What could possibly have happened to a young dog to make him so fearful of the slightest noise or movement that he wouldn't even move? Whatever trauma occurred in his young life, Arie had developed such a bad case of PTSD that his chances of ever being adopted were slimmer than slim.
That's how things were when Allie Rizzo, an ASPCA board member and founder of Mother of Dogs, happened to see him in a public shelter in Miami-Dade County, Florida. It was Christmas time, and the shelter was full.
Since Arie was a large dog, even at nine months, he was too big to carry around. Yet he would not walk, not even to go outside to use the bathroom. That's when shelter staff decided to wheel him around on a cart. When Rizzo saw him in the high-kill shelter, she knew his life was on the line.
“It was as if whoever had him previously locked him alone in a crate for 24 hours a day without any interaction with anything or anyone,” Rizzo told The Dodo. “He had never met another dog, he’d never experienced anything a regular dog would have in their first nine months of life. When he saw a person, he instantly tried to make himself invisible.” The one thing Rizzo knew for sure was that she had to rescue him and do it now.
After taking him into her home, first in Virginia and then in New York, and despite having trainers come to her home to work with him, Arie wasn't progressing. That's when Rizzo called Main Line Animal Rescue in Pennsylvania. They specialize in rehabilitating dogs with emotional trauma from situations like puppy mills or hoarding cases. With an individual training program just for him, Arie started to make progress.
At first, his journey was slow-going. It took three weeks before he would tentatively wag his tail at the puppies in his group. Positive reinforcement used continuously helped him gain confidence, but it was when Sherrie Conville, a volunteer trainer for MLAR brought her rescue dog, Polly, to meet Arie that things really changed. They spent most of a year together, learning that being a dog can be fun. Finally, in October, Conville decided to make life with Polly and Arie permanent. She adopted him and brought him home to stay.
Today, a year after Arie was rescued, Rizzo looks back with satisfaction and a bit of awe. “It is incredible to see the progress he’s made in just one year,” Rizzo said. “I see videos and photos back and forth all the time. He has an amazing life now — and he’s surpassed everything I could have ever expected.”
Christmas is a great time of year to add a new member to your household. And your donation to a shelter near you could make the difference for a dog like Arie. To help support MLAR rehabilitate more dogs like Arie, you can make a donation. Share Arie's story so more people will be aware of the amazing efforts MLAR makes in rehabilitating emotionally fractured dogs.
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