A Better English Setter Rescue

Tess is a beautiful petite female setter, approximately 4 years old. Tess is a special needs girl, but much of the time, you would not even know that this friendly, extremely active little girl has a disability. Nevertheless, it is important that her adopters know her special needs.

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We first noticed that Tess was suffering from what appeared to be some sort of visual impairment. She was taken to an ophthalmologist who said that her vision is fine, but referred her to a neurologist. We learned that her brain does not process depth perception correctly and thus she does not see much of the world correctly. The neurologist discussed several procedures including an MRI and a spinal tap to determine if she had hydrocephalus. The Neurologist indicated that the tests and treatment were expensive, and some potentially dangerous to her. In addition, he cautioned that the treatment would likely have minimal or no effect on her functioning.

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Tess does much better in the comfort and routine of her own home. We know that once Tess knows the area she is in, she has no issues running around, walking or going in and out of the house. So familiarity appears to be part of the key to Tess’s success.

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Tess is good with other dogs and will occasionally play with them. She enjoys a nylabone with peanut butter smeared on it.

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At first we thought that Tess needed a cat free home, but she has adjusted to the kitties in her foster home, and is now much less curious about them.

 

Tess does NOT walk well on a leash despite a lot of effort in training. It seems to trigger pulling and spinning. She probably never will reliably do well on a leash, so a physical, hard fence is necessary for this girl to be able to run around. Tess has a violent reaction to bark collars and to the tone/vibration collar used in any electronic training, due to a prior incident with her original owner and a bark collar. As a result, no invisible fencing will be considered.

 

Tess is very active outside and enjoys spending a lot of time bird watching. When her foster family moved to a more country like setting, she has really thrived, running thru the back yard chasing her soccer balls! She is also active inside the home but enjoys playing with her nylabones and other toys. Her house manners are fairly good; she is housebroken and crate trained, but she does still jump up on people.

 

Tess is very protective of her food, and she can display crate aggression with or without food so for those reasons, we are looking for an adopter/household with no children.

 

Despite her disability, her food and crate issues, and any other hiccups that life has handed her, Tess remains a very sweet, friendly, outgoing, energetic, fun-loving little girl that embraces life and enjoys a good snooze next to her person. We feel that Tess needs an adopter that is going to love her the way she is and not try to “fix” all of these issues. Medically, there is nothing more that can be done for her. As for the crate issues, she is not destructive when she is out of the crate for extended periods of time, but she is crated when no one is home and at night.

 

For any adopter interested, we think a meet & greet would be a good thing, Tess is located in Eastern PA.

 

If you are patient, loving, and willing to work with Tess as she is, please complete an application.