ANNABEL FENWICK ELLIOTT: I adopted Bear, my German shepherd 'lockdown dog', from a shifty man wearing a tracksuit. I was desperate to give him a better life. Then I had a baby - and knew he had to go

By ANNABEL FENWICK ELLIOTT, COLUMNIST Published: 17:15, 19 August 2026 | Updated: 17:15, 19 August 2026 Evil, lazy and irresponsible. That’s what I used to think of people who gave up their pets for adoption... until I was faced with the heartbreaking decision myself. I have confessed to a lot of stupid things I’ve done in print over the years but given I’m such an avid animal lover, this feels the most shameful. I failed Bear, my gorgeous – but extremely tricky – long-haired German shepherd, and I miss him every day. But I had no choice except to let him go. He’s in the perfect home now – I didn’t give up until I found it – so I’m confident I made the right choice. You can’t possibly know, until you’ve lived with an aggressive dog, how life-consuming and truly soul-destroying it is. Bear was a ‘lockdown dog’. I, like so many others, got him in 2020, several months into the pandemic because for the first time in my life I was working remotely and living in the countryside. I didn’t make the decision to get a dog without considering what I’d do with him when we all returned to the office. In fact, I knew I could never go back to my old life in London – and getting Bear cemented that. I found him posted on a private dog-adoption website and was told he was a two-year-old male, supposedly highly trained, excellent with other dogs and children, not very expensive and looking for a new home through no fault of his own. We met in an empty park (big mistake) and I fell deeply in love with him. The deal was swiftly done. Annabel bought Bear, a long-haired German shepherd, from a private dog-adoption website during lockdown. It stated – falsely – that he was excellent with other pets and children  When she took Bear to the park, he went straight into attack mode around other dogs. But after Annabel called his previous owner for advice, he blocked her  I should have suspected his former owner – a young chap in his early 20s, dressed head to toe in an Adidas shell suit – was dodgy, given the man never asked to do a home check and just handed Bear over to me then and there.  Other red flags: Bear was just a little too thin and his fur a bit dull. But instead of interrogating the shifty owner, I had an overwhelming urge to get this dog out of his hands and give him a better life. The problems began when I took him back to the park the following day, this time with other dogs around. Bear went straight into attack mode, rearing up, baring his teeth and straining to reach them. Thank goodness I had him on the lead: I very nearly couldn’t hold him back, but I managed to get home and call his former owner in a panic. ‘Yeah, he might need a “prong collar” until he gets used to you,’ was all the man said. I was horrified, upon examining the skin around Bear’s neck, to find a circle of red marks that indicated he’d been wearing a cruel spiked collar for who knows how long. That was the last time his previous owner ever took my call. He blocked me and deleted his profile from the website. I’ll never know, therefore, what sort of life Bear really had before he came into my life. I had his pet passport and vaccination records, so I know he was born in Poland and was around 17 months old when he came to me. It’s likely he was from a line bred to be guard dogs, given his temperament. I can only imagine that the young man I got him from was desperate to get rid of him and thus lied about Bear’s nature. Had he not, he might well have found him impossible to rehome. Bear’s issues were severe. He was highly ‘reactive’ to all other dogs: male, female, big, small, yappy or docile – he wanted to kill all of them. It wasn’t fear-based or born out of situations where he felt threatened. Bear could see a dog a mile away, minding its own business, and tear off in pursuit of it.  This week, the tragic death of a man attacked by a German shepherd in West Yorkshire shows just how dangerous these animals can be.  My life became almost unbearably stressful. For the two years I had him, my fists were constantly clenched. Physically, I simply wasn’t strong enough to restrain him, even using the snout harness I soon bought him. More than once in the early days, he had pulled me over and managed to get free and attack other dogs. On one occasion he drew blood from his victim, but thankfully did not cause serious injury. The other owners were furious but luckily accepted my apologies and didn’t press charges. Annabel says life with Bear became unbearably stressful. She couldn't exercise him as much as he needed, because it was far too risky to take him off a lead She spent close to £10,000 on private and residential training programmes to try and get his behaviour under control I was in an impossible situation. I couldn’t exercise Bear as much as he needed because it was dangerous to have him off the lead. I lived on a property in rural Essex at the time with a garden that was big enough for him to play fetch, until he managed to escape past our fencing when he saw another dog go past. The only time it was safe to let him run off the lead was in the dead of night or shortly before dawn, when no other dog-walkers were out. I became like a deranged woman; scurrying around at night and in the early hours of the morning hoping to avoid any interactions or altercations. It was exhausting and isolating – I couldn’t have visitors who had dogs, my mother included, or take Bear anywhere in public. I must have watched thousands of hours of dog-training videos on YouTube, and then booked him in with a series of professionals. In total, I spent nearly £10,000 on private and residential training programmes. The consensus was that his aggression was genetic and he would have to be ‘managed’ for the rest of his life. Things got a little easier that year when I met my now-husband, Julius, in that he was strong enough to handle Bear when the dog flew into a rage, so we could get Bear out of the house more and even took him on a road trip around Europe. Still, every single outing was like a military operation. Every corner was a danger zone, lest another dog appear from around it. Worse still, when inside the house he was mysteriously able to open doors, somehow clasping the handle to break free from whatever room we had put him in. But it wasn’t until we had our baby son Jasper in 2022 that the challenges became insurmountable. Bear had always been fine with humans and other children we’d encountered but how could I be sure, given his murky past? What if Bear did something unspeakable to my son? Even after she moved to Iceland with her family, their daily dog walks were dangerous and difficult to manage. It wasn't long before Bear bit another dog They eventually found the perfect home for him with another family on a remote farm in Iceland. 'But it’s still bittersweet to see photos of Bear living his best life,' writes Annabel Now she has a delightful golden retriever called Laska. But before taking her home, she spent a month visiting her and her foster parents to ensure she had no behavioural problems By this point we had moved to Iceland for my husband’s job – bringing Bear with us cost nearly £5,000 – and our daily walks with both the dog and the pram were downright dangerous. The icy paths meant that even Julius couldn’t drag Bear to safety if we encountered another dog. Neither of us could physically manage both our baby and a reactive alsatian in public – it was too much. And it was under these conditions that Bear succeeded in getting free again and biting another dog. Like previous episodes, we broke it up before any serious damage was done and despite the owner being understandably furious, he accepted our apology. While Bear, thank God, was never problematic with Jasper – apart from the few times he accidentally knocked my toddler son down while running to the window to bark at another dog – in the end, I realised that it wasn’t just myself and my husband who were living in misery. This was no life for Bear either. He needed to live on a large stretch of secure land, with an experienced handler and no other dogs around, for ever. So I set about hunting for a new home that fitted the brief, resigned to the fact that I might never find one. Rescue sites are full of dogs just like Bear, and very few – especially those with a history of biting other dogs – get adopted. I knew this, and wouldn’t have dreamt of sending him to a shelter. My last resort would have been to have him euthanised, rather than have him suffer that fate. I issued a Facebook appeal in Iceland and we did have a few potential adopters. Upon interviewing them, none felt like a good match. Either they assumed they could ‘fix’ him or I was worried they’d use him as a guard dog, which seemed too cruel. But after several months a family got in touch. They had a remote farm, far away from other animals, and good experience with big breeds. The first meeting went well, and so did the subsequent trial week.  For the first time, Bear could run freely for hours a day, with no risk of seeing another dog. The couple adored him. Miraculously, he found his forever home. The relief we felt upon handing him over that last time was enormous, but it didn’t quite surpass the intense sadness. I had given everything I could to that dog and loved him dearly. I’d never given up on an animal before and I hope I never have to again. Two years after that, we were ready to try again. I went for a golden retriever puppy whose parents had been rescued from a terrible dog farm and spent a month visiting her and spending time with her foster parents to make sure she had no behavioural problems. At last we took her home and called her Laska. She’s the sweetest dog I’ve ever known. For a while, when walking her, my husband and I still flinched every time we saw another dog – bracing for an attack. To this day, every time Laska greets them with a wagging tail, the relief floods in. I can’t see another German shepherd without clutching my heart and it’s still bittersweet to see photos of Bear living his best life over in Iceland. If I could turn back time, though, I wouldn’t change a thing. I shudder to think what would have happened to Bear had I not taken him in from that awful man. I may not have been the best owner for Bear, but I got him to the right place eventually. It was a twisty, turbulent road to a happy ending for both of us.