18/05/2025
I will always be grateful for this experience, and do not regret working with this dog. The people I have met on the way have huge hearts and do amazing things to help those they can. And then there is the amount of support that came about this situation with the "rescue", I feel like the dog training world has come a long way since I first started.
People should feel safe to ask for help and not afraid of being judged or lied about. Most people want to do the right thing. This dog's previous owners are no exception. This targeting behaviour only makes it harder for people to come forward to get training, to surrender if there isn't a good match. If things are done responcibly, what is the issue? My hat goes off to the previous owners, their bravery to do what they needed to do for the safety of themselves and their child, and ask for help, that takes courage, and I look forward to meeting more people in this world just like them.
This week a colleague of mine became the subject of an unjust smear campaign defaming her business and her professional integrity (not to mention the untold stress this ordeal has caused). Why? Because she refused to hand a dog into the care of a rescue as she believed the proposed foster carer was ill-equipped to handle the dog’s significant behaviour issues.
The depths some people will go to defame others never ceases to amaze me. I can only speculate on the motives of such actions. My colleague is now receiving death threats.
It would be professional negligence for any shelter, organisation or industry professional to knowingly put a dog into a situation that they believed to be unsafe.
The rescue was notably upset with my colleague’s decision, posted as much on their social media site. The rescue also stated in their post “We will not be commenting on this.” This is where the matter should have ended.
Somehow this became an animal abuse matter and was posted on an animal abuse page Against Animal Abuse under the headline “OLLIE WAS BOOKED TO BE KILLED”. You don’t have to be a genius to work out the source of the information provided in this post. Notwithstanding, there were many inaccuracies and outright lies.
Aussies Against Animal Abuse, who operate in total anonymity not listing any of the page administrators, inferred my colleague was somehow obliged to answer questions put her after being defamed by this post. Yet when I provided them with context to the situation and asked certain questions, they thought it was funny and did not answer. Such questions as: what is a "suitable foster home" for a dog with serious resource and aggression issues in the home environment? And who is this rescue that is "supported by professional trainers and a behaviourist? And who are the trainers?
They were quite happy to name and shame my colleague but not the organisation making the allegations or the supposedly apt people who were to handle and train a dog they have never seen.
Very few trainers are legitimately equipped to deal with such dogs and the consequence for getting it wrong maybe dire. I see this regularly.
Subsequently, hundreds of bile comments by vigilantes ensued; borne of an ill-informed and inaccurate account of events.
Yesterday I did an assessment of the dog in question and I can assure all the vigilantes, not that it is any of your business, Ollie is alive, in good health and being kept in a safe and humane environment. What happens in the future will not be discussed with vigilantes or a certain rescue who I question their ethics and motives. Any decisions made will be for the greater good, incorporating welfare and safety concerns. Not on the maligned opinions of others.
My colleague took this dog on knowing it has a bite history and behaviour issues; she didn’t know the extent. She was open to re-homing the dog to a person experienced/competent in dealing with these behaviour issues; not to anyone less. This is a responsible and ethical position.
Against Animal Abuse, do the right thing and retract the post which has enabled this whole situation.
