Fearful Dog from Jordan

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earthwanderer24
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2016 12:58 am

Fearful Dog from Jordan

Post by earthwanderer24 »

Hi there!

I am new here and thought I'd reach out to see if anyone has experience in relating to a fearful dog. Here's a bit about us first. I currently have three dogs. The first (Nzoku), I got from some street kids while doing some mission work in DRCongo and flew him home to be with me. He is the dog who spoiled all other dogs for me. He is sweet and snuggly and obedient and just a really wonderful dog. The second (Amaroq) is a purebred husky who I've had ever since he was 12 weeks. He's sweet and goofy and although stubborn and not super obedient, has the most loving nature. The third (Titan) is a rescue from Jordan who joined our pack 6 months ago. He has been teaching me a lot! But, oh man, do I have a lot to learn. He was found with black tar clinging to half his body and severe burns as well as cuts everywhere. Here is a video from his rescue that shows some of the wounds he had:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuHJttvZYYk&t=1s

He is a very sweet natured and timid boy. He is afraid of cars, his crate, men, loud noises, etc. The first few days, he wouldn't walk all the way into our house. He slept in the hallway by the front door and would not go outside. He would have accidents and if I managed to get him to come outside with me, he would pee, then immediately drop and army crawl back to the door. It's amazing how far he's come when I think back to the first month of him coming home. My first dog has really helped him adjust. I owe a lot to him :) I do have questions though that I'd like advice on.

He is and can be very unpredictable. The first week home, he attacked my husky a few times. It wasn't so much a full on attack, as we were in smaller quarters at that house and my husky wanted to play and he didn't want to have any of it. My husky has learned to be cautious with him and knows he is unpredictable and since then, their relationship has immensely improved. They now engage in play and can even lay on the ground nearby each other, eat and drink out of the same bowl and there are zero signs of aggression. When I leave the house (which isn't often as I'm home most of the day with them) I always keep him in a separate room from the other two just in case. I haven't used his crate since the day he arrived. He has free reign over the house and is super well behaved for the most part. He can roll on his back and want me to pet his tummy and be all sweet and then all of a sudden, snarl and bare his teeth at me, sometimes lunging his head toward my hand. From the moment he met my husband, he fell in love with him, but even so has randomly snapped at him a few times. I worked slowly in socializing him with people and he has done amazingly. The aspect of unpredictability is what makes me nervous though. It's not that he'd go up to someone and attack them, but he'd go up to someone and stand there, a foot away with his head down, wanting to be pet, but then I never know when he could snap. What do I do with that? I know my attitude is super important and now, for the most part, I am completely calm and taken off guard when it happens. It doesn't happen too often these days. This past week for some reason, it's been happening more often, but for example, he didn't do it once today. I'm super gentle when petting him because of what he went through, but I wonder if he still is sore even though it's been some months now? I'm enrolling him soon in a more intensive 6 week course designed for fearful dogs and I'm hoping that will help more with his confidence. He is afraid of the sun.. The lines in the sky.. Shadows.. Any unpredictable sounds like a chair creaking or something falling over and he yelps in a high pitched tone, ducks is tail between his legs and runs to an area separate from the other dogs.

Any advice would be super appreciated! Thanks for reading this long winded post :)
JudyN
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Location: Dorset, UK
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Re: Fearful Dog from Jordan

Post by JudyN »

Oh, the poor lad - well done for giving him a home. I'm not an expert, but here are my thoughts...

After what he's gone through, six months is still very early days so time will continute to heal him. If he's snapped but not actually bitten, you can be fairly sure that he didn't want to bite but this was just a warning. I would say go much slower with the petting, even when he seems to elicit it and enjoy it. There's a video on dogs' consent to be petted here, which might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cGDYI-s-cQ Just a brief scratch or ear-rub and then walking away could be sufficient for him.

If he has scars, there could be a degree of pain still there, but even if not, there will be the memory of pain, or of other hands that hurt him. And like the Vietnam vet who dives under a table when he hears a car backfire, he may never quite get over that.

I'd be wary of an intensive course to help fearful dogs - I don't know how you could even help a dog overcome his fears in a short space of time without exposing him to those fears and risk flooding him. There's a danger that he might just shut down and not feel able to communicate his fears. (I've seen videos of fear-aggressive dogs who, after 'training', no longer lunge at strangers but anyone familiar with dog language can see that they are now cowering, still afraid of the stranger but also too scared to react.) Plus he might have fears that aren't recognised by the people running the course - there's no point trying to convince him that people, balloons, whatever are safe when really he's scared because he can see the sun. I might be wrong, of course, but it might be the sort of course where you'd be better going as an observer, then you can apply what you've learnt to his fears and his personality, working at his pace.
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Erica
Posts: 2697
Joined: Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:35 pm
Location: North Carolina

Re: Fearful Dog from Jordan

Post by Erica »

Rolling over on the back or standing near someone aren't always signs that the dog wants to be pet - the consent test Judy linked is a good idea! I also agree with the rest of her post - re the training course, I'd be wary of anything promising quick results, but it may be a good course, I don't know! If it's a course teaching management and counter conditioning and such for you to use in the real world, run by an experienced instructor, it might be awesome; if it's shoving the dogs into the situations they're scared of until they stop reacting, that would be possibly the worst thing you could do. And it could be anything in the middle as well.

What looks like joy to a lot of people is actually often anxiety in dogs - it might be a kind of good anxiety, like getting to meet your favorite musician/celebrity/politician - but it's still stressful! It may help you to look into dog body language. Lili Chin has drawn multiple great posters about canine body language, and the Facebook group "Observation Skills for Training Dogs" is great to look into - people post photos/videos and other members post what they see in the dogs - specifically, they're supposed to observe which exact physical signs lead them to say what they think the dog feels like. An example I recently made for a video where a capybara is nibbling the fur of a dog: "A lot of panting from the dog, whale eyes, ears seem held back tensely. Dog avoids looking directly at capybara, but often checks where the capy has been nibbling them after it stops. Dog also often leaning away from capybara." These signs all pointed to me feeling like the dog was uncomfortable or unsure about the capybara. It's a great way to learn how to spot subtle signs, which may help you spot when your pup is starting to feel uncomfortable before he decides to say something strong about it ;)
Delta, standard poodle, born 6/30/14
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