Hi Susan
Talked with Winston's previous owner and got a little bit of her story about him. When he was only six months old, they noticed sensitivity to anyone that he sensed might strike him. She felt the reason this occurred was that he was kept in proximity with the other littermates and perhaps when they were eating together any sign of growling might have been punished with hitting. When she and her husband first got Winston, he was put in a pen with two other dogs. One was an unneutered male Setter called Rowdy who was older but not aggressive, and the other was a female who was Winston's grandmother. When the three were first put together, Winston would growl at Rowdy, but not his grandmother, so they separated Winston from the other two by some fencing. Winston, however, would continue to growl at Rowdy through the fence. When I asked Doris, the owner, what her explanation for the growling was, she said she thought Winston was jealous of Rowdy (it, of course, could have been male territorial behavior).
I took a chance and asked her if she was overly expressive and loving to Rowdy as opposed to Winston. She laughed and said yes because Rowdy was older and had health problems. My feeling is that Rowdy was easier to deal with than Winston.
The puzzling aspect of this matter is that Winston was perfectly at ease with the neighbor's dogs. In fact, they played tag with Winston chasing the dogs over the fields and all of them turning around and chasing Winston back. And this would go back and forth, seemingly with a lot of fun.
This is a couple who hunted on horseback with setters, but the husband became ill and trained Winston only briefly before he died. Her husband was adamant that none of the dogs jump up on people, and may have applied not-so-gentle correction. On one occasion Doris said Winston jumped on her for attention and she scolded him because of her husband's insistence. Winston responded by growling. This happened only once.
I asked Doris where she would place Winston if she were to do it herself. She said she thought he needs, as John & I think, to be with people who are older and have grown children long gone, or people with no children. She also said that Winston needs to be in a situation without any competition from other animals.
Now, this is our experience with Winston. John and I were taking Alfie, another rescue dog, back to the vet after his walk on the trail, and we spotted a station wagon open at the back with this lovely Setter handled by a guy standing there holding a rope around his neck. He looked very vulnerable. John walked over and cradled his face in his hands and started talking gently to him. He looked up and gazed into John's eyes, seemingly starved for attention. He loved it! At this point I walked over and started talking with the man, who was a little on the gruff side, to say the least. We found out later he was a handyman on Doris' farm. I asked him whether he brought Winston for his annual shots, and he replied that no, he was going to be killed. You can imagine our reaction!! Incredulous, I asked why. He said the owner (Doris) was moving from the farm to an apartment in the city because everything was too much work for her after her husband died. He added that he had already dug Winston's grave. When I probed further and asked why he had to be destroyed because of that, he said she was afraid to give him to anyone else with any possibility that he would not be taken care of or would be abused. Now you can imagine, at this point, that John and I were pretty horrified at that solution, so I asked him to get the woman on my cell phone. He did, and when I assured her that I would try to find a home for him if she released him to me, she agreed to meet with John and me at her farm to talk about it. So Winston had a stay of execution. To be sure nothing would happen to him in the meantime, I kenneled him that night at my vet's. The next day we went to the farm and had a nice conversation with Doris. She was terribly relieved that someone would want to place him, and once again repeated that she would have kept him if there were no restrictions with regard to animals where she was going. It was obvious to both of us that she was having health problems of her own, as her one side was paralyzed by a stroke. Finally, reassured that Winston would be in good hands, she signed the release form.
From that day on, our experience with Winston has been nothing but positive. Every day we walked him on a long trail with many different kinds of people and animals and he seemed very happy and content with us. We excessively praised him for everything, including peeing and pooping! He soaked up all our affection with so much obvious appreciation. Other people on the trail petted him and he loved that, too. The only time we saw any discomfort on his part was when a dog approaching him showed any aggression, growled, or tried to jump on him (like Alfie). He would growl back. In a way, he seemed to love having us to himself. One of the most interesting things he did every time we took him out was to frequently stop, turn around, and come to us and present his head/face to be caressed. As an aside, when we first put a harness on him he showed absolutely no resistance and walked on the leash as if he were born to it. Interestingly enough, Doris said they could never put anything on him because he didn't like it, and she was astonished that he accepted the harness and leash and walked like a perfect gentlemen. She laughingly asked, "Are we talking about the same dog?" I laughingly responded, “You bet. Do you want to see the photos?” She said, “Absolutely!” So I am sending some to her. In summation, she was greatly relieved about all this news.
To reiterate, John and I both think that Winston should be with older, mature dog lovers, who really know this breed and are consistently loving and gentle.
You recall, Susan, that I sent the story about the show dog by Elissa Ely on National Public Radio. I commented that it had some relevance to Winston. You remember that Elissa said that when she and her husband got this dog, it exhibited the behavior of a perfect lady, but without demonstration of emotional attachment. I really empathized with Elissa when she said she praised the dog for everything. The reward for that was that the dog responded eventually with great love for her and her husband. This is what I feel will happen when Winston gets a loving home. In our relatively short time with him he seemed to be released from his emotional jail. Probably the trip, with all the complexity and changes, could have set him back a little bit. We gave great faith that this is temporary, depending on his future owner.
He is a wonderful dog with a fine pedigree, but what he has to offer is a lot more than that. He has great heart, and a loving spirit which needs to be nourished.
If he were a plant, the sun would be his future owner.
Myrle and John
