to me that she had an obvious injury to her spine and asked me what had happened. I explained to her the same thing Monika told me. To which the vet seemed very confused. She said that the injury my dog sustained didn't match that of a dog altercation. She had questioned why there were no bite marks on my dog." She explained to me my options for treatment and was very thorough. It was about 12am, I had my kids at home and my decision was to take Navy home with the medication they had given me and I would re asses in the morning for possible xrays, ct scans, blood work and ultrasounds.
Once I got home to take a better look at Navy I began to see a lot of what looked like sores and scabs all over her body. One under her armpit, one on each of her front paws, some down the back of her front leg, and some on her neck. At first I thought these marks were from the dog altercation but upon further inspection, as I noticed when she was in the bath, they we already scabbed over. They were not wounds from a recent dog altercation. And they didn't look as though they were bite marks. They looked more like burn marks or sores.
The next morning I woke up to a text from
Monika. "I haven't slept, any info." I explained to her what the vet said and told her the issues Navy had. (Blood in urine, excessive water drinking etc) I asked her to explain what happened in either a text or voice note so I could take that right to the vet as I didn't want to miss understand anything or explain it wrong. As soon as I asked for that Monika's demeanour changed. She began calling me over and over, (I couldn't answer as I was at work) she sent me voice notes saying "it was my fucking dog that got hurt not yours." And just kept explaining that my dog had chewed through the kennel(this time her story changed to 45 minutes instead of 5) and bit her dog and that was it. When I was able to answer Monika's call it was about 12 minutes long. The only thing she kept repeating was "I didn't do anything wrong" and "your dog chewed through my kennel" and "my dog was bleeding." Other then that I couldn't get much else out of her. I explained all the marks on my dog, what the vet said, and what I had noticed since my dog returned home. I did ask for her to pay for the vet bill. I explained that my dog was in her care and that I felt it was the right thing to do. She never agreed to pay the vet bill until the end of the conversation. I said thank you and she hung up on me. Since then I haven't been able to get payment for the vet bill and not once has Monika asked how my dog is doing nor will she respond. It's not top priority for me right now but I also never received an assessment for my dog. I still don't know why she reacts to other dogs or how to correct it.
I wish I had gotten more video of when I first picked her up and how she looked. But at the time I thought it was just a dog altercation. If I had known this was going to be dog abuse I would have started documenting right away. Although I don't believe this should have happened in the hands of a dog trainer with "25 years experience", I do understand that sometimes things happen. If I thought even for a second that this was from a dog altercation I would not be posting this right now. But when I started explaining what happened to my dog to a few friends, I learned that this is not the first time Monika has been neglectful and abusive with dogs. I spoke to a very kind woman name Trish, who's dog spent 10 days in ICU because of an incident occurring in Monika's care. After hearing her story I am pretty lucky my dog is in the shape she is in. We are hopeful for a fully recovery but it's going to take a long time.
I CANNOT allow this to happen to anyone else or their beloved family dog. This isn't just a simple story of crappy customer service. This is abuse. This is a living breathing animal who is deeply loved by their family. I know I'll never get the truth as to what happen to my dog. And I know it's my word against hers. But these injuries on my dog are not of a dog altercation. I am taking the necessary steps and contacting the right authorities to make sure I'm doing everything I can to prevent this from happening ever again. Feel free to share to make people aware of what's going on. Especially pet owners.
These are the pictures of her sores. I am unable to show a video of how she walks currently because the vet said she is to be on strict rest. I have to keep her medicated on pain killers(mildly sedative) muscle relaxants and anti inflammatories. read more