Highland Canine Training recently adopted Aris, a nineteen month old German Shepherd that completed our Second Chance Program. Aris came to us several months ago from Lake Norman Animal Rescue . Aris had been surrendered by his previous owner who had improperly attempted to train his as an "attack dog". Upon his arrival to our program, Aris weighed in at 63 lbs, was severely malnourished, and guarded every morsel of food before him. He had been abused for months and had lost all trust in humans. If not for our Second Chance Program, Aris would have surely been euthanized.

Aris was a bit difficult to rehabilitate, but with some work and alot of
patience, he again learned how to trust people. He soon learned
that hands were used to pet him, instead of hit him and he
figured out that he would be fed regularly and taken care of.

We are very pleased to announce that Aris was recently adopted
by a loving family in Charlotte, NC. He weighed 94 lbs upon
leaving for his forever home. Below is an excerpt of a recent email
from Aris' new family.

 

I thought you might like an update on Aris ….

Things are going better than we could have imagined. The way Aris is acting, you would never know he was abused. He is a very happy dog. He loves attention, he loves to be petted. He comes over to both Allison and me for attention. When we first got him home it was either that Saturday or Sunday … Allison and I were sitting in our chairs watching TV and Aris tried to crawl into my lap to get loved. Before I knew it he had half of his body in my lap. That night he touched both of our hearts. We were really expecting that he would be a bit stand-off-ish … he has been everything but. He is equally great with both Allison and me.

Well that was last weekend and each day he gets better. We can tell he gets more comfortable each day. He is just fitting right in.

If either of you are in the area, we welcome you to come visit. I know it would make you feel good to see how well he is doing … to see the true benefits of all of your work. Without the two of you, Aris would not be with us today and Allison and me ….. I’d rather not think of everything we have missed, just over the past week.

Thank you both for saving Aris.

            -Ed and Allison B.

We would also like to update everyone on Bear, the very first candidate for our Second Chance Program. Bear is living happily with his family in Huntersville, NC. As many of you know, Bear was featured in an article in the Lake Norman Magazine. Bear now has a loving family and a playmate named "Prudence" that he plays with very well. Bear is doing well and often returns to visit us when his "parents" go on vacation.