Blaze sticks close to her foster carer Madilyn Wall. The labradoodle is suspicious of strangers and prefers to meet them while outside, not in her lounge room.
Despite the apparent anxiousness, Blaze has come leaps and bounds in the nine months since first coming into Ms Wall's care.
"She was heavily medicated at the beginning to help with the transition," Ms Wall said.
"The only comfort she had was in other dogs."
Blaze was one of 39 labradoodles found living in squalor at a puppy farm in WA's South West region.
Their original owner was fined more than $100,000 for animal cruelty.
As some of the rescue dogs were pregnant when they were seized, litters of labradoodles were also born in care, taking the total number to 55.
The space between an abusive home and a new, loving one is an important time for a rescued dog.
It takes time and patience to retrain, psychologically rehabilitate, and in some cases, physically care for animals that have been mistreated or neglected.
Ms Wall, who has fostered more than 50 dogs since 2010, said at first Blaze was not capable of walking on a lead or learning basic commands like sit or down.
"Blaze was terrified. She would run and hide, she couldn't walk calmly through the house," she said.
"We had an instance where she was in my bedroom and I walked through the door and she was so terrified of me she had explosive diarrhoea all over the wall."
A long tale of recovery
Blaze was the first dog Ms Wall had fostered from a prosecution case.
Ms Wall is not only a seasoned foster carer, but she is also a supervising inspector for Quarantine WA's detector dog unit.
"I thought I would just use my experience to help a dog that was in a tough situation," she said.
"And given my experience with fostering and rescuing, I thought 'I won't end up adopting', you know, I'll just set her up for success and adopt her out."
While she never intended to keep Blaze, she is now hoping to adopt her once the court process is over.
"These guys haven't really experienced normal living such as our home dogs would," coordinator of behaviour and foster at RSPCA Richelle Beswick said.
"[The Bridgetown puppy farm dogs] are still being rehabilitated 12 months later."
After someone reports a suspected animal cruelty case, an RSPCA inspector will head to the property and make an assessment.
From there, they can get a warrant to remove the animal, and the rehabilitation process begins.
Ms Beswick said rehabilitation looked different for each animal, depending on the situation it came from.
"The 39 [Bridgetown puppy farm] dogs came from a property that was extremely unkempt, they were surrounded by rubbish," she said.
"They refused to eat, were trembling, some would hide in corners of their bedding with their heads pressed against the wall."
Warning for dog buyers
Ms Beswick said the RSPCA and foster carers like Ms Wall worked with the dogs until they were comfortable in most environments and able to be handled by people — a process that could sometimes take years.
"We spend lots of time in their kennels just talking to them and going really slow, trying to get them to learn to trust us and build their confidence," she said.
"That could be as simple as sitting down and reading a book to them."
Ms Beswick said animals from prosecution cases were unable to be adopted until the judicial process had concluded and they had been forfeited through the courts.
The RSPCA is currently waiting out the 28-day appeals process after sentencing before the Bridgetown labradoodles can be adopted.
Ms Beswick said the Bridgetown case was a large-scale operation that highlighted the need for people to do their due diligence before buying a dog.
"We do recommend you do your research and look for a registered breeder," she said.
Isn't puppy farming outlawed in WA?
Despite a new shiny piece of legislation aimed at curbing puppy farms like the one found in Bridgetown — the Dog Amendment (Stop Puppy Farming) Act 2021 — most of the law's regulations are still not in place, leaving puppy breeding unchecked in WA.
These regulations are hotly anticipated by the RSPCA, who were involved in a consultation group that helped inform the legislation.
The organisation has long advocated for proper dog breeding regulations, including mandatory sterilisation and a streamlined breeder registration system.
"It is our hope that the legislation will reduce the number of puppy farms," Ms Beswick said.
"But it is also down to doing your research and ensuring you know where the puppy or the dog that you're purchasing is coming from, and that it is a safe and healthy environment."
A core tenet of these new regulations was a Centralised Registration System for cats and dogs, merging all of WA's local government registers into one streamlined service.
The government tender was put out for a provider to supply this service — that tender closed last month.
While the WA government was unable to provide a timeline for when the regulations will be in place, in a statement, a spokesperson for the Minister for Local Government John Carey, described the state-wide register as a "significant undertaking."
"The Central Registration System will centralise cat and dog registers across 137 local governments," the statement reads.
"The DLGSC is now evaluating the tenders received and is working to finalise the procurement process for the new Central Registration System as soon as possible."
