It was 1:30 in the afternoon one day this past summer. I was sitting at my computer answering emails when I received a phone call from Mat Sturm, the trainer and behavior specialist at the Dardenne Animal Medical Center. I was the trainer and behavior specialist at another facility at the time. Mat explained to me that he had just received a case and it was a good one. Considering Mat and I always receive last resort cases I had to know more. We were both use to fearful/timid, aggressive, and destructive behavior. I asked Mat to describe the behavior to me over the phone. He tells me that the dog is very well trained and trained in German, but when given a leash correction she comes up the leash ready for a fight. He had just muzzled the dog and though he had to fight her for several long minutes, Mat was eventually able to roll her over on to her side in a submissive position. This is one I had to see with my own eyes so I told him to keep her on her side until I got there.
At the time I lived about 30 minutes away but when I got there I saw Mat kneeling beside a very large, pure bred Doberman Pincher on her side and muzzled. Ike was her name and she laid there shaking as if she were in the middle of a seizure and her eyes stared straight ahead, she never blinked. I stood and watched her shake for what seemed like forever. I asked Mat if he could touch her. He let out a little giggle as if I had no idea and at the time I didn’t have a clue. I was completely confused by this dog. I’ve seen some pretty bad cases but this one was in a whole other realm of bad. Mat, ever so gently yet confidently, placed a hand on Ike’s side and began to pet her but before his hand reached the end of her rib cage Ike immediately came out of her state of shock and went for Mat desperately trying to fight through the mesh muzzle. At this moment it would have been extremely dangerous for me to become nervous, scared, or frustrated so I stood confidently knowing Mat had the situation and the dog under control. Mat pulled up on the leash holding Ike’s front feet off of the ground until she calmed down enough to put her back on her side. This again was no easy task even though he had just put her on her side just before I arrived. Ike faught like no other peeing and pooping in desperate attempts to take back the control she was loosing and again it took several long minutes and a tremendous amount of effort on Mats part to finally get Ike back in to a submissive position. Though I hadn’t done much in this particular session we both took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off our foreheads. There were many questions that needed to be answered to solve the mystery of Psyco Iko.
Posted by dardennematt 
