We have a 7 years old female border collie called Kes. We got her from rescue 3 years ago and much of her history is unknown. She is a beautiful girl who loves her cuddles indoors and to play with her ball and is clever like most collies. However, like most rescue dogs she doesn't come without her problems and sadly her problems have got worse and worse :- (
Her biggest issue is other dogs (and we guess this is due to not being socialised as a puppy).... when a dog is far away her fur comes up on her neck and down her back but she will sit and watch it. If we are close to a dog she will go in to attack immediately. She is never let off the lead for this reason and we also muzzle her. On the odd occasion we have let her off the lead (deserted beach) she was excellent and responded to recall well. Another dog came along and although there was the usual hussle and bussle she did eventually just run around with the dog and then came running back when called. When she is on the 'attack' she will not pay any attention to you whether you have treats or anything and you end up dragging her away. Over the 3 years we have made many continued attempts to try different tricks of the doggies trade to stop this behaviour but nothing has yet proved successful and even our vet said with her age she will probably never change this behaviour now. We have accepted that but are still willing to try. We have spent a lot of money on trainers etc with different methods, read books, watched tv programmes etc but to no avail have we had a breakthrough.
Earlier this year, Kes developed epilepsy and through many trips to the vet we have only just got her seizures under control with medication (we think). We are waiting for our vet to organise a scan that wont break the bank. However since the seizures she has turned into a different dog and continues to get worse. Understandably there will be an element of brain damage from the prolonged seizures the poor girl has suffered and we don't know fully what the medication she is on may be doing to her. Her paranoia over other dogs has become ridiculous.... for example, we see the same girl walking to school every morning on our walk and the other day the same girl had a violin case with her... this made Kes go into 'attack' mode! And the same today with a young girl. She normally loves children and humans. We have wondered whether her eye sight may have been affected from the seizures and she can not distinguish between dog and toddler...? She is also ravenous hungry all the time at the moment (most likely the tablets) but has even gone to lengths of chewing through a coat pocket, to eat some treats she could smell inside - she was only alone for 1 hour! It is very unusual behaviour from her. We realise that there may be some kind of brain/CNS tumour causing all this and we will hopefully find out soon.
Two things I am wondering - Has anyone else had a similar experience with a dog with epilepsy / personality change?
Also - we know collies need a lot of stimulation (for Kes within reason as not to provoke a seizure) and due to the size of our garden and the fact we cant let her off the lead publicly she has little exercise that she probably needs (despite 3 walks a day). Does anyone know of anywhere / anyone that has some large open yet secured space with no other doggies where we can let her off just to play ball with her in the South Bucks/East Berkshire area?
We have been dog owners for many years (rescue dogs too) so we have a good knowledge base of looking after dogs but our beloved Kes really is something else! If anyone has any constructive ideas / information or experiences they would like the share, I look forward to hearing from you! Thanks for reading.
Her biggest issue is other dogs (and we guess this is due to not being socialised as a puppy).... when a dog is far away her fur comes up on her neck and down her back but she will sit and watch it. If we are close to a dog she will go in to attack immediately. She is never let off the lead for this reason and we also muzzle her. On the odd occasion we have let her off the lead (deserted beach) she was excellent and responded to recall well. Another dog came along and although there was the usual hussle and bussle she did eventually just run around with the dog and then came running back when called. When she is on the 'attack' she will not pay any attention to you whether you have treats or anything and you end up dragging her away. Over the 3 years we have made many continued attempts to try different tricks of the doggies trade to stop this behaviour but nothing has yet proved successful and even our vet said with her age she will probably never change this behaviour now. We have accepted that but are still willing to try. We have spent a lot of money on trainers etc with different methods, read books, watched tv programmes etc but to no avail have we had a breakthrough.
Earlier this year, Kes developed epilepsy and through many trips to the vet we have only just got her seizures under control with medication (we think). We are waiting for our vet to organise a scan that wont break the bank. However since the seizures she has turned into a different dog and continues to get worse. Understandably there will be an element of brain damage from the prolonged seizures the poor girl has suffered and we don't know fully what the medication she is on may be doing to her. Her paranoia over other dogs has become ridiculous.... for example, we see the same girl walking to school every morning on our walk and the other day the same girl had a violin case with her... this made Kes go into 'attack' mode! And the same today with a young girl. She normally loves children and humans. We have wondered whether her eye sight may have been affected from the seizures and she can not distinguish between dog and toddler...? She is also ravenous hungry all the time at the moment (most likely the tablets) but has even gone to lengths of chewing through a coat pocket, to eat some treats she could smell inside - she was only alone for 1 hour! It is very unusual behaviour from her. We realise that there may be some kind of brain/CNS tumour causing all this and we will hopefully find out soon.
Two things I am wondering - Has anyone else had a similar experience with a dog with epilepsy / personality change?
Also - we know collies need a lot of stimulation (for Kes within reason as not to provoke a seizure) and due to the size of our garden and the fact we cant let her off the lead publicly she has little exercise that she probably needs (despite 3 walks a day). Does anyone know of anywhere / anyone that has some large open yet secured space with no other doggies where we can let her off just to play ball with her in the South Bucks/East Berkshire area?
We have been dog owners for many years (rescue dogs too) so we have a good knowledge base of looking after dogs but our beloved Kes really is something else! If anyone has any constructive ideas / information or experiences they would like the share, I look forward to hearing from you! Thanks for reading.
