery, but we can’t change how a puppy is born until we stamp out the factory farming of puppies.
