Hi,
To make a long story short, I'm a Canadian expat living in the city of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. For christmas, I rent a beach house for 1 month on the coast of the mexican gulf. Almost every morning, there was this dog coming in my house driveway, checking for fresh garbage bags or beg food. But was still very shy. If I opened the door, he would run away. It was almost a love/hate affair as I began to ask myself where he was the days he didn't come. I started placing a plate of food outside for him, and every morning when I woke up, the plate was empty.
One day, when I was coming to the house driving, he was in the middle of the sand street leading to my house. This is usual in urban costal towns in Mexico, there's a lot of dogs. Usually, you just honk the horn and they get out of the road. But not this one, who started to run straight following the road and looking backward as I was "chasing" him, with my car. So I called him Darwin, due to this event.
On my last day at the beach, I started asking the neighboors to find out about this dog. They told me he was adopted at a young age by a young girl couple of blocks away, but that she stopped caring for him and he ended up in the streets. As i'm about to leave the place for the last time, he comes in the driveway and gets on his feet and grab me, lick my arms and look at me. So I decide that I'm not going to purchase a puppy as inicially planned but adopt this one adorable dog.
He had absolutly no training, only behavior he has that I'm still working with him about is his confidence. Darwin's not confident. He has been beaten and you can see it. Everytime I grab an object that has a stick, like a mop to clean the floor, he lower his head and back off. He even ran when i squeeze his toy ball. He's afraid of the sound it does. I've teached him to come, sit and stay. So far these 3 were easy, but they still only work in the home. there's so much stimulus when we go in the street, that he lost it. Jumps in the air when we pass in front of a house and a dog start barking, panic when we get to a street with traffic, still difficult to have him enter a room with no exit (Like if he's thinking that if something bad happen to him, there's no escape apart from the entrance.) and a lot of little details like that. I keep talking to him all the time with a firm but friendly voice.
My house terrain is very big, and escape proof. (10 feet cement walls) , so he has access to the outside all the time, I let him in the house whenever he wants ( I keep the patio door open all the time), give him chew toys and a huge bone which he's in love with (can chew for hours non-stop). Overall, I've the feeling he's very happy with me and my wife now, but I don't see improvements on confidence. and this prevent me from bringing him to some places where I'm afraid of a panick attack. When this happen I just grab him he talk to him gently and he relax and we can continue our walk. I'm not sure if that's the right approach tho.
Apart from confidence, he's absolutly adorable. He follows me everywhere, shake his tail all the time, plays with me, don't bite, is very sociable with other dogs and like to play with them, but .. is one big scared baby.
Wow, that's way too long.. i'll get to the point.
1. Is there chances he's gonna stay that way forever because he received bad treatment, how can I improve his confidence.
2. I've not let him sleep in my bedroom so far. But he has access to inside and outside the house at all time. Would it be a good, or bad thing to let him sleep in my bedroom, if I put him a mat or a dog bed in a corner of my room. I read somewhere that it can help him feel part of the "pack" (family).
Regards and thanks for reading, sorry for my grammatical errors, english isn't my primary language.
Here are some pics of Darwin.
