general purpose security dog 'Max's' new legs&life

Hello people. so a little about who we are or more importantly the dog that needs our help! 

my name is shane abbley and I’m a general purpose security dog handler.
I was a former royal marine commando, now a dog handler. I had a passion for working dogs since seeing there capabilities out in Afghan, especially the Malinois breed.

Max is a Belgian Malinois born on 16 apr 2015 and is teamed up with me as a General Purpose dog. KC name; Belga Arafa 
We started IPO training (which is a form of protection training in the biting sports) from 8weeks old and did that sport every week until the age of 2, at one and half years old I qualified him as a security dog as he seemed sharp enough for that job.  Since then we trained mainly in global ring which is a different bite sport.

In this security job role we work away from home alot,  have worked in every major city in the uk and done loads of different jobs. From festivals to patrolling estates-looking after local houses, to protecting people and equipment in rougher areas. He’s also an excellent family dog and loves the kids. One of our recent jobs was working in a busy public environment which brought out the best in him, it was the perfect place for him to become a phenomenal dog in terms of being environmentally stable and learning from experience when to switch on aggression, and when to be model for photographs. He seemed to be a bit of local tourist attraction at the place and had heads turning, especially taking a ride up the escalators making people laugh at how blasé it was to him.

We started working within the south-west area since the start of lockdown last year 2020. His job there was deterring anti social behaviour and he had a good effect on stopping certain drug use in the toilets and around the place of work. He always had the attention of the ladies and loved a random pet,  unfortunately my game was out but he was on fire!

So onto what happened to this ginger ninja! Well on Wednesday 17 March 2021 we were doing some simple obedience. I threw the ball for him as a reward, however I didn’t predict a fox peering its head over the wall and the dog gave chase. Thankfully my recall is good and he called off the fox. 
But this is where it goes wrong for us now. After he had sprinted off, when he was running to come back to me, for some reason decided to take a short cut over a wall. only this wall wasn’t the one that he normally jumps over. This one was a 30-40 foot drop over the other side. After i rushed down to see if the dog was ok i saw max laying down but conscious. He couldn’t walk so was obviously seriously injured. I immediately called for an emergency vet, thankfully, one was only a 5 minute drive away. we went to a local vets where they did an amazing job of seeing to max immediately.

Granted an out-of-hours emergency vet is expensive, but I needed this dog squared away ASAP. He was stabilised and had ultra sound and X-rays along with pain relief. The vet couldn’t believe how strong this dog was to survive with no broken bones. 

When the morning came he got referred to a specialist, but from what they told me the costs were mounting up and up after the CT scans. So after all the scans, the only damage to the dog is complete rupture of both his front carpel ligaments and two broken teeth. surprisingly nothing else is wrong with him. However the cost I initially got quoted for surgery was £11.5k for both front wrists fused.  I literally can’t afford that price, as I was broke by this point. Also there wasn’t a payment plan with that vet.  Me and my dad had just forked out £1.6k at the emergency vets, then another £2.8k for the ct scans and care at the specialist vets.


My only option was to have max PTS there and then. However I refused for my dog to die in the surgery, as I knew he didn’t want to be there, and deserves to come home one last time. So I arranged for the vet back in Weymouth to have him PTS. I was devastated, all this happening so fast and given ultimatums so rapidly!
On the Friday morning I brought max back to home to see the kids and have some good dinner. As soon as he got home he perked up and was even trying to walk; Which I stopped obviously.

After reaching out on fb, I got informed of this go fund me and to shop around for a cheaper quotes which I’m now in the process of doing. I’ve cancelled the euthanasia for now and have put a file together to send to various specialists vets- hopefully with a payment plan I can use. My intention of the go fund me is to ask all you wonderful people for help to get this dog back up and running, so he can live out his days as a happy goofy family pet, granted he won’t be able to work, his front wrists need fusing solid-so won’t be able to flex them but he can still have excellent quality of life.
Currently max is on strong pain relief and anti-inflammatory’s, while waiting out on a few calls back from specialist orthopaedic vets. surgery can’t happen for a week yet anyway. due to the nature of his job pet insurance is hard to come by, or is super expensive. Also the price of this surgery would exceed what they would pay. because Im self employed the charities won’t help either, so Please if you can help this deserving dog carry on his life, no matter how small the donation we will appreciate it massively.
He’s done enough to help protect the public and keep people safe, I’m hoping some will help him now
he’s too loved and putting him to sleep is defiantly not what I want to do or what he deserves. 

After researching this type of op it will be hard pressed to find much cheaper but especially the after care will total up prices too. However if some lucky way we manage to raise more than needed the mo ey will all go back into a charity of everyone’s main choosing. 

The ride back home. (stitches in his ear due to a cauliflower ear previously)