I first learned of Aldo through a Facebook group I was in. He was being portrayed as an aggressive dog with a bite history. Everyone loved the beautiful pictures of this dog. It was decided that he would come up here from Texas for me to work with him.
He was posted on Operation Roger & brought up here by one of the volunteer truckers after a couple day layover at his house.
When I first approached Aldo he peed himself & I realized I was dealing with a fearful dog, not an aggressive dog.
Aggressive dogs & fearful dogs are two different creatures... It was obvious from the moment he arrived that there was something else going on, he was terrified of men. It was so bad that at one point I had put food down for the dogs & realized he was not eating, I pushed the bowl to him & he ran for his life, I separated him from the others thinking that would help, & nothing. Finally I started taking handfuls of food which he would eat from my hands, eventually holding my hand over the bowl, then in the bowl. Within about a week he was able to eat from his bowl as long as I stayed next to him, within a month he was eating by himself.
His former owner sent him up here with a contract that if he wasn't able to be returned to him I was to keep him & that is where the trouble began... I kept receiving emails from her telling me I should keep him myself, I should adopt him out, or I should send him back so she could put him to sleep, then just to add to the nonsense I kept getting emails from her telling me that she was mentally unstable, asking me what kind of meds I was on, or telling me she desperately needed meds.
So I've got an obviously unstable woman who can't make up her mind, who has made several references to killing this dog who is also telling me different stories about this dog as to his supposed bite history, she finally told me it was her female dog still at home who attacked her daughter & that Aldo had a hold of her foot, no doubt he was probably trying to save the little girl.
Dogs very rarely become fearful without being abused, so I had told her I was going to contact a very prominent animal communicator I had worked with in the past but she decided to take that over & try to interject herself into that as well. He generally doesn't charge me, but she insisted on being involved. Next thing I know I get a message from her that Aldo didn't want her he wanted me... okay.At this point I had only had him a few weeks but I still loved him, he was becoming a part of our family & a momma bulldog had basically adopted him. She was like his port in the storm of fear he lived in daily. I need to stress at no time was he ever aggressive with any other dogs in our home, at family's homes, at the dog parks, at the pet stores or at the vets office. As matter of fact if momma bulldog would growl at him for trying to nurse on her he would roll over on his back & whine. He had a very strange habit of trying to nurse of the females, once the one female was adopted he tried that on momma & got in trouble.
