Hello everyone,
I recently adopted a rescue dog (10 days ago) named Hazel. She is around 2 years old, incredibly sweet, house-trained and never barks. Eats and drinks fairly normally. Ideal for someone living in a townhome like myself. However, she also is incredibly timid. She has two spots that she stays in - her downstairs crate and her upstairs bed - and hates leaving either spot. Sometimes you can coax her out of one of the spots, but she'll just scurry over to the other one. She'll go out on the leash, but she tugs incessantly. I've been trying to train her to stop doing that by stopping and giving her commands not to tug every time she does, but as soon as we start walking again she starts tugging again. As soon as she comes back inside, she makes a mad dash for her crate - she often bangs against the side of it because she's so desperate to get to her crate.
I recognize that this may just be part of the process of adopting a rescue, and I'm fine with waiting for her to come out of her shell. However, I'm worried that I'm missing something that I should be doing to get her to feel safe and at home. Am I coddling her by letting her stick to her spots? Or should I just give her the space she needs and let her venture out on her own?
I recently adopted a rescue dog (10 days ago) named Hazel. She is around 2 years old, incredibly sweet, house-trained and never barks. Eats and drinks fairly normally. Ideal for someone living in a townhome like myself. However, she also is incredibly timid. She has two spots that she stays in - her downstairs crate and her upstairs bed - and hates leaving either spot. Sometimes you can coax her out of one of the spots, but she'll just scurry over to the other one. She'll go out on the leash, but she tugs incessantly. I've been trying to train her to stop doing that by stopping and giving her commands not to tug every time she does, but as soon as we start walking again she starts tugging again. As soon as she comes back inside, she makes a mad dash for her crate - she often bangs against the side of it because she's so desperate to get to her crate.
I recognize that this may just be part of the process of adopting a rescue, and I'm fine with waiting for her to come out of her shell. However, I'm worried that I'm missing something that I should be doing to get her to feel safe and at home. Am I coddling her by letting her stick to her spots? Or should I just give her the space she needs and let her venture out on her own?
