When a terrified little dog entered our charity it was literally a case of reading his behaviour and trying to find out why he was so traumatised, and if we could help him find his way to trusting a human ever again.

Archie was a biter, I’ve had foster dogs that also launched themselves at me in exactly the same way as Archie did to everyone he met.

If these were larger dogs then we’d be looking at this behaviour in a different light, but we are here to give dogs such as Archie a second chance, and that’s exactly what foster mum and dad Giulia and Bill did.

They left Archie to work out his issues and when he was ready he came to them. It’s honestly the best way to go, ignore them, give them a safe place in your home and let them decompress – chances are they’ll gauge the environment for themselves and once they see it’s safe, generally they’ll come to you for a pat, or a lap if you’re lucky.

Archie was surrendered to the Lost Dogs Home, can you imagine the noise of such a place. When he was handed over to us the shelter just said don’t worry about taking him out of the crate, just keep it.

That was probably a red flag right there.

Archie bit Giulia. He bit Bill. I just observed him from a distance, the fear in his eyes was heartbreaking.

We tried to have him assessed by our vets as we do all new intakes, he tried to bite the vet. We gave Archie a couple of weeks grace in the hope he would calm down and we’d try again.

So we did. And he bit.

The only way to have him medically assessed and to get his long nails clipped was under a light sedative at the vets – he fought that and pretty much the vet checked him over, clipped his nails, and Archie was already coming to.

Our next appointment was to see the cardiologist for an ultrasound of Archie’s heart. He has a grade 4 murmur which we needed to get an opinion on prior to even thinking about an adoption going ahead. Again Archie was given a light sedation to allow for the ultrasound.

Once we had all the information we needed it was just a matter of Archie showing us his true self, and with the loving care of his foster family, Archie began to shine.

This was a dog that had somewhere along the line been hurt, his only defence was to bare his teeth and lunge at you in the hope you would leave him alone.

A tiny 3kg dog that had no other option to protect himself from those who feel it’s acceptable to hurt an animal, than to bite.

Fast forward to today.

Archie’s adoption trial is up.

He has a home of his own, with a new family who are willing to work with him if the need arises. So far there’s been no need for lessons to be taught as Archie has settled into his home beautifully.

All thanks to Giulia and Bill who showed Archie that he was safe, he could trust, and he could accept the love that was there for him.

We wish Archie and his family the very best of luck 💙