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Yes his name is Ballsy and he is a great dog!
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Ballsy is one
of the last remaining Katrina dogs rescued by
Best
Friends still at the Sanctuary. I took interest in him
after
reading his story and of course the name fits well
with what I do!
The case study is to help all of you
understand exactly what
Best Friends does with animals
that come from traumatic situations
and how the animals
progress in the fantastic environment that
Best Friends
provides.
Background
Ballsy went through a few different rescue groups in the
aftermath of Katrina before leaving the Katrina area
with Best Friends. After looking at his file, it seems
to me that he may be one of those animals that have been
misunderstood from the beginning. On a few of the
reports, Ballsy has different breed classifications
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throughout. Apparently this
happens a lot because different people see
different things. Basically, Ballsy is a mutt,
but a very clean cut mutt. The consistent
classification amongst all the rest is “chow.”
Ballsy is a fairly large dog as you can see in
the photos. He is also fairly young. He is
somewhere around 4 or 5 years old though it
seems truly unknown.
Ballsy arrived at Best Friends about 2 ½ years
ago and was assessed by the Best Friends staff
as a “Red Collar.” This classification is for
dogs that show aggression towards people. When
volunteers show up to the Sanctuary to help out
they are not allowed to handle “Red Collars” because
their behavior MIGHT be dangerous. Ballsy
lived in a run by himself as he was also
somewhat aggressive to other dogs.
Where Ballsy got his name at Best Friends was
when every time someone walked up to his run, he
would grab a ball and start shaking it like
crazy. It seemed to be the only thing he would
do for attention.
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Learn More
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To clarify his name, here is a
definition
of “Ballsy” and some synonyms:
Ballsy
adj.
balls•i•er, balls•i•est
Vulgar Slang
Very tough and courageous, often
recklessly or presumptuously so.
Synonyms: Ambitious, driven,
brave,
bold, dynamic, active, audacious,
reckless, defiant, disobedient,
fearless, unafraid, heroic, strong and
determined.
Go to the Photo Gallery of
Ballsy the Dog & Andrew
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Ballsy Log (B-Log)
I'll be writing about
my experiences with Ballsy on a
regular basis
and posting them here for
everyone to read. It's a great
way to keep fans of Ballsy
informed about his progress.
Check back soon for the latest
and I hope you enjoy the
postings.
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Entry 1:
I first met Ballsy back in
August of 2007, I was on my way
from the Kentucky race to my
first Indy Car test at Infineon.
John Garcia from Best Friends
brought me up to Ballsy’s run
for an introduction. At the
time, I was not allowed in his
run even with John because
Ballsy was very aggressive so we
just went next to the run to say
hello. You can see the first
visit in the
Racing Laps video.
I was really surprised at how
large he is, but he is certainly
not fat. He looks extremely
strong and certainly no dog you
would want to get angry with
you. He was showing some strange
behavior towards me. If I looked
him in the eyes, he would go on
the defensive and growl like
crazy, but would not bark. As
soon as I would look away he
would stop. John had an amazing
ability to snap Ballsy out of
this mood just
by talking to him. Ballsy would
turn right around and act like a
regular dog. I could feed him a
treat and he would be ok as long
as I did not look in his eyes.
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Though I was disappointed that I
could not go in his run, I
understood why. It was my first
true learning experience about
what people like John Garcia do,
to rehabilitate dogs of this
nature. Right then and there,
after talking to John and having
him explain Ballsy’s behavior, I
knew for certain what the staff
up at Best Friends do, is truly
remarkable. They are incredible
diligent and resilient. They do
not give up on animals. Ballsy
had been there for 2 years and
made minimal improvement, but
that had not stopped the staff
from continuing. In most places,
Ballsy would likely have been
euthanized in less than 72 hours
because of his behavior and here
he has been living for 2 years
with a staff that continues to
make progress with him. |
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Entry 2:
About 3 months later and after multiple visits
to the Sanctuary, I finally had time to go see
Ballsy again. This time we were going to try and
get some photos of him with me because we had
decided that this would be a perfect opportunity
to display the hard work that the care givers at
Best Friends do and how effective they are.
I was very nervous to do the shoot because of
Ballsy’s previous behavior towards me 3 months
earlier. It was pretty chilly that day, probably
about 45 degrees. The plan was to go down to
Angels Landing which is this awesome cove-like
natural platform on the Sanctuary. It is like a
half dome naturally carved into the canyon side
and below it is a fairly large, almost perfectly
flat grass area with some picnic tables and some
natural water that runs along the base of the
cove. It faces south so there is good natural
light all day.
We met up with Ballsy at Dog Town and to my
surprise he was all ready to go. He was on a
leash with one of the trainers and came right up
to us like it was nothing out of the ordinary.
He didn’t seem concerned with any people at all,
including me. He just wanted to sniff around
like any other dog. Ballsy was certainly not the
aggressive dog that I had seen 3 months ago. I
was perplexed to say the least. So off we went
on a few cars down the good old gravel roads at
Best Friends and up to Angels Landing for the
photo shoot. Once we got up there, we kept
Ballsy in the control of the trainer, Pat, just
to be sure, if anything went wrong that either
me or Ballsy would get in trouble.
As we started to take some shots, I was in total
amazement at how calm and tame Ballsy was. He
was distracted of course because of everything
around him, but we were able to keep him focused
long enough to get a few shots. After a bit, I
felt comfortable enough to handle the leash and
got some treats to give to him. I was amazed
that his behavior had changed so much in 3
months. Every now and then he would just want to
go off to one end of the Landing and sniff
around, so I would walk him over, we would chill
out for a bit and then come back for some more
shots. Ballsy would sit down right next to me
and lean into me a bit like I had known him for
some time. When we walked around and I didn’t
want him getting into a bush he would listen to
me and we would walk on back to another area.
Needless to say, I was in awe. There was no way
that this was the same dog I had met 3 months
ago. His behavior had changed so dramatically
for the better, clearly he was making
improvement. What I had seen from him this day
was that he is probably a dog that needs a BIG
farm to take care of or something. The photo
shoot went well, though it was a little
difficult, but some of those shots are on the
site.
The day raised some questions in my head about
animal welfare. Why is it that so many shelters
euthanize seemingly dangerous animals, when
there is a CHANCE that they can become safer,
happier animals? Why do we give up on animals
when there is the possibility to improve their
behavior? As a society we do not give up on our
children because they get in trouble do we?
My final impression from this day was that
Ballsy is an awesome dog and something had to
have changed his behavior so dramatically, so
what was it? |
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back soon for the next Entry! |
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