What went wrong?
Tess
1997-1999.
We have been through a very heartbreaking time with our little 2 year old Welshie,Tess. We purchased her from a vet in Canada. We had an Airedale in the past and really loved him. We liked her size and from what we had read, thought she would be a fine dog for us. We have always been owners of multiple dogs and had 2 little terrier/poodle crosses when we got her. One of them, Rylie was 7 and the other, Scamp was 16 at the time. We also had a cat, Fluffy.
We got Tess when she was 7 weeks old. The breeder wanted to spay her before she left and did so before we took her. She appeared to come through it ok. I discussed it with our own vet and she was critical of her being spayed at such a young age.
Our first problems started with Tess when she was 8 weeks old. I am a former dog groomer and wanted to tidy her up a bit and get her gradually used to grooming. Well she turned on me, growling and attempting to bite me. I had never seen such behavior in one so young. I called the breeder and he told me to take her by the scruff of the neck and shake her, or I could bring her back and take an older puppy from another litter. Well we already loved her, and I eventually got her to stop trying to bite me while grooming. That was the only time there seemed to be a problem.
She was the most active puppy we had ever seen. She climbed as high as she could go,and pulled a muscle in her leg from jumping.She never stopped till she was completely exhausted. She had very little interest in us. She spent all her time playing with Fluffy and Rylie. She chewed constantly and even though we provided her with many things to chew on she was always running with something in her mouth. We had a dreadful time trying to housebreak her. She was still not completely housebroken at 2. We used a crate for her and she would even soil in it. The only time she ever seemed to rest any amount of time was in it. She was quite content in her crate. Our serious problems started when she was about 8 months old. She went from liking the cat to deciding she wanted to kill him. She would grab him by the throat and I had to grab her by the scruff of the neck and remove him from her mouth. Then, next it was our old dog, Scamp. He slipped and fell on the hardwood and cried out. She jumped on him and attacked him. He was a sweet old guy and could do nothing to defend himself. The other dog, Rylie has always been boss and she still seemed to respect him at that point.
We called the breeder and after a very difficult decision decided to let him try to find her a home. Well,after 1 week apart from her we missed her terribly. We really loved her and thought perhaps with more time we would be able to resolve the situation. We went back and got her. We kept the old guy separate from her and the cat got good at hiding. Then about 3 months later she got into a fight with Rylie and she won that one. She wanted to take over the household. She then would attack him if he came near us or in other situations.
We decided to take her to a training facility. We left her there for a week so we could decide what to do. The trainer recommended a training collar. He felt he could train her to leave the dogs and the cat alone with it. We had the choice of returning her or trying this. He came to our home and worked with her and although I felt bad to have to resort to this for training, it seemed our only choice. She caught on right away and steered a wide path around the other pets. Everything was fine until summer came and she did not respond as usual when we said "leave it". She began attacking Rylie again, always going for the throat. If someone knocked on the door Rylie always had the habit of running to the door. She started attacking him to keep him away from the door. The last time she attacked him was over food, he was guarding his dish. He would not back down from her. I discussed it with our vet and she said Tess definitely could kill Rylie and the cat.
This little dog that we adored and had worked so hard to train was presenting an impossible situation. We could not face the possibility of her killing one of the others. Our friends and family were convinced that there had to be something wrong with her. She was still in a puppy state after 2 years. She seldom stayed in the room with us. She chose to always be up high somewhere, like the back of the sofa, or the top of the stairs. She was full of personality though and could be really loving at times. The rest of the time she paced around and round the room. She only really rested in her crate. She obeyed me most of the time but paid no attention to what my husband said. When it came to this attacking thing it was like something snapped in her head and she became a wild animal.
We again had to make the very hard decision to return her to the breeder.We knew we would never forgive ourselves if she seriously injured or killed Rylie or the cat. (Our old guy, Scamp, died in the summer at 18 yrs of age) It tore our hearts out, but we felt it was the only thing we could do. We had exhausted everything else. We were very concerned that a home would be difficult to find for her due to her behavior problems, but we hoped that maybe he could do something we could not with her. We had advised him of all the problems in a long list, and we left her.
Even though we had done all that felt we could, my husband called the dog trainer and talked to him once again. He said the only solution would be total separation. We knew that would not work, so we just put our hope in the fact the breeder would find her a home. When we left he said he would call when he found her a suitable home. A week passed and my husband called to see how she was doing, he was told by the breeders wife that they had to put Tess "to sleep" because she had bit him. My husband was in total shock and quickly ended the conversation. He called me, crying, and told me what had happened. I then called her and asked her about what led up to the incident. He had been working with Tess for 3 days. He thought she was a sweet little thing, very active, but sweet. He was letting her run free in an area inside of the kennel. They had a little 4 month old kitten and it came inside. Tess immediately grabbed the kitten and in his effort to get it way from her, Tess bit him. She also had killed the kitten.
His wife said they waited about an hour and after talking it over decided they could never put her in a home because the danger of her accidentally coming in contact with another animal and attacking it was too great. A child might be involved and get hurt.
We feel terrible that they did not make us aware of this decision. We had told them what we felt Tess was capable of and knowing that, they had told us they would find her a home. I had told them about how she would go into an instant rage. His wife said he would never have believed it had he not seen it.
So now, here we are broken hearted. We loved her so much. We would never have returned her to him had we known that we be his solution to the problem. We worked for 2 years with her, he gave up after 3 days. The worse thing is I really do not know what we would have done about the situation had we brought her back home.
I contacted several breeders of Welsh Terriers, and received several very kind and caring replies. We felt tremendous guilt over Tess losing her life, and wanted to understand what went wrong. I hope anyone who is thinking of getting a Welshie will be better prepared than we were. I am ashamed now to say that we read about the Welsh Terrier in only one book, and then relied on the breeder for the remaining information. We thought that because he was a veterinarian we could trust him. Looking back now I see that he was a breeder with two litters of puppies, who really did not care where they went as long as he got paid and was rid of them. His biggest concern was to get Tess spayed so there would be no danger of me using her for breeding purposes. Most breeders have to rely on non-breeding contracts, he had the ability to make sure that no one ever used one of puppies for breeding.
I now know there are some wonderful caring, and responsible breeders out there. I did not have a computer when I got Tess, so, unfortunately I did not have the access to the wealth of information that is available to me now. If you are getting any breed of dog, not just Welshies, do your homework. A lot of the books published on breeds are glossed over images of how wonderful that particular breed is. They do not go fully into their true characteristics and temperaments. Talk to as many breeders, trainers, and vets as you possibly can. I truly love dogs, and sadly, I learned the hard way, and Tess lost her life.
I have had comments that Tess must have been very unhappy. She definitely was very discontent at times, it was like she did not know what to do with herself. The times I prefer to remember now though are the fun times, and there were many of those too, she could make us laugh, as well as cry. That is why we loved her. In my heart I feel she was a victim in some way. Of what I am not sure. Poor breeding? Lack of training? Bad advice? We will never really know for sure.
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