| Tanner: Granted 9/13/2017 |
| The Story of Tanner |
ast Updated: October 15, 2017
As much as we all wish that every rescue story could have a happy ending, reality is not that kind or gentle. Alas.
Tissue alert.
Here is Tanner’s story, in the words of his rescuer:
“Our rescue was contacted by a shelter in Virginia. Tanner had been dropped off at the shelter by his family due to aggressive behavior towards the family. The shelter relayed to rescue that the dog was NOT aggressive towards people; did not react well with other dogs nor cats, but was friendly towards humans. We sent a volunteer to assess his behavior. After an hour spent with Tanner, playing fetch, walking outside, and lots of petting, it was felt Tanner was not aggressive towards humans. He had tested negative for heartworms, and outwardly appeared to be in fairly good shape in spite of being obese. It was noted he had issues with his eyes. After spending several days at the vet clinic in a kennel, Tanner’s behavior deteriorated, as he became more aggressive towards humans. After his dental, his cage door did not latch, and he chased the vet tech down the hall, biting at her pants leg. We wanted to give Tanner a bit more time to settle down after his dental procedure, and he was placed in a quiet area of the clinic. Two days later the vet stopped by to visit, he walked up to the bars, and pushed his mouth through the bars, aggressively biting the vet’s hand while wagging his tail. At this point we felt he was a danger due to his unpredictable behavior. We had scheduled a two week stay at an in-house training facility, to address his behavior. But, after this incident we felt we had no choice but to euthanize him. His behavior was very erratic, and he had periods of assertive aggressiveness. He was an older corgi, with an unknown history with his first family. We struggled with our decision as to what was best for Tanner, and after much conversation with our vet and amongst our volunteers, we had to make this very difficult decision.”
CorgiAid is not able to help a dog who bites people, other than with the expense of euthanasia and cremation.
We know it cannot be good for dogs to live in a world where their behavior is erratic and their care givers must treat them like a hazard. We send our sympathy to his rescuers — it is so hard to have to make this decision.