Abbie Chatfield made the heartbreaking decision to rehome her almost one-year-old puppy Daisy.
The FBoy Island Australia host, 29, announced the sad news on her It’s a Lot podcast on Tuesday.
Abbie asked her fans and followers to “listen to the entire episode before commenting” in the caption of the video she shared on Instagram of the episode recording.
‘I’m very nervous about recording today’s episode. “I’m afraid of the reaction because I feel very bad about the whole situation,” he began.
‘I’m going to be honest because I know the decision I made was the right one for me and everyone involved.
“I had to rehome Daisy.”
Daisy is a one-year-old cocker spaniel that the media personality adopted into her family in April.
“I’m going to cry,” Abbie said as she began to explain her decision.
‘Daisy is my puppy. I have an older dog, Mr. Walter, who is eight years old, and I have Daisy, who will be one year old in a week or two.
Abbie Chatfield has made the heartbreaking decision to rehome her almost one-year-old puppy Daisy.
Abbie Chatfield’s one-year-old puppy Daisy (pictured) now lives with a good friend’s sister in Brisbane.
‘I had to rehome her because of Walter and his traumas and the way they manifest. So before anyone comes into my DMs, I’ve spent six months agonizing over this.
Walter suffers from anxiety caused by his previous owners.
“I’ve tried my hardest and I never thought I’d give up a dog,” Abbie continued on the podcast.
Abbie, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Sydney, said she “tried literally everything” to find a way for her two dogs to get along.
Before adopting Daisy, Abbie said she had never heard Walter growl.
‘Adam (my boyfriend) calls it sugar loaf. “He’s a petty dog,” Abbie said, adding that since her romance with the Peking Duk leader began, relations between her two fur babies had improved significantly.
The dogs have gotten along better since Abbie began her relationship with Australian musician Adam Hyde because they each have a human, but she said their inconsistent schedules confuse them.
Although Walter has never bit Daisy or been openly aggressive toward her brother, Abbie said he is fiercely protective of his time with her.
‘Everything got better when I started dating Adam because there were two of us and Daisy had Adam and Walter had me. But when Adam’s not around, I think Walter’s anxiety doubles because he gets used to having Adam around,” she said.
‘Adam was going to do a concert and on those three days, Daisy slept in a different room and Walter had night terrors. It’s like I have a shell shock.
Abbie explained that dog trainers and her veterinarian had told her that Walter was “resource guarding” his owner, which is the type of behavior dogs display when guarding their favorite ball or bone.
She said he growled at Daisy and now regularly pins her down because he is jealous.
‘I showered for 10 minutes and he did it three times. She stands there, completely still, trembling. She’s not doing anything to him.
Revealing the sad news on her It’s a Lot podcast this week, Abbie said that as Daisy (pictured) got older and better behaved, Walter’s tolerance for her decreased.
Initially, Abbie believed the problem would be resolved when Daisy grew out of her puppy phase and was trained to eliminate some of her “annoying behaviors.”
These included “liquid poop” on a flokati rug and the destruction of several sofas.
“She grew up and was less annoying, but it seemed like his tolerance for her decreased as her behavior improved,” he said.
‘In retrospect, I stupidly thought that having a puppy at home would make him more playful and therefore happier.
“Because he was very anxious, particularly after the abusive relationship I went through last year, he became very upset about being around that.”
“I love her more than anything and she hasn’t done anything wrong,” Abbie continued.
She compared the relationship between the two dogs to that of King Charles and Princess Diana.
“She’s Lady Di and she has an evil man living at home, and that’s Walter,” Abbie joked fondly.
Abbie detailed how she had moved to Northern Rivers when she first adopted Daisy to give the duo time to adjust to their new dynamic, but to no avail.
She also sent Daisy to boarding school while Walter stayed at home with a dog sitter during his trips to the US, and hired a dog trainer and veterinarians to give expert advice.
‘When she went to boarding school, he was melancholy. “It’s like ‘do you like it or don’t you?'” he said.
“Side note: If you’re thinking about getting a puppy, my answer is no.”
Unfortunately, Walter’s jealousy of Daisy is not something the TV and radio host has said she can resolve, and she didn’t want to subject either dog to the “trauma” of co-existence for years while she “figured it out.”
“I knew that the puppies were tough and that was not the reason why they abandoned her,” she clarified after talking about how difficult it is to raise one.
‘I just don’t have the skills, the ability, the understanding of dogs (to fix Walter and Daisy’s relationship). I’m not a dog trainer.
Abbie added that if she had been selfish, she would have kept both dogs.
‘If I was completely selfish, I could have stayed with Daisy and gone on two separate 40-minute walks a day instead of one two-hour walk each day. “I’m so sure I’m the best dog parent.”
Please no one text me because I have been crying about this for months since I started making the decision to get rid of her.
Abbie spent a significant portion of the 45-minute recording detailing the lengths to which she goes to care for her dogs, including selecting obstacle courses for their daily walks.
“The reason I don’t drink anymore is because I don’t want to be hungover for Walter,” she said.
“I’d rather make sure they have a two-hour walk to jump from streams, beaches or parks.”
The decision has taken a huge emotional toll on the popular radio and television presenter, who said that until the day she handed Daisy over to her new owner, a couple of weeks ago, she was ‘screaming and crying in the shower’.
‘I raised her and went through the most difficult parts of her puppyhood. I’ve done all the hard work with her. She is the best dog.
‘She sleeps with her arms around my neck. I can’t take that trauma out of him and all I can do is give him a safe place to live.’
Abbie said she has rehomed Daisy with a good friend’s sister in Brisbane, who drove to Sydney to pick her up.
The TV host and podcaster said she can’t train her dog Walter, 8, to overcome his traumatic response to sharing his mother with a younger pup.
She packed up all of Daisy’s things and made lists of all her food and activity preferences for her new owner.
“A few weeks later, I’m 100% sure this was the right decision for both dogs, but I’m heartbroken,” she wrote in the caption of her podcast post.
“I already feel like a failure, but I really think it would have been purely selfish to keep my two angels in a house that they both just put up with and don’t enjoy.”
Abbie’s 491,000 Instagram followers quickly flocked to her comments to praise the decision and offer kind words of support and encouragement.