My Nonprofit Reviews

I never write reviews but my hope is that this review will save others the absolute heartbreak that was my experience with big fluffy dog rescue.

I adopted a beautiful great Pyrenees in 2015. The story of the adoption started off oddly but I wanted the dog so badly I was willing to let it go. I picked him up from a family that it only had him for a week. The rescue organization told me that he was great with everyone: kids, dogs, cats. This family had a young daughter. The exchange was brief when I arrived and the family told me nothing about the dog other than it just wasn’t working for them.

So I was a proud owner of a 90 pound great Pyrenees that I assumed was wonderful with everyone. I named him Aslan. The first three weeks went smoothly and he was a lovely addition to my home. A neighbor of mine who was planning to go to vet school would walk him every day during the day while I was at work. Everything was great until one day it wasn’t.

My friend called me one afternoon and said that she was getting him ready for their walk as usual. She grabbed a bag of treats and when she turned around Aslan was standing there, all teeth bared.

A week later he bit one of my cleaning women and a week after that a contractor that I had working at my house. I was devastated and totally floored. How could this be happening?

I called it an expert animal behaviorist to work with me and Aslan. After describing his behavior to her she was unconvinced that things would change. I really was dedicated to finding a solution to whatever was going on so for the next two months we worked together but his behavior was just increasingly unpredictable. My family was coming in town for Christmas and I was worried about everyone’s safety. I took the instructions of my dog trainer very seriously and introduce Aslan to my mom as she had suggested but nothing seem to work. The animal behaviorist suggested that I put him down because his behavior was unpredictable and dangerous. It had only been a few months but I loved the him and just couldn’t stomach putting him down.

So I made the decision to send him back to the rescue. I was beside myself with grief. My partner and I drove to Connecticut on Christmas Eve to drop him off at a foster house. My trainer gave me explicit instructions about how he was to be contained before somebody could pick him up. She said he was to be in the crate for the safety of of him and the foster woman. So we dropped him off. I tried to be strong for him and waited until we got back in the car before I started to sob. I learned later that the foster woman didn’t take the advice of the animal behaviorist. And Aslan stalked her through her house and attacked her causing her multiple injuries.

I was told later that big fluffy dog rescue consulted with my trainer and she had given them the advice to put him down because he was dangerous and unpredictable. Maybe I should have just taken responsibility and done it myself.

I checked in multiple times with the rescue to see how he was doing and they said that he struggled in the beginning but was doing better. That’s when I saw his Petfinder ad up again. It said that he was great with all people including kids. I was completely shocked. I ended up writing a comment on their Facebook page about how important it was that people know that he had a bite history! He stalked someone and attacked them! I just couldn’t believe that they were willing to not only put more people at risk but also set another family up for heartbreak. The whole experience was was a nightmare.

Here’s a link to the animal behaviorist’s right up on the situation: https://petbehaviorconsulting.com/deciding-to-adopt-a-rescue-dog/

I imagine that some people might get lucky with big fluffy dog rescue but for the people that don’t it’s truly devastating. Please be careful. It’s 5 years later and it’s still hard for me to talk about.