Category: Training

Feral Dogs, Shy Dogs, and Somewhere In Between

2/1/2015

It has been an awesome week at TBAR. The energy here has been really good and some of the dogs that need the most work have really made incredible progress, everyone is very happy, and things are actually calm! “Calm” is not a word often used in a home with a baker’s dozen of dogs, which is why I am so happy.

We have some very special dogs here, dogs that are not ready for adoption and dogs that may never be. We have ferals that we welcomed into our lives because nobody else wanted to take the risk, and we often have good luck with dogs like this. We also have extremely shy dogs that are fearful or untrusting of humans. But the two are completely different. A feral dog is not shy. Shy is a dog who takes time to warm up to you, but otherwise wants the attention of humans and wants to be part of a family. Feral dogs, for the most part, would love living in a world without humans as long as they were still getting their primal needs for food and shelter met. They are generally very social with other dogs, though, because this was mandatory in the wild for survival.

Laredo is feral. Laredo will, more than likely, always be feral. We will celebrate two years together on 2/8/15 and he still won’t allow me to approach and pet him. We rescued him and his sister when they were only around 4-5 months old, and they were the most fearful animals I personally have ever seen. I had to muzzle Laredo to pick him up, and then he emptied his bowels from fear. His sister Stella did rehabilitate in a few months, and has been adopted into a loving home. She decided one day that she liked a family, and learned to trust, and became the most loving sweetheart you’ve ever seen. Laredo refused to let go of his fears. Ferals will all socialize to a different level, even littermates. We soon found out Laredo is terrified of thunderstorms, and that’s how we got him indoors for the first time. He now happily runs indoors every day to eat, but runs to his hiding spot under the table. He won’t go anywhere that would allow someone to box him in to a corner. He has a deep fear of being “caught”. He’s always on the lookout for an escape back out into the yard, and after he eats he darts out like he’s about to be trapped. But, he does love and trust me in his own way. I crawl under the table into his hiding spot and lay there and pet him and just make him accept touching. When I come home from work, he’s at the fence dancing in excitement with his tail wagging. When I walk through the yard, he is walking about four feet behind me, with his tail wagging in a slow wag. If I turn to pet him, he takes off, but if I just allow him to be near me, he follows me everywhere. It’s our understanding—I just let him be. He no longer has a drawn face when he looks at me. I can see that he loves me, and he trusts me, as long as I don’t push the boundaries. After two years, he has finally started taking treats from my hand every now & then, instead of me having to toss them to him in his corner. But last night, he really shocked me. I had my dinner in the living room, all the way across the room from Laredo’s safe spot underneath the table. And as I was eating, he came out and started towards me, curious about what I had. So I cut him a piece of pork, and held it out to him. He walked all the way across the room, and took the food from me!!! Way out in the open of the room! I was so excited I pretty much fed him the rest of my dinner, and he continued to come take it gently from my fingers and even was licking all of the rest from my fingers. Now, if I had turned my hand to pet him, he would have been gone. But I let him be who he is, and he loosened up so much. It was so great to see him so relaxed and calm. Then today, I saw him all the way inside the kitchen drinking from the water bowl. He had to walk through an open baby gate to do that, and that is an opportunity for him to be trapped, so I was shocked that he would go that far. He’s really doing great! I may never be able to hold him in my lap and pet him all over, but he’s happy, he plays with dogs and toys, he enjoys treats, and he loves me. And I respect his boundaries, and he’s got a home here. Among dogs, Laredo is our Alpha. He sort of assumed that position after Rocket’s death, and I think it has helped to mature and settle him.

Sparky the Mini Aussie is another dog we’ve been working on, and he’s really done great this week. Sparky is not feral, but he is extremely shy and untrusting of people. Actually, he was untrusting of dogs, too, when he first came here, but once introduced ended up being very social with dogs. He is part of a bonded pair of littermates that we rescued from a South Texas shelter. I think they were puppy mill dogs. Both beautiful blue merle Mini Aussies, but they were in very poor shape. They were severely underweight with horrible coats, and were eating their own feces when we first rescued them, something that starved dogs will often learn to do. Although Skippy is the sweetest, friendliest little dog you’ve ever seen, Sparky would avoid people at all costs. Indoors, I would have to corner and catch Sparky to crate him at night. He wouldn’t allow us to pet or handle him. I decided to send Skippy to a foster home to see if Sparky might open up when he wasn’t able to depend on his brother for security, but that did not work out. Instead, Sparky would get out in our large yard and refuse to come indoors. He spent many nights outside in cold weather, and I had to feed him outside. We brought Skippy back, and after they reunited, Sparky is now opening up more and more. I made the decision to not allow him back into the yard, because our yard is 1 acre fenced and it’s too much room for a scared dog to avoid me. Instead, he only went out on leash, and we took Skippy along with us. After about a week of Sparky going out on leash, sleeping in a crate, and staying indoors during the day, and having his super friendly brother Skippy to look to for direction, Sparky really started to come out of his shell. He started coming upstairs to my office and hanging out while I worked, he started approaching me for petting and standing still for a short time and allowing affection, and he started following me around the house. I was doing a deep cleaning of one of the downstairs rooms Friday, and Sparky spent the whole day in there keeping me company, and enjoying the continuous petting and affection he was getting. I no longer have to take him out on a leash; I can let him out in the yard again without worrying that he won’t come back inside. He has his favorite crate that he often puts himself into during the day to nap, or he may just lay in the middle of the floor. He’s so much more comfortable and he is SUCH a loving little guy. He just wasn’t trusting. I may have to go through a process with his adopter when that time comes, but I feel so much better about him now and am very optimistic about his future. I still don’t want to split the boys up, because I’ve never seen two dogs love each other like these guys do. They even share a crate and sleep on top of each other. They need to remain together. But with a little more work, Sparky might be as friendly as Skippy, and with their small 23 pound size, who wouldn’t want two adorable little guys like this? They are precious, and their combined size is still smaller than some standard sized Aussies.

PepperAnn is the “somewhere in between” dog. Actually, she’s feral too, just not to the extreme that Laredo is, but she is definitely not adoptable. PepperAnn was also rescued as a 4 month old puppy with her sibling Ranger. And like Laredo and Stella, Ranger socialized and is very adoptable while PepperAnn remained more feral. PepperAnn has been here about 8 months now and we just can’t seem to crack the code on this girl. She will come indoors to eat, most of the time. She will come indoors to sleep if it’s very cold outside. But other than that, she prefers to be outdoors and will do her best to get back out there. When indoors, she gets on the sofa, and then just freezes when we approach her. This allows us to sit and pet her, but she’s terrified. You can see it in her eyes. Her pupils dilate and her eyes become black, and she is frozen in fear. She has no aggression; I can pick her up if I need to, because she is frozen. I sometimes sit with her and put her partially in my lap, and just sit and pet her for an hour while watching TV. I pet her until I feel her body relax and her heart rate slow, and I know she’s calming. With a feral, when you give physical contact, you cannot stop while they are in a fearful mode or it will be self-reinforcing for fear. If you are going to teach them to accept contact, you have to continue until you feel them relax and calm, and then stop. Never stop on a sour note. PepperAnn has been especially prone to avoidance the last couple of weeks. The problem we had with Sparky is that once Skippy was gone, he teamed up with PepperAnn, and then their fears played off of each other. That is not the two that need to be together. But remarkably, I think now that Sparky has improved, he is having a positive influence on PepperAnn rather than her having a negative influence on him. Today, PepperAnn came indoors for the first time in probably two weeks, because she ran in behind her buddy, Sparky. I was so happy! PepperAnn quickly found herself a crate to claim as a safe place away from me, but that’s fine—she’s in the house. I was able to get a new collar and tag on her, and give her monthly heartworm/flea prevention. And now, the PepperAnn Tough Love starts. We have to put her to the test to see if she will socialize more. We are going to have to push the limits with this girl, at least until she tells us she can’t do it. So, next step is leash training. And like we did with Sparky, she won’t have the opportunity to go back out in that great big yard and avoid us anymore. She will only go out on leash, and then come back into the house. Luckily, her brother Ranger is excellent on a leash now, because he’s going to help us train her. They are still very bonded to each other and were in a crate together for a while today. So, as she learns to walk on a leash, she’s going to have him alongside her helping to teach her. One thing about PepperAnn, she does love her groceries. She is very food motivated. For a job this big, though, little biscuits or training treats won’t be enough. So I am in the process of cooking some pork cutlets, the same kind that Laredo was crazy about last night, to use for PepperAnn’s training. We may not take more than 2 steps in the beginning of our leash training, but a step gets a treat. That’s how we trained Ranger, using Angel as a lead dog for him, and he was leashed trained in 20 minutes. I don’t expect PepperAnn to be a 20 minute dog, not at all. But we have to push her, and today is the day we begin. I hope to be able to post a positive update on her in the near future.

We didn’t really plan to take on any of these “special” issues with these dogs, but that’s what we got dealt. They are all good dogs. They are loving dogs, even if they are a little different. They might not ever be dog park potential, but I don’t care for dog parks anyhow. I think somehow, humans are responsible for the condition all of these dogs came here in, whether from neglect or abuse. I just don’t feel like we need to give up on them, any of them, including Laredo. I think they’ve already been let down. Once I looked them in the eye, I made an unspoken promise to them to love them and keep them safe, and that’s what I will do. But I love them enough to try and socialize them, as much as they will allow, so that they can have happier lives. Seeing the look of fear removed from Laredo’s eyes is probably the best reward I’ve gotten. These are our babies, and we love them.

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Grumpy Pup

5/26/2014

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We got the most incredible update on one of our alumni, Parker aka Grumpy Pup. Many of you followed his story so I knew you would love to hear the great news. First, a little background for those of you who didn’t know Parker.

In October 2013, we were notified by some volunteers about Parker, an 11 week old puppy in the Carrolton, Texas animal shelter. This puppy had severe emotional issues, and even at his young age, he would sit at the back of his kennel and growl and snarl at anyone who approached, and would bite if you tried to touch him. It seems that Parker was found in a dog crate at the Parks & Rec department where they keep their tractors and equipment. The city was not using the equipment on a daily basis, so it’s not known how long Parker had been there. The truly sad part of this is, whoever dumped this baby there had to drive right past the animal shelter in order to leave him where they abandoned him at. It was a miracle that he was found in time. Once at the shelter, he was marked Rescue Only because he was unadoptable, and his status was urgent. We knew we had to help this baby. Based on his shelter picture and the scowl on his face, we nicknamed him Grumpy Pup.

We had some great volunteers rally together and get Grumpy Pup out of the shelter and they brought him to us. We carried him indoors in his crate, which was his safe place, and put it in the downstairs bathroom. We opened his crate, put a baby gate at the bathroom door, and allowed Grumpy Pup time to come out and explore the bathroom area on his own as we checked on him periodically. He was not a happy boy when he arrived, and would scream a blood-curdling scream of fear when frightened. I’ve never heard anything like it. It was truly a scream, not a bark or a howl. After a couple of hours, Grumpy Pup came out of his crate and was moving around the bathroom a little bit, so I went into the room and tried to introduce myself to him. I approached him slowly, talking softly to him, while he backed into the corner and growled at me nonstop. Being the impatient person I am, I pushed him just a little too far, invaded his personal space, and reached in and tried to pet him. He quickly gave me a bite, a good bite that drew blood. Yes, an 11 week old puppy, that aggressive. What in the world has this baby been through in his short life? I didn’t blame Grumpy Pup for this, it was my fault. He wasn’t ready. He reacted in the only way he knew how. So I left him alone for the time being.

Parker's first night with us had him huddled in the corner of the bathroom, daring anyone to come near him.

After I went to bed, Mark stayed up and worked with Grumpy Pup. Grumpy Pup had been here several hours by this time, and things were quiet and he was starting to relax a bit. Mark has a very calm, soothing nature and the dogs relax around him, and he was eventually able to not only pet Grumpy Pup but even picked him up. And once he did, Parker seem relieved. As if to say, “Oh my goodness, this is what I’ve been waiting for, someone who would be nice to me.” He was still very, very afraid, but he was trying to trust.

Having secure, stable dogs here is the best tool we have at our disposal in rehabilitating dogs like Grumpy Pup, and by the next day I would look to see Grumpy Pup standing at the baby gate of the bathroom, curiously looking at the dogs in the house and listening to all of the household noises. Not wanting to set him back, I slowly acclimated Parker to the house by first removing the baby gate and allowing him to come into the kitchen when he was ready. Once he started moving around in the house a little, I gradually introduced him to dogs to see how he would react. Much to my pleasure, Grumpy Pup was not nearly so grumpy while in the company of other dogs. Their calm energy soothed him, and he was quickly accepted by the dogs. It’s as if they knew he needed them, and they took him under their wing as if he were their new little project. It was a wonderful thing to see. I know that we would not have been able to make the progress we did with Grumpy Pup if he had been an only dog.

Brazos and Parker. You can see that he was consoled by having a dog friend.

Ruger and Parker. These two could play all day long.

Grumpy Pup continued to grow more and more comfortable here.

Grumpy Pup had pretty much become a “normal” dog and was ready for adoption, or so we thought. But shortly after listing him for adoption, he had a major setback that let us know he was far from rehabilitated. One day, when adopters came to the house to visit another dog, Parker was in the kitchen. Upon seeing the new people, Grumpy Pup completely freaked out and reverted to his fearful, traumatized state. He started the blood-curdling screaming again, and backed himself into a corner with a look of terror on his face that told me, “If you move closer, I WILL bite.” I knew he would bite me, there was no doubt. His mind had gone to a place where he wasn’t even sure who I was at that moment. I opened the baby gate from the kitchen to the living room and called Parker to the safety of his crate in the living room. He quickly ran into the crate, where he continued to growl the entire time the visitors were there. And it broke my heart. After all the progress that we had been making, I know knew Grumpy Pup had some very deep emotional scars and that he was going to need a lot of work, love, patience, and understanding.

Around this time, I was contacted by a couple who were very enthusiastic about adopting Parker. I explained his situation, that he wasn’t yet ready for adoption, and went into great detail on his emotional state. But this couple, this wonderful couple sent to us from Heaven, had already decided that Parker was meant for them and that they would be willing to do anything and everything that needed to be done to make Parker part of their family. I even tried to discourage them, but they were not giving up. They wanted to help this sweet puppy. So, at the beginning of December, Grumpy Pup and me made the trip to Ft. Worth to meet his potential new family.

The meeting went pretty much as expected: very difficult. It did not help matters that the moment I got Grumpy Pup out of his crate to go meet his new family, a loose and very friendly Pit Bull female came running up the sidewalk straight towards Parker and me. This alone might not have scared Parker that much, but the lady running down the sidewalk behind the dog, waving her arms and shouting “She’s OK! She’s friendly!” did not help matters, and Parker went nuts. He started screaming and thrashing and he urinated all over me while I held him as tightly as I could to keep him from getting away. I calmly but loudly said, “This dog is traumatized, please get your dog and put her up” which the lady quickly did. So this is how our adoption meeting started out. Sigh.

Of course, when Brian answered the door, Grumpy Pup was still growling. I had asked the adopters, Brian and Annie, to have Grumpy Pup’s crate set up in the main room of the house where we were meeting, so that he would have a safe place to retreat to when he became scared. We went inside, I showed Grumpy Pup the crate, and he immediately went inside. Annie tried to coax Grumpy Pup with some treats, but he was having none of it. He was relaxing, though, you could see it. He was looking around, seeing their other dog, looking at the house, listening to Annie talk softly to him, and he was rather curious. Then the treats started working just a little, so we brought out the secret weapon—peanut butter. I have never in my life seen a dog who could resist peanut butter. Annie smeared some on her hand, and Parker started licking it off her hand. Then he came out of his crate, and as long as he was getting peanut butter, he forgot for a moment that he was scared. He started letting Annie pet him, and then he started moving around the room a little. We had to do this whole scenario over again with Brian, and he was a bit more hesitant to let Brian touch him in the beginning. He met their dog, Ace, and he perked up a bit then. He liked seeing another dog there. It made him feel safe. So now, we have allowed petty by both the adopters and giving the other dog a good sniff, so we move on to the yard and I show him the way outside and go explore the yard with him. He was fine as long as he was with me, but at one point he lost sight of me and again went into his trauma state where he ran into the corner of this new, unknown yard and started screaming. His eyes weren’t glazed over this time as in his former episodes, so I was eventually able to calm him enough to allow me to pick him up and carry him. We did this 3-4 more times, going inside and outside and getting used to the boundaries and routine, until Grumpy Pup was actually going outside through the open door on his own and exploring a little bit. This made me so happy! I could see that he was trying to take that next step. I knew that these two people were dedicated to Parker’s continued rehabilitation, and that if Parker continued to try as well, this was the home for him. I must say, this was the most difficult adoption meeting I have ever had. I sat and worked with Parker and his new family for about 2 hours trying to make this introduction. But it worked, and when I left I received these two pictures by text message and it made me cry happy tears. Grumpy Pup found his family.

Now, six months later, we received the most wonderful update on Grumpy Pup:

Hi Karen

I hope all is very well. I wanted to touch base since it is almost exactly six months since I adopted Parker. (You made the drive to Fort Worth on Sunday, Dec 1st to drop him off and Jun 1st is days away)

First, I attached a handful of pic’s of Parker to share. He is really become a great looking dog. FYI, some of the pic’s also have (his brother) Ace in them, which is also a rescue that Annie has had for roughly 8 years. Annie and I both believe Ace played a big part in Parker’s success.

Second, I wanted to let you know how amazingly well Parker is doing. After months of initial struggles, he finally turned the corner and seems to be maturing and settling in so very well. Parker is extremely smart, good sense of following rules, and is quite the entertainer. He certainly enjoys being the center of attention and we enjoy the laughs. We still have work to-do mostly around him being more comfortable around new people as well as letting us invade his personal space for regular brushings, nail clippings, and vet apt. At this point, I am confident those last challenges will come in time.

Thanks for letting me share. I could go on all day on how he has improved and his successes. In reflection, Parker literally went from a dog “is he gong to make it living with us” to “this is the best thing that has happen to us”.

I hope you have a nice Memorial Day and enjoy Parker’s success story. It all started with you initially saving him and then allowing us the opportunity to enjoy this very incredible dog. (PS, I can send more Pic’s if you want but I kept it at four.)

Thanks,
Brian, Annie and Erica

I have probably never cried over an adoption update like I did this one, but I have never worked so hard to help a dog before, either. And this transformation wasn’t due to us, it was due to the amazing love and hard work that Brian and his family have done with Parker. They never gave up, and I can assure you it was not an easy road. It encourages me to know that there are people like Brian and his family who will go the extra mile for a dog. This just proves that there is a home somewhere for every dog. When we first rescued Parker, I actually had another rescuer suggest that we euthanize him, even at his young age. She said, “If he’s aggressively biting at this age, what are you going to do when he’s a 60 lb dog?” Well, in this rescue, we don’t euthanize dogs for what could happen in the future. We feel it’s our responsibility to give them every opportunity to rehabilitate and improve, and that’s exactly what Parker did. He may never be like other dogs, one that you can approach without introduction, but what one of us is without issues. Parker found a family who is not only able to work with his issues, but who are very willing to do so because they don’t focus on the traits he doesn’t have but instead highlight the beautiful traits that he does possess. Parker has grown into a beautiful dog, and he has value and meaning. Brian, Annie, and Erica did that for him. God bless adopters like this.

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Three New Kids

8/5/2013

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Freddy, an 8 month old Blue Merle Border Collie

We rescued 3 new dogs on 7/29/13 from the Christ-Yoder shelter in Buchanan Dam. They must not get much adoption traffic there, because all three of these dogs are outstanding dogs and I can’t imagine why there weren’t adopted, especially Freddy, who was at the shelter for a month. I think his energy probably scared adopters away, but once he got here and got some exercise he settled down into a very nice boy. I put all three dogs into quarantine pens before introducing them to the others, just in case they picked up any germs in the shelter. But I let Freddy out after a few days and introduced him to the pack, thinking that since he had been in the shelter for a month he would have already gotten any illnesses that he was exposed to. And, he was becoming kennel crazy in the pen. He needed to run. We let him into the main yard and introduced him to the pack, and after a few scoldings from the female dogs over his overly-amorous ways, he got along very well with everyone, males and females alike. We have never had one problem out of Freddy with other dogs.

Maria, a 2 yr old Red Bi Aussie

Next I brought Maria into the house. She just seems so….neglected and unloved, and we need to turn that around. Actually, she kind of made the decision for me by jumping the fence of the rescue pen. I saw her walking on the road out back and went out there with a leash. I knew if I tried to chase her she would run, so I just sat down and lowered my head and she came trotting right up to me. I clipped the leash on her and brought her inside, but had to coax her through the doorway. I’m not sure if she’s ever been inside before. She was terrified, especially of the other dogs, even the puppies. She spent the first two days huddled in the corner of the laundry room and would snarl and bare her teeth to any dog that approached her. We determined that she was just afraid of other dogs. She is full of burrs and was probably stray for a long time, and I’m sure she was chased and attacked by other dogs a lot while on the loose. Once I started feeding her in the kitchen with the rest of the dogs, she opened right up and slowly, one by one, started making friends with everyone here. She has now been all through the house, has had a nice bath, sleeps in a crate at night, and is just the sweetest and most loving thing you could ask for. She is a real gem, a wonderful girl with a beautiful soft nature.

Minnie was a bit of a concern, because while in the quarantine pen she would aggressively charge both of the dogs and I had to separate her. I had her with Maria but she was bullying Maria so badly, and Maria is just too shy to defend herself, that I had to separate them. So I was a bit concerned over how she would do with the other dogs, especially since Lil, Angel, and especially Coco can be very dominant. I was thinking Minnie and Coco would be like oil & water. I know it’s a bit early to take Minnie out of quarantine, but I rolled the dice yesterday and let her in the house with us because she needs some seriously socialization if she is to become the great dog that I know she really is. At first, she charges and nips the other dogs and there were a couple of squabbles, mainly between her and Mr. Humpty, Freddy. Girls don't like boys humping their heads, just an FYI, Freddy. We got through yesterday fine, and introduced Coco last and held our breath. A couple of growls, but everything went well. This morning Minnie went into the main yard with everyone for the first time. Minnie did take off after a couple of dogs, but she calls off easily with verbal corrections. She's not hurting them, but she sure wants them to think she will. I think it comes more from a defensive place rather than an aggressive one.

So now we're back in the house, and Minnie has taken to herding the three Border Collie puppies as they play. And she is so typical BC in doing it. She's crouching, she's hiding behind things and creeping, it's pretty funny. She is one step away from playing with them. You can see she wants to. Suddenly, Coco was worried that Minnie was going to hurt the puppies so she ran over and growled Minnie away. I had to call Coco back, but she did make Minnie immediately submit. So maybe Coco's attitude can be useful in all of this after all.

All dogs are inside right now. Stella & Laredo are wrestling on the couch. Rocket, Angel, Tumbleweed, and Gingersnap are lying in the floor around the table napping. Coco is lying in the floor by my side, Maria and Freddy are playing in the dining room, the three BC pups are romping in the living room, and Minnie is dividing her attention between watching the BC pups and watching Maria & Freddy, ready to run in either direction and intervene if needed. Oops, even Minnie could not resist the puppy cuteness—she is now in the floor having a grand romp with Cotton Eyed Joe. J I work from home today, so I'll have all day to monitor their activity and continue to socialize everyone. Maria and Freddy have done great, and Freddy is usually just in the floor beside me when indoors, Not nearly as crazy as I thought he was going to be, he's a really nice boy. Maria is an absolute gem, very sweet and loving and needs someone to spoil her rotten. Minnie has an adoption pending and will be adopted together with Brewski. They have yet to meet because Brewski is still in isolation as he finishes recovering from Parvo, and can be contagious for a while yet. But in the next 1-2 weeks they will be going home to Houston together, and I feel very confident now that they will get along marvelously.

Yay for happy, socialized dogs who all get along together!

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Feral Dogs, Shy Dogs, and Somewhere In Between

Grumpy Pup

Three New Kids

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