Rescued ‘bait dog’ blossoms into pet

Akron Beacon Journal

AKRON

Most of Gordon’s teeth are filed down. Others are missing, probably yanked out with pliers so he couldn’t defend himself from the bites of other dogs.

His bark is gone, too. It’s more like a high-pitched squeal now after someone shoved a pole, stick or something else down his throat to damage his voice box so neighbors wouldn’t hear him yelp in pain.

Gordon, his trainer recently said, was a “bait dog” in an Akron dog-fighting ring.

“He was basically the sacrificial lamb,” said Daniel Makara as Gordon nuzzled under his arm, rolling over, hoping Makara would give him a pet as they sat on a couch.

Men running the dog-fighting ring stripped Gordon of his defenses and then let their fighting dogs attack him again and again to improve their ferocity, strength and endurance.

Many bait dogs such as Gordon don’t survive. They’re killed during one of the training attacks or fed, cut and bleeding, to the fighting dogs as a treat.

But Gordon was rescued in 2014 when law enforcement busted up one of Akron’s dog-fighting rings.

People who work with animals saw potential in Gordon from the start. But it took more than a year to turn Gordon from a bait dog into a pet dog seeking a home.

“Gordon deserves a happy ending,” Makara said recently as Gordon leaned against him, trying to rest his block head on Makara’s shoulder. “You’re a good boy! Good boy, Gordon.”

Gordon probably was born some time in 2014. No one knows for sure because veterinarians usually judge a dog’s age by the condition of its teeth.

It was a big year for dog fighting in Akron.

In November 2014, more than 100 law-enforcement officers descended on West Akron’s Cordova Avenue, breaking up the largest dog-fighting ring many of them could remember.

Someone was selling hot dogs and barbecued ribs from a concession stand. Someone else was taking bets on dogs at another stand. Inside a garage, officers found a carpeted ring covered in fresh and dried dog blood.

Authorities arrested 47 people, including men who had traveled from Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Indiana for the dog fights.

Humane-officers rescued eight dogs, including two that were bleeding from fresh wounds.

Three days later, Akron police raided the Fern Avenue property of a man whose brother had been arrested at the dog fight. Humane-officers rescued six dogs there. Two others were dead.

A month later, Akron police launched a third dog-fighting raid at the Springdale Street home of a man charged in the Cordova Avenue case. Humane officers rescued six dogs there.

Gordon, scarred, malnourished and sick with a bacterial infection, was among the Akron dogs saved.

Amy Beichler, executive director of the Public Animal Welfare Society Ohio, noticed a skinny pit-bull mix when she was at Cleveland City Kennel last year to see another dog.

The staff told her his name was Gordon. He had been there at least seven months and was a favorite among volunteers who walked the dogs.

Beichler put Gordon with a foster family for a night, then into a boarding facility for a week until there was space with a permanent foster family “who could handle his high-octane energy.”

But Gordon was more than the family could handle. He wasn’t aggressive. But he chewed. He peed on the floor. And worse, he would break through the bars of any crate, seeming not to care if he hurt himself.

Beichler knows three area dog trainers who volunteer to help dogs like Gordon. In November, she called Daniel Makara, who owns Rockstar Dog training and specializes in dogs with severe anxiety or aggression, issues that often are intertwined.

“They told me I was Gordon’s last hope,” Makara said. “I picked him up the same day.”

Makara, his wife, their 6-year-old son and Rocky the Rottweiler lived in a house on a Geauga County horse farm.

They set up Gordon in a special crate a veterinarian had owned. The crate – steel on three sides with a heavy-duty door – sat in the mudroom just inside their back door.

“Most dogs turn around in a week,” Makara said. For Gordon, it took two months.

Makara said Gordon has learned good behavior wins him a cookie and a pet. Bad behavior – such as pulling on his leash – wins him nothing.

Gordon’s also learned what it’s like to be a pet. He went on walks with Makara’s wife, lounged inside their home and even ended up in their bed.

Gordon still has some issues with the dog equivalent of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, Makara said.

The horses on the farm were a trigger. A bacterial infection stole some of Gordon’s eyesight, and when he saw horses on the farm, he tried to run at them, squealing his damaged bark.

Focus exercises helped, Makara said, getting Gordon to focus on him, not the horses.

“Patience, fairness and structure is what Gordon needs,” Makara said, rubbing Gordon’s jowls. “Every dog deserves a second chance. Huh, Gordon?”

After enduring a lifetime’s worth of hardship, Gordon found his happy ending.

He was adopted Jan. 9 after Charlene Knerr, a 20-year-old nurse’s aide from Sandusky, read about him on Cleveland Dog Rescue’s Facebook page.

“When I read the post, I instantly started crying,” Knerr said. “We figured we could give him love at home that he never had.”

Makara said a family would be a good fit for Gordon, and he gets along well with children, so he felt Knerr would be able to provide him the best home.

Gordon didn’t waste any time making himself at home with the Knerrs.

Knerr said in just one day, he befriended her 1-year-old daughter, Cataleya, playing with her on the floor and putting his paw around her when she puts her arm around him. He even found himself sleeping in Knerr’s bed the first night.

“He’s got a forever home here, that’s for sure,” she said.