Sophie – The One That Got Away!!
Way back in 2005 when we were far less experienced and cautious than we are now, we were asked to collect two young bitches from a farm in Devon. The dogs were 2½ year old litter sisters that had always lived together inside a barn with their mother. Unfortunately, they had never worn collars, been socialised or even been further than the adjoining yard.
One of our helpers offered to collect the pair and take them to boarding kennels, something he had done several times before without any problems. This time, however, things were very different! Everything went well enough at the farm with the farmer and his wife being there to persuade the dogs to jump in to the estate car, but on arrival at the kennels our helper was totally unprepared for what happened next – as the gate opened WHAM! – the dogs were gone! One of the bitches was soon caught and, being much the calmer of the two, it wasn’t long before she was successfully re-homed.
Sophie, however, was well and truly on the run and without going into all the details of the many failed attempts, it took almost a week to finally catch her. It was a week of worry for us because she might have for instance, attacked livestock or caused a road accident – needless fears as it happened, and although we were insured we had no wish to make a claim.
Once apprehended and safely locked in kennels the problems really began. Every time anyone went anywhere her kennel Sophie fled to the back and no amount of talking softly and persuading would tempt her to come forward until all humans disappeared, only then she would eat her food. It was impossible for anyone to take her for a walk and after a month or so very little progress had been made; in fact a likely scenario seemed to be that in ten years’ time we would have a 12 year old dog without a collar still sitting in a kennel! Clearly the boarding costs were mounting, the vet could not get close enough to Sophie to check her over and vaccinate her, so there seemed to be no easy solution.
We talked long and hard about a way forward and in our naivety decided that if we went to the kennels, placed a collar and lead on to Sophie (whether she liked it or not), then said “walk” all would be well and we could simply walk her to the Charity van and drive her to our emergency kennel with Julie and Steve Hamblyn at the Plant Centre in Cheltenham. It all seemed simple enough …. almost fool-proof in fact … so off we went to Devon.
The collar and lead bit of the plan didn’t turn out to be too much of a problem, but when we said “walk” her bum went on to the concrete and there it stayed - it was as if she had superglue attached to her rear. We pleaded, begged, cajoled, pulled, offered treats for well over an hour and moved only about six inches closer to the van which was parked at the far end of the enclosure – a distance the length of a football pitch. We were wet, cold and totally fed-up and the kennel staff had long abandoned us to our fate.
Not one to give up easily and driven on by the kennel owner saying our plan couldn’t possibly work, Julie was determined to succeed. Apart from anything else we also didn’t want to lose face! It took Julie over two hours of enthusiastic encouragement, eventually moving in leaps as much as two feet in one go to cross the grass, by which time Julie was not only muddy but covered in poo! The nightmare of getting Sophie into the van then began but we managed it!
Apart from the awful smell (Julie and Sophie!), the drive home to Cheltenham was uneventful, but then came the next problem, Sophie may not have wanted to get in to the van, but now she didn’t want to get out of it either. In fact, eventually Julie decided to get into the back with her and ease her out – and as the van was parked in the kennel compound, she knew Sophie was safe and had no means of escape.
Then followed many weeks of gentle, patient coaxing and very gradually Julie won Sophie’s confidence and real progress started to be made with the introduction of more human contacts, firstly with Steve and some of the people who work at the Plant Centre plus a few of our members and friends.
Julie also told some of her friends at the Cheltenham Puppytime Training classes all about Sophie and a number of people soon became interested to hear the weekly progress bulletins and it wasn’t long before someone expressed an interest in Sophie on behalf of her friends, Alan and Sue. Very soon they too were visiting Sophie regularly and said they would really like to offer her a permanent home as their own GSD had recently died.
It was a slow process, Julie would walk Sophie the three miles to their home and firstly stay there with her for an hour or so and then walk back to the Plant Centre; then she would leave her with Alan and Sue for half a day, then a full day, gradually building up to an overnight stay. After that it wasn't too long before Sophie moved in full time. The whole process was a huge achievement for Julie and probably our greatest success to date.
A few months later Alan, Sue and Sophie all moved to Lockerbie, Scotland where she has settled into a wonderful carefree life, quite different to her first two years shut in a barn.
