02/02/2024
Update: Tetrus is safe with us as of 2/7 ❤️
SOS courtesy post...FINAL plea...Tetrus will need a miracle to make it out of shelter
"Hello,
Baltimore County Animal Services is urgently seeking rescue placement for Tetrus. Tetrus is estimated to be 3 years old, 57 pounds, and came to us as a stray back in November. Tetrus was extremely fearful when he came to us and a lot of work was put in to socialize him to make him safe for volunteers to walk and to make him available for adoption through the shelter.
Tetrus was going to go to one of our shelter partners, as he was a long term resident here without any adoption interest, but unfortunately he was whale eyeing officer who came to pick up. When trying to get in truck he started trying to bite at the officer's face. Wouldn't jump up into truck even with treats. Brought back in. A staff member took him back out to truck and he was wiggly towards them, but turned on when she went to lift him onto truck. He was jumping up towards face but when unable to get that high he redirected onto hand.
Two days later, our behavior consultant took Tetrus out for car games following incident when trying to load up for transport. He was quite excitable so, before doing anything, she took him to the small fenced area outside of yard 5 to work on some pattern games to lower his arousal, then allowed some off leash run time in the large part.
“He was still intermittently jumping, but it was more inhibited. On the way he showed loose/wiggly body language towards multiple people that we encountered. I introduced him to a Klimb platform in the BE room first, just to make sure he was comfortable getting on and off of it. Aside from being a bit sloppy with his food placement, he was eager to participate in the game. We then moved out to my car, with the platform placed in front of the trunk. This turned out to be unnecessary b/c he jumped right in the back w/out hesitation. I had him snuffle around for some treats and targeted him in and out multiple times, before repeating the same sequence in my back seat to see if he hesitated having a narrower area to jump in an out of. He was relaxed, eager to get in and, at one point, lay down in the back. He also allowed me to offer pet/scratches throughout, showing no discomfort w/ body handling. I do feel that a significant component to the incident on Tuesday was due to past trauma upon arrival, specifically with being handled on a control pole and potentially having negative associations to the ACO in uniform, resulting in some trigger stacking which spiked when MM tried to pick up and he no longer had an opportunity to move away. While not ideal, despite his heightened FAS, he did demonstrate bite inhibition as he did not break skin.”
Due to Tetrus’ attempted bite he is now only available to a rescue group and must be pulled quickly. Tetrus is up to date on vaccines, heartworm negative, and neutered. He has shown social interest in other dogs and does well when appropriately introduced. If you are interested in pulling Tetrus, or have any questions, please let us know!
Thank you,
BCAS Rescue Team
Baltimore County Animal Services
13800 Manor Road
Baldwin, MD 21013
[email protected]
410-887-7297"
