Gottaken
New Boston,#2Consumer Comment
Tue, December 11, 2012
Jeff and family, please accept our deepest sympathies on the loss of your dog Ruger.
We know how difficult it was for you to make the decision to have Ruger put down. We just had to come to grips with making that same decision two days ago (12/7/12) with our "silver" lab Willow due to escalating aggression.
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Ruger's and Willow's stories are strikingly similar. Although Willow was from Wicks Silver Labs in Springfield OH. When I read your story, especially the part about when you went to pick him up, it was as though I was reading something I had written about my experience of picking up Willow. It raised the hairs on the back of my neck. We too were encouraged to pick Willow up at 6 weeks of age. There were no other litter mates present.
Her "parents" were outside and I wasn't given the opportunity to visit with them. When I went to pet Willow for the first time she yelped out so loud she scared me and then ran behind the "breeder" Pat Wickliffe's legs. I didn't think this was a good sign and when I mentioned it to Mr. Wickliffe he said it was because she didn't know me yet. I now think one of the reasons for this extreme response was due her not being exposed to people other than Pat and from being the result of indiscriminate breeding. Mr. Wickliffe was breeding for quantity not quality.
We began having health issues with Willow only 5 days after having her home. She started losing the fur on her face. When we called Mr. Wickliffe regarding this problem, all he could say was that "you are the first people to ever complain about one of my dogs"! He evaded our communications. Stating that he didn't check his "puppy mail" when he didn't have any puppies at his house. The short of the long is that he was not going to honor his health warranty. He wasn't going to work with us. He did say we could return Willow and he would have to put her to sleep. For the complete story look for "Wicks Silver Labs sold me a genetically defective dog" on Ripoff Report and Pissed Consumer.
Willow continued to be a shy puppy. She would cower when approached. Even if it was to pet her. She would bite at our hands when we tried to pet her. She had severe separation anxiety and was my shadow for most of her life (I am retired) and I spent the most time with her. We also have a three year old lab/golden retriever, Riley, who is quite large at 100 lbs. As Willow grew she began lunging at Riley's neck, every time they went out in the yard. It wasn't play biting, it was very rough attacking behavior. Poor Riley put up with as much as he could and I would have to intervene. She would get ahold of Riley's collar and would hold on until she pulled it off or I stopped her.
Her aggression began escalating to the point that Riley didn't want to be around her. He refused to go outside to go potty if she was outside. I tried many things to try and redirect her aggression to no avail. This aggression escalated in October. Also she began destroying rugs, throw pillows, throw blankets things she didn't even bother much as a pup. She started attacking Riley in the house. She needed constant supervision and anything we tried didn't seem to work or help. We consulted our vet to see if perhaps medication would help.
He said in his 25 years of experience, what we were describing was something due to how her brain was "wired" (from bad breeding). He said we could try behavior therapy but, it was in all likelihood not going to work. He said that the core of who she was wouldn't change only our approach to her behavior would be affected. He said that to be totally honest he would recommend putting her to sleep. We trust our vet and he had nothing to gain by telling us to put her to sleep, we believe he was only trying to do the right thing for Willow and for us. With heavy hearts we consented to have her put down. We are devastated at our loss. We believe we did the right thing.
After all of the time, care, concern, fighting with the breeder to no avail and yes the money we spent with her color dilution alopecia (described in my Ripoff complaint) we had to let her go. Willow was not a totally bad dog, she did have some sweetness about her, but that couldn't outweigh the aggression and bad breeding. Ironically the bad "breeder" died suddenly at age 43 on October 30,12. I thought that his kennel would dissolve. Not so. Someone is continuing on the bad breeding practices that he had. I feel such a void in my life and sense that I failed her somehow, even though I know I did everything in my power to make life right for Willow. Thanks for sharing your story and listening to ours.