Ren (Serendipity) is a 5yr old malinois (a variety of Belgian shepherd). I was contacted by her breeder to see if I could take her in as she'd developed some major fear issues over dogs and people, and had fallen out with one of the breeder's other small dogs in a big way. It took some time - this happened as Remy was entering his final months, and the prospect of trying to cope with Ren, Willow and Remy, and potentially both of them in season soon as well, was not too attractive!
In the end fate intervened as well - just as time was running out for Ren, Remy passed away. She arrived three weeks later and life changed yet again.
Ren has without a doubt been the hardest dog I've taken on: she is a serious bully, she has a temper unlike anything I've ever seen with other dogs and it has been on a hair trigger at times here. She's gone for most of my other dogs at least once, and several times I've approached the point of needing her to leave (not a good point to reach with Ren as if she couldn't live with other dogs, she would need to live with a positive behaviourist with no other dogs - something which pretty much does not exist).
However I have perservered, and changes have been made; she is progressing and the future looks much brighter. Discussing her with her breeder, we are both agreed that Ren's issues aren't just a bad experience as a youngster or poor socialisation; she is fundamentally not quite right, some sort of genetic abnormality at the base of her problems. Her natural stress level is too high and it comes out as bullying. She now has CBD oil daily and that has been the crucial thing for her - it literally saved her life, as her aggression to my other dogs flared last year and became entirely unpredictable and was increasing in intensity. Not a rehomeable dog, she had no options but at that point, I decided to try her on CBD. I'd held off as there are some reports of a psychoactive effect and she has a history of becoming worse in her behaviour when tried on calming things but at that stage there was literally nothing to lose. And it worked. It worked incredibly well! Although she can still be anxious, and her inbuilt distrust is still there, the CBD 'fixes' whatever abnormality is in her brain that causes the impulsive, explosive aggression to my other dogs. Since being on that, she is a different dog completely - she gets on with the others, she accepts new dogs much, much faster and recently, I've been introducing her to a friend and that has gone so much faster than in the past. She'll always need management to a degree, but she is much happier and easier to live with for all of us now.
In the end fate intervened as well - just as time was running out for Ren, Remy passed away. She arrived three weeks later and life changed yet again.
Ren has without a doubt been the hardest dog I've taken on: she is a serious bully, she has a temper unlike anything I've ever seen with other dogs and it has been on a hair trigger at times here. She's gone for most of my other dogs at least once, and several times I've approached the point of needing her to leave (not a good point to reach with Ren as if she couldn't live with other dogs, she would need to live with a positive behaviourist with no other dogs - something which pretty much does not exist).
However I have perservered, and changes have been made; she is progressing and the future looks much brighter. Discussing her with her breeder, we are both agreed that Ren's issues aren't just a bad experience as a youngster or poor socialisation; she is fundamentally not quite right, some sort of genetic abnormality at the base of her problems. Her natural stress level is too high and it comes out as bullying. She now has CBD oil daily and that has been the crucial thing for her - it literally saved her life, as her aggression to my other dogs flared last year and became entirely unpredictable and was increasing in intensity. Not a rehomeable dog, she had no options but at that point, I decided to try her on CBD. I'd held off as there are some reports of a psychoactive effect and she has a history of becoming worse in her behaviour when tried on calming things but at that stage there was literally nothing to lose. And it worked. It worked incredibly well! Although she can still be anxious, and her inbuilt distrust is still there, the CBD 'fixes' whatever abnormality is in her brain that causes the impulsive, explosive aggression to my other dogs. Since being on that, she is a different dog completely - she gets on with the others, she accepts new dogs much, much faster and recently, I've been introducing her to a friend and that has gone so much faster than in the past. She'll always need management to a degree, but she is much happier and easier to live with for all of us now.