Hi everyone,
We adopted a rescue dog from a local shelter about 7 mo ago. Our last Pointer/Dalmatian mix rescue had passed after a wonderful 16-yr life with us. This is now a our 3rd time adopting, and each one has been both wonderful and challenging.
"Nettie" (name from shelter) is a 40 lb female that looks like Jack Russel / Beagle / Boxer mix. She has been a more complex and demanding addition to the family. She is adorably sweet and loving, but it is clear that Nettie has suffered abuse at the hands of previous owners. She will inexplicably cower at times and shows extreme fear of anything / everything new or different.
When we first brought her home, the environment was both exciting and frightening. Her behavior would swing between showers of love & licks to fearful growls with some snapping. The snaps always seem to be scared warnings and have never really connected. She really did not bark at anything or anyone during the first 3 days. By day 4, she had clearly decided that the house was Nettie's domain. She became protective of anyone approaching the yard or front door - sounding very ferocious. The moment this person enters the house, however, she calms down into cautious curiosity.
There are 3 full time residents - me, my wife and our young adult soon - and Nettie has become fully comfortable with us. She is incredibly affectionate and playful and a simply wonderful member of the family. She hardly ever shows any fear-based aggression to us now. The only exception would be if we accidentally step on tail, bump her in side or something. If this happens, she immediately goes into cowering submission. It is kind of heartbreaking to see, but just give her an abundance of love to immediately bring back the happy dog.
We hired a local animal behavioralist to help with setting up the basic commands of sit, down, stay, come, heel, look-at-me, and go-to-your-place. The last one in the list is used when people come to the door. Nettie has to go to a designated bed and stay calm until the guest has entered and taken a seat.
This has been working pretty well, and she seems to be a very eager-to-please, trainable dog. The only remaining problem is the issue of fear and trust. With the exception of the 3 of us in the house and a couple of additional family members, Nettie has a significant problem establishing lasting trust with any individual. The behavior is kind of odd and confusing. She will often go directly up to a person and being licking their hand or leg. She may even jump in their lap. A few seconds later, however, Nettie will start growling and sometimes snap at the same person to which she had initially showed affection. Needless to say, people are understandably confused by this - as are we.
She has never landed a snap or bitten anyone, but it is clearly not a good thing.
We are not sure how to address the distrusting / fear behavior, and our hired trainer has not offered much help in this area. We are not sure wether to do some sort of corrective, scolding action or to perhaps try some other type of response. Thus far, the only generally effective strategy has been telling the individual to never make eye contact with Nettie. This seems to partially diffuse the interaction, but it is not a realistic strategy moving forward.
We desperately love this animal, but it is imperative that some sort of progress is made with the behavior.
Hoping someone out there has some effective strategies and recommendations.
Thanks much!
We adopted a rescue dog from a local shelter about 7 mo ago. Our last Pointer/Dalmatian mix rescue had passed after a wonderful 16-yr life with us. This is now a our 3rd time adopting, and each one has been both wonderful and challenging.
"Nettie" (name from shelter) is a 40 lb female that looks like Jack Russel / Beagle / Boxer mix. She has been a more complex and demanding addition to the family. She is adorably sweet and loving, but it is clear that Nettie has suffered abuse at the hands of previous owners. She will inexplicably cower at times and shows extreme fear of anything / everything new or different.
When we first brought her home, the environment was both exciting and frightening. Her behavior would swing between showers of love & licks to fearful growls with some snapping. The snaps always seem to be scared warnings and have never really connected. She really did not bark at anything or anyone during the first 3 days. By day 4, she had clearly decided that the house was Nettie's domain. She became protective of anyone approaching the yard or front door - sounding very ferocious. The moment this person enters the house, however, she calms down into cautious curiosity.
There are 3 full time residents - me, my wife and our young adult soon - and Nettie has become fully comfortable with us. She is incredibly affectionate and playful and a simply wonderful member of the family. She hardly ever shows any fear-based aggression to us now. The only exception would be if we accidentally step on tail, bump her in side or something. If this happens, she immediately goes into cowering submission. It is kind of heartbreaking to see, but just give her an abundance of love to immediately bring back the happy dog.
We hired a local animal behavioralist to help with setting up the basic commands of sit, down, stay, come, heel, look-at-me, and go-to-your-place. The last one in the list is used when people come to the door. Nettie has to go to a designated bed and stay calm until the guest has entered and taken a seat.
This has been working pretty well, and she seems to be a very eager-to-please, trainable dog. The only remaining problem is the issue of fear and trust. With the exception of the 3 of us in the house and a couple of additional family members, Nettie has a significant problem establishing lasting trust with any individual. The behavior is kind of odd and confusing. She will often go directly up to a person and being licking their hand or leg. She may even jump in their lap. A few seconds later, however, Nettie will start growling and sometimes snap at the same person to which she had initially showed affection. Needless to say, people are understandably confused by this - as are we.
She has never landed a snap or bitten anyone, but it is clearly not a good thing.
We are not sure how to address the distrusting / fear behavior, and our hired trainer has not offered much help in this area. We are not sure wether to do some sort of corrective, scolding action or to perhaps try some other type of response. Thus far, the only generally effective strategy has been telling the individual to never make eye contact with Nettie. This seems to partially diffuse the interaction, but it is not a realistic strategy moving forward.
We desperately love this animal, but it is imperative that some sort of progress is made with the behavior.
Hoping someone out there has some effective strategies and recommendations.
Thanks much!
