Sunday 31st May 2009.

A manic day sees Scooby a badly abused German Shepherd arrive at SHAK. Scooby represents one of our biggest challenges yet, as he was found chained to a tree in his back garden after his owners had emigrated. Here’s the horror story, Scooby is blind in one eye after it is alleged he was stabbed in the eye with a screwdriver.

As you can imagine, Scooby is very insecure, and is showing signs of clear stress and fear aggression. However, under all of that, he did show me that he can be a nice dog, it’s just going to take a whole lot of time and hard work to help him trust people. The damage that has been done to this dog is truly sickening.

Several urgent phone calls and emails over Friday and Saturday lead to me bombing down to Walsall to offer this big guy a chance, and after a good start it turns out to be quite a day.

I was greeted by teeth and barking as I approached his kennel, but hot dog sausages soon put an end to that. After a few gentle strokes he allowed to handle his collar, and he was very pleased to see the lead. We had a wonderful 40 minutes walk and after more hot dogs and strokes, he was eager to jump into my jeep. That’s when things took a turn for the worst. As I tried to give him a little lift up, he turned on his blind side and promptly started chomping on my arm. I take full responsibility for this, as I shouldn’t have put him in this position. Scooby is obviously very defensive and feels vulnerable if he is physically handled. I think his lack of vision in his left eye and the fact that he has obviously been beaten accounts for so many of his issues.

What followed was a total nightmare, as Scooby decided he didn’t want to be near anyone. Even sedated he was very upset, and I think this poor guy has been through hell. He gets very distressed if you try and muzzle him, and unfortunately his immediate reaction is too lash out in self defence and not worry about the results, as long as people stay away.

Four long hours later, and having coaxed him into a cage,( A special thanks to John from Wrights K9– Academy for giving his time to help) we managed to lift the cage into the back of the jeep, and set off towards home and safety. Even with a 3 and a half hour drive, Scooby wouldn’t relax, and I just couldn’t help but feel so sorry for the way this boy has obviously been made to fear people.

This really is going to be a tough ride, but it is a battle we NEED to win. Scooby showed me on his walk that can live life as a normal dog, and that he is willing to trust people, we just have to get through his defences. Please say a prayer for him, so he can realise that not all humans want to hurt him, and then we can at least let him live out the rest of his life in peace.

In my prayers Scooby, come on boy you can do it.

Scooby you are safe now with good kind people who are going to look after you and you don't have to live in fear anymore, you were fantastic on the walk round the field and you enjoyed the freedom of being out and about, one day you will have that freedom again, please let everyone at Shak help and be the beautiful well behaved Scooby we know is inside you. x

be good big lad show your goofy side i no u have got one i can see it in your eyes,
trust them who love and want the best for you.

god bless big lad.

It's amazing how a dog can get hold of you (no pun intended lol) but Scooby has obviously made some friends in his short time in Walsall. Thank you for all coming on here.

Just a quick update on how he is doing. After a 12 hour shift at work today, I could think of nothing better than going to see the big guy and attempt to take him out. Since he arrived on Sunday night he has had the run of a big stable, but we wanted him to feel at ease before thrusting the outside world onto him.

I'm really pleased to say that he came out no problem, after we made friends over a few marrow bone treats, and he promptly took me on a tour of the farm. The only time we stopped was to wee and to sniff, and although I deliberatly didn't touch him (I didn't want to distract him or catch him off guard) we enjoyed  the time out. He clearly thinks his new homeis great, so hopefully we can build on that little bit of trust, and seeing people approach his stable will mean good things. A nice hide chew was enough to encourage him back into the stable with no snarling, and enough to distract him so I could make my exit.

As I've already said, this is going to be a real hard slog. I'm taking one thing at a time, and in real basic steps. I hope he is learning to do the same.

i only saw scooby for a few minutes, he did a lot of barking but soon came round when the  treats came out. and i didnt even need the cheese  my secret weapon . like john i saw something in his eyes he wants to trust.
thank you so much for giving this lad a chance x

Wow scooby sounds like you have made one hell of an impression on people! I am sure I will meet you at some point over the weekend! Maybe once you have come round I can introduce you to Scrappy! My shepherd! Who like you is also quite fear aggressive and unfortunately it does make things much harder but I promise everyone at SHAK will do anything possible to help! x

Poor Scooby....we're all here to try and help you mate...give us a chance we won't give up on you easily.

Another day, and another massive improvement in Scooby. No treats were needed to gain his attention, he was calm as soon as he saw the lead. I even got a little lick through the gate before he came out. Once out, he was gold as gold, ignoring the other dogs, and just content on sniffing and weeing!

We had a stroll around the field a couple of times, during which he came to me and nudged my hand a few times, and we even enjoyed a couple of strokes. Everything we are doing is on his terms, I'm not going to force him into feeling insecure, but for those who saw him on Sunday, I think you can see he looks a bit happier, and we are friends again x

Fantastic photos, Scooby and Stephen it's early days, but omg what a difference  

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