Farley

It’s not every day that we meet a dog like Farley. A shining example of canine determination and motivation, Farley doesn’t let much get in his way. His owners sent us this great case history…..

Our beautiful boy, Farley-Marley, spent the first 18 months of his life as a rescue dog. He was in and out of the rescue centre having been re-homed many times. He had never settled in his new homes and was reported to escape from gardens with high fences, cause continuous chaos, and general disruption. When he was returned to the rescue centre, he occupied his time by undoing his kennel door, escaping and ending up on the roof of the kennels!!! We went to the dog rescue centre in 2003 to ask if they had a suitable dog for agility… and no surprise they were quick to point out Farley!!! We were up for the challenge, so we brought him home.
Farley lives with lots of other dogs and he is definitely the leader of ‘his’ pack. He has given us many laughs over the years with his antics and misdemeanours, but with lots of training Farley has spent most of his time being a very active dog; competing in the dog sports of flyball and agility.
We were really worried when we found a small hard lump on his rib back in March 2011, but knew the right thing to do was to get him checked over by the vets. If anything were to happen to Farley, we knew he would have left an irreplaceable gap, not only in our competing life, but also at home with us and the other dogs.
Unfortunately the lump turned out to be a very nasty tumour that needed drastic surgery to remove it. We brought Farley home from the vets after his surgery, and we wondered whether he would ever again be the active dog we knew and loved.
He began to get stronger, and we asked whether it was possible for Farley to have appointments at the ARC to begin to rebuild his muscles, and attempt to give him the best chance of gaining his full movement back. We never thought in our wildest dreams that he would ever be able to compete again. Yet he is doing so well, that we are using his agility training to help rehabilitate him further.
We are so grateful for everything the vets and the ARC have done, not only have we got our beloved ‘leader’ back, but in a few months time we hope to be able to compete in agility with him again!