Nervous dogs

Hi--I am new to this list, which seems to have a lot of UK members: I am British but live in Ottawa, Canada.

I have a rescue dachshund--she lived in a puppy mill for 3 years where she was bred every time she came into heat. However, apparently she was not a good mother so they kicked her out and the Humane society took her in.

My previous dachshunds were both dead--they had come from regular breeders and had no problems. This new dog has many, many problems.

When she came to us her teeth were totally rotten, her ears were full of yeast and she weighed only 8 pounds. And she was terrified of everything.

Now we have had her for three years and she is still terrbly nervous. She is afraid of loud noises and bolts if not on the lead. I take her to several parks for walks, but if she hears a loud noise there she refuses to walk.

My vet gave me some anti-anxiery drugs, and it made a small channge, but basically, she is still terrified of jusyt about anything. She prefers to stay in the house all the time.

Has anyone had any experience of a dog like this?

Hello Margaret and welcome

This article by one of our members, Shadowboxer may be of help to you..

http://www.dogsey.com/dog-articles.php?t=8050

Shadowboxers article is very very good... Your dog has been to hell and come back... Thankyou for helping her!!! Take it very slowly, let her set the pace... She grew up with no love, in her mind distrust is the way to survival...

Good luck, and an extra cuddle for your beauty!

I'm not sure if you can get them in Canada but you could get it shipped in. Have you tried the Dog Appeasing Pheromone products? It's doesn't work for all dogs, but when it works it makes a real difference.

Cain wears a DAP collar at all times as he can be very nervous. We've only had him a few months and I had been telling everyone how great he was getting with strangers. Then last week he went all strange, he suddenly started lunging and growling at stranger son the stree,t something he hadn't done in ages. I was upset and couldn't work it out. It was clear it was fear aggression, but why was he suddenly scared? Then I realised that he DAP collar was overdue and ran out a week before. The effects wore off and suddenly he became nervous of strangers. Fresh collar and he's back to his waggy self in just 24 hours. So it clearly has a huge calming effect on him and now Cain will be wearing his DAP collar for the forseeable future.

They do sprays and plug in's too, but if she is nervous outside then the collar will be best. We have the spray and use it on a bandana round Cain's neck if he needs a little extra boost for an especially stressful situations e.g vet visits.

It just seems to help him reax and cope better with the world. Maybe it would help your little girl?

Good luck!

Yup - got one. he`s lurking under my son`s computer desk. One day he might be confident enough to go out of the door - maybe. If not - well, it`s Ok. It`s better than what he had before. He`s happy.
A friend has a rescue ex-breeding bitch. It took her a year to coax her to the end of the road - so you`re not doing badly.
I think you have to see the advances that seem small to us ( not running out of a room when someone goes in, taking food from the hand, looking into your face and meeting your eyes) as huge steps in the rehabilitation of an ill-treated dog.
My way is to let the dog progress at his own pace. It will pay off, slowly. Dogs are very forgiving creatures.

I've worked with a few like this using different methods.

1 approach is to introduce the dog to food rewards and a marker signal (clicker) in the house,. I then teach alot of stuff in the house to make the dog really keen on being clicker trained. Once this is going well I'll take the dog out and click and treat whenever the dog looks at something scary. Alternativly if the dog is too tense around something I'll rapid fire click while walking past it.

This works well on many dogs but takes time and food motivation.

I also have a more controversial approach using aversives to make the dog see me as the safe place. I then act as the safe zone while walking the dog out. This is very very good but you may be uncomfortable with it.

Adam

Good for you giving the poor girl a great chance at a new life
Sounds like you are doing great, its a long slow process

I cant give any help. Mia was very sound sensitive when I got her - afraid of the clicker even
But when she settled and got more confident with me and training she is fine now, I doubt she will like fireworks tho

I certainly appreciate the kind and useful replies to my post about my dachshund.

I did some research on the DAP collars; they are not available in Canada, but one can get them in the USA and GB. I found a site on Amazon.dot come which has most reasonable prices plus reasonable shipping cost.
So I am waiting eagerly to receive these collars.

This is the first time I have heard of, thanks to you all on the web.