An enormous St Bernard dog is said to have a mortal terror of vets following a bad experience, and will even run into walls in order to escape them. Weighing in at 78kg, Kingston looks more like a bear than a dog, but lacks courage when it comes to getting a check-up.
According to Kingston's owner Lucy Wells, the gigantic pooch has always suffered from bad allergies, with constant ear infections, and so she decided to take him to the vet when he was eight months old to get to the root of the issue.
Unfortunately, as previously reported by Edinburgh Live, this appointment was scheduled during a time of Covid restrictions, and so Lucy wasn't allowed in the room with Kingston while he was having his ears cleaned out. From this point onwards, he has point blank refused to let any vets touch him.
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Lucy told the publication: "I’m not sure if they just accidentally hurt him but he completely freaks out, he’ll go into the vet practice without a blink but when we get into the room and the vet moves towards him it’s a struggle to keep him calm enough to the point that he isn’t able to be touched."
Before the ear cleaning incident, Lucy says 15-month-old Kingston was more than happy to go into a room with a vet. However, now he'll struggle if they try to take his lead, doing everything in his power to get away.
Lucy continued: "He will throw himself from side to side, smacking into the walls, tables and try to run backwards to get away from the vet trying to touch him.
"It’s very stressful for him and for me, because of his size the last vet I went to didn’t want to touch him, she got me to open his eyes and ears in the hope to see what the problem was."
Going forward, Lucy hopes to find a vet who could form a bond with Kingston and help him regain his trust, stressing that he does really need to get his allergies sorted.
Do you have a pet with an unusual phobia? Email us at julia.banim@reachplc.com
