Need advice for extremely timid rescue

2

2di4jewelry@msn

Forums Regular
Hi everyone,

I recently adopted Lucy, a 6 1/2 yr. old rescue that was never socialized. She is scared of everything. I live in a condo, so have to walk her for her potty breaks.

Many times on a walk she will hear a loud kid, or something that spooks her, and she goes nuts. She starts jumping, and trying to run in any direction. I have her in an obedience class, and they told me when she does this to stand still, wait for her to calm down, then get her attention by clapping my hands, say "let's go", and lead her. That is starting to work, but many times she is still so freaked out she won't eliminate.

That happened tonight, and just a little while ago I found a puddle on the hardwood floor. It was colorless, with no smell, but has to be from her. The rescue told me she is housebroken, and I've seen no evidence of any other accidents from her. But now I'm wondering if she had one while I was at work, and it dried before I got home? Especially with the no smell factor??

I've been taking treats on the walks to give to her when she goes, and when she is walking nicely. But that distracts her too, she knows that I have food.


Can anyone offer any advice? I know it's going to take time, just feel so frustrated, and helpless sometimes. One morning I walked her for 45 minutes, and she just refused to go.
 
Bless you for opening your home and your heart to Lucy. There is lots of help for you here...we have numerous stories of fearful rescue successes.

Take a look at Tagg's "Tinsel's Journey" first. It's full of information and ideas. There are other threads in the Rescue section as well that will be helpful. http://www.sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=12991&highlight=tinsel's+journey

With time and patience, Lucy will be a happy, well adjusted dog who is grateful to you for her new life. Mistakes will happen, even with housebroken dogs. Stick with it and be patient and use lots of positive reinforcement. You'll get her there!
 
Our youngest Sheltie was so timid when he came from rescue, that he basically spent 4 months hiding in the bedroom. We had to carry him out until he was finally bribe-able w/ treats....He still gets spooked from time to time, but a loud noise or something unfamiliar. It's been a year and a half, but his progress has been tremendous. Amazing, I cannot say enough. Once he bonded with us and learned to fully trust us, it became easier. He is also food-motivated, and like your Lucy, if he knows we have treats, he won't potty. ;) He'd rather eat and be cute!!

As for the puddles that may or may not be happening, does she have full access to the whole place while you are out? Perhaps try confining her to the kitchen or smaller area until she has fully integrated and gotten onto routine and adjusted more. Does she have a crate she can go in and out of as she pleases? That might be of comfort to her. Have you considered using potty papers for when you are not home?

When you are out, keep her close but let her sniff about, praise for every little thing w/ a pleasant soft toned "good girl" or whatever she responds to. Stop when she hears something "scary", and praise her for not pulling away or anything. A treat after a potty will help, but I know, it runs full circle w/ her not pottying if she knows you have goodies. She will figure it out after a while. And it will get easier. Keep doing what you are doing and staying consistent, that will help her most. She will get there!!

Patience and time. ;)
 
I just read Tinsel's journey, wow. Lucy came from a breeding situation, but there were only 5 adult dogs, so not as severe as a puppy mill. But she was never a house pet, was kept outdoors (in a very rural area) in a dog run all day.

I've had Lucy for a month now, and she has really bonded with me. She comes up to me to be petted, will let me hold her, and rub her belly. And, she sleeps beside my bed. She had a bad habit of jumping on me, but has learned the "off" command, and now understands that if she wants me to pet her, she has to sit. So I feel like I'm making progress except for the walks.

This morning she freaked out several times, but finally went potty. She hadn't pooped for 2 days so that leads me to believe that she is housebroken, or she would have gone inside. I don't give her full run of the place while I'm gone, I close off the bedrooms, so she only has access to the living room & kitchen.

I do talk to her and praise her when she walks nicely. The other problem I'm having with the treats is that she gets so excited she is very rough when taking the treat, she has almost bitten me. I am now putting the treat in the palm of my hand but can still feel her teeth when she takes it. How can I change this behavior and teach her not to "mouth" me?

Some days I wonder what I have gotten myself into, didn't realize it would be so challenging!!
 
Probably nothing but...

2di4jewelry@msn said:
I found a puddle on the hardwood floor. It was colorless, with no smell, but has to be from her. .
Click to expand...

I know this is not the point of your post but this line jumped out at me. You might want to keep track of how much water she is drinking. Urine that is colorless and odorless could indicate an underlying problem ex. UTI.

I am not a vet but I adopted a 1 year old that had both a UTI and a congenital kidney problem and some of the first things I noticed was huge water consumption and urine that was more water than urine (Piper has difficulty concentrating her urine).

Of course maybe she just spit up water, all 3 of mine do that from time to time.

Perhaps the next time you walk her you can take a white tissue with you and quickly touch her urine ... I know, a little icky but it will show color and if you wave your fingers over the tissue toward your nose you will be able to detect if the urine has an odor.

Wishing you the best!
Kimberly
 
Some Shelties are 'shark fangs' like Spruce, lol
At first I thought it was cuz he was a showdog and maybe he was too much hand baited or something, since I know nothing of the show world, lol so I was worried that was what was encouraging his mugging of the hand, til Shelli said HA, NO, he's being a dork, lol So I figured I better work on that with him hahahaah

Depending on how hard she bites, but I have done this with Shepherds and Labs, so hopefully it can work with your gal, too.
Impulse control... Use patience and wait the dog out, don't rush it, don't get frustrated and relax and laugh :D

1. Treat in hand closed fist, dog mugs the hand
2. Don't pull away or use movement, wait til the dog backs off, even a little
3. Once dog backs off even an inch, say Good Dog, open hand
4. Dog will mug hand again, the fist closes immediately (treats dissapear!)
5. Repeat--Dog will move away sooner, you say good dog, take a treat from the hand and feed it to her with the other hand (use open faced palm) that is not holding the treats
6. If dog doesn't mug hand, and stays backed off, you continue to you leave hand open, take treat out of that hand and give it to her again and keep saying good dog, feed again
7. The treat hand ALWAYS closes and food disappears every time the dog mugs the hand, she will quickly learn to give some distance, as dogs love the smell of the treats, getting their nose doing their thing is also a nice side effect to keep their brains engaged.
8. Don't say gentle gentle and then quickly withdraw hand or anything like that, present the treat, say get it,use open palm for some time
9. If dog snatches at treats if I do give them in error with two fingers, lol I say ouch and the whole game ends (only for a few minutes) and go on to do something else before coming back to the game again

Spruce currently doesn't snatch food anymore for the most part, and I am simply flabbergasted when somebody else tells me says oh he's so gentle when they give him a treat... cuz if ya knew him that wouldn't be a word you'd use to describe him lol
 
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Kimberly - I wondered about that too. But she hardly drinks any water. I give her a fresh bowl everyday, and she only makes a small dent in it. The rescue had her blood work done prior to the adoption, and everything was normal. Wouldn't a kidney problem show up in the bood work? I know a UTI won't. My last rescue had cronic UTIs, so I have lots of experience with that, and I don't think Lucy has a UTI.

Toffee's mom - thank you so much for the advice, will try that. I let my guard down this afternoon (she was sitting so pretty, and looked so calm) I gave her a treat with my fingers, and got bit. She didn't break the skin, but it stung! I yelled ouch Lucy, and she ran into another room with the treat sticking out of her mouth. I didn't laugh then, but it was a funny sight.

Lucy is my third Sheltie, so I know how intelligent, loving & loyal this breed can be. If they are socialized!! My first Sheltie was an 8 week old puppy. He was socialized at a very young age, and always loved people, especially kids. When I lost him I decided I was only going to adopt rescues, so my next Sheltie was 8 1/2. She was socialized, and had a very calm kind of indifference to people. If you were lucky she might walk up to you and give you a sniff.

Now I have a dog so scared of people that she has panic attacks. And she remembers each place where she saw a very scary thing - like a kid riding a bike. When we get to that place in our walk, she has a complete melt down. Even if there are no people around, and it's dead quiet. I do change where we walk, but there is no shortage of scary people doing scary things (like sitting on their porch) so she just discovers new places that make her panic.
My first reaction is to want to comfort her, but I know I need to be the authority person, and make her continue. Or she will never get over her fear. Thanks so much for the support!
 
My Beau was extremely timid and scared. Along with all of the other suggestions provided for you, I will suggest that you take her to the vet for a full check up. Rule out any underlying health issues (i.e) uti, and thyroid issues.

Vet may suggest anxiety medication. I have Beau on them and it made training much more easy. 4 years later, he is a changed Boy. He still gets scared at sudden loud noises but, its nothing like it was when I first brought him home and he will go to his "safe" place, which for him is the coat closet. I know that sounds bad, but, he chose it, not me. He also has his crate.
 
2di4jewelry@msn said:
Kimberly - I wondered about that too. But she hardly drinks any water. I give her a fresh bowl everyday, and she only makes a small dent in it. The rescue had her blood work done prior to the adoption, and everything was normal. Wouldn't a kidney problem show up in the bood work? I know a UTI won't. My last rescue had cronic UTIs, so I have lots of experience with that, and I don't think Lucy has a UTI.
Click to expand...

Just to be on the safe side you might want to call the rescue and ask if they ran bun and creat when they did the blood work. I have had several senior cats with kidney disease (and now Piper) and they all drank LOTS of water. Hopefully she just spit up some water.

Wishing you all the best with your new girl!

Kimberly
 
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