My fiance and I got this pup (4 years old) about three weeks ago from a rescue in West Virginia. We just bought our first house and wanted to get a dog before we replaced the carpets to give ourselves time to work on house training. We looked at several dogs but fell in love when we saw his picture on Petfinder, so two weeks later we made the 5 hour drive to WV (from PA). He was advertised as being good on a leash and fine with dogs and other animals. He had been taken from a guy who had 6 dogs and 2 horses all fighting for one small pile of dog food. We arrived to pick up "Woobie" (his new name) and were told that he was extremely aggressive with the other animals that he had been brought in with, but not with any people. We currently have two cats (which I had told the rescue about on my application) and do not plan on getting another dog, so we requested to have him tested with a cat. He did not react at all to one of the shelter cats so we took him home. He rides perfectly in the car (his 5 hour ride home was only the second car ride he's ever had), never pulls on the leash, and has never had an accident in the house. He's very tidy and will only poo very far away from the house, so we end up taking him out to the field at the far end of our property for that. He is scared to death of our cats, and hides upstairs 90% of the time he's in the house. Initially he was borderline catatonic- no reactions to anything, but liked to do early morning howling as the sun was coming up. He had extreme reactions when left alone - howling, whining, chewing/breaking things (which caused some tooth damage). If we were with him and he became overly stressed he would literally go limp and slump onto the floor. He was (and is) fearful of men and any sudden movements, and gets very jumpy if you are behind him. Due to these extreme reactions, and the fact that he had injured himself, our vet recommended that we start him on Prozac and get a DAP collar, which will be discontinued after we have had a chance to get him started with some scent training. The collar seemed to have an immediate effect, as he did not demonstrate any separation anxiety the next morning when I went to tie him out for the day (he is in the house when we are home). He has not demonstrated any aggression towards dogs that he has been around while with us, and was well behaved for the groomer (she did not note any aggression either). However, he does seem to have a strong hunting instinct when out in the woods, especially towards smaller things like mice, squirrels, birds, etc. He has just only begun to act playful within the past two days, and loves to run and roll around in the mornings. He tends to play with me as if I'm another dog, and shows no interest in balls, squeaky toys, rope, or any other dog toys. My family has had quite a few dogs throughout my life, but never any quite like this...any tips on helping him with his anxiety? His biggest problem is being in a room with two or more people, during which he will begin drooling and breathing heavy, appear very scared, and sometimes, slump over into a pile until the "threat" is gone. Also, any guesses on breed? We adopted him as an airedale x wolfhound mix, but he is a medium sized dog and only weighs 50 lbs. He howls a few times a day (not a hound howl - my last dog was a pure coonhound) and we have heard him bark twice (both of which were followed by howls), but other than that he doesn't really make any noise. He has very thick fur, and some agouti coloring down his back, as well as very small feet (for his size anyways), and a curly tail. Based on that, I feel pretty confident that he has some husky in him, but beyond that I have no idea.
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He's very handsome and also very unique looking 
