I have a dog River who is a shelter mix with who knows what in her and we got her as a rescue. ( if u want to see what she looks like her insta is @rivers_a_doggo) We live in Maine, and she had been picked up in Mississippi. She had been sent up to our local shelter to avoid going into a kill shelter, and her mother had been sent to a family in Georgia who agreed to take her in, but our shelter didn’t know much about her or the rest of her litter. We found the email of the shelter she had come from, and we sent them a note. We found out that River, her mother, and her entire litter had been abused and then dumped on an abandoned lot and her mother had been chained up to an old rusty car and couldn’t move to take care of herself or the puppies. Some of them were hit by cars, and the ones left were severely emaciated. The mother couldn’t stand up. River was estimated to be 2 weeks when she was dumped and probably lived there for the first month and a half of her life. They were all feral, and terrified of people. When we took in River she was a little over 2 months old. She was severely people reactive, aggressive, terrified of anything and everything and it just broke my heart. I have worked tirelessly to try and rehabilitate her, and i am so so so so unbelievably proud of the progress she has made. She is about a year and a half old, and she can now go on walks, I can take her places off leash, while she is still reactive at things outside the car or house windows, she is gradually getting better, and she warms up to new people much faster. She is currently in training for dock dogs, she knows some agility (though I would never take her to a competition unless I knew she could handle the stress) and she can come into other peoples homes without staking out a corner and biting anyone that comes near her. She knows over 50 tricks (ranging from basic obedience to more complicated things that took us months to master) and on top of all that, my bond with her has grown immeasurably and I could do anything to her and she would trust that it was ok. I wrote this because I want other people to know that even a dog you yourself could barely approach when u got them has hope if u give them hope. Don’t give up on a dog just because it’s “too hard” or “too much work” because if you get a dog who’s past you are unsure of, you should be fully prepared to take on something like reactivity. River is a great example of the progress that can be made from a dog who was too scared to come up to anyone when we first got her. I am so so so proud of her and I hope that even if u are struggling with anything like this with your dog that u are of can push through to be as proud if your dog as I am of River.
Don’t give up just because a dog is difficult!
- Thread starter ilmc
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.@ilmc I also live in Maine and have a reactive Mississippi dog! I definitely agree - sometimes you want to give up but then they're cute and sweet and you can't quite bring yourself to give up.
What sorts of resources did you use to make so much progress? I've tried a few options and have made some progress, but nothing has really hit the nail on the head just yet.
What sorts of resources did you use to make so much progress? I've tried a few options and have made some progress, but nothing has really hit the nail on the head just yet.
@tacoma215 Another thing I often do is work on one fairly simple trick like falcon (front paws up on your arm standing on back paws) and ten work on it constantly until River really enjoys it and looks forward to doing it/gets exited to do it so that she drops everything to do it, even if she’s being reactive bc it refocuses her. Same with a special toy that she only gets while training or a high value treat. Whatever works best.
@tacoma215 Really? How old is your dog and how long have u had him/her? Repetition is a huge one. The more u do things the better it gets even if it doesn’t seem like it. Also exposure. For example, River was and continues to be especially reactive towards bikes from both in the car, the house, or out on walks. Just having a bike nearby makes her nervous, which is a serious problem because we live on a main road where bike races and 5ks and such are held regularly. What I have been doing with that is taking my bike and putting it on the yard and having her either loose in the yard with me while I just feed her treats and play with her closer and closer to the bike. When she’s calm around that I will stand it up, then have someone riding it then have me riding it and gradually climb through those levels until she lbs been desensitized to it. What kind of problems do u struggle with? Maybe I can offer better advice if it’s specific to your dogs problems
@ilmc She's 6 months, and we've had her since the end of February.
Our main issues are reactivity (toward anything, really, but mostly dogs and scooters/rollerblades) on a leash and in the car. She's been improving a little, but there are also days where she just loses her mind at the smallest trigger. She also is not great with other dogs - she's annoying and gets up in their faces and only takes correction part of the time. She goes to daycare a couple days a week, but for the moment she's not able to play with the other dogs because she pinned one a while back (actually named River, so hopefully it wasn't yours....).
We've also had some issues with her biting my husband, but that's a whole other thing that we're dealing with. My main concern is just getting to a spot where I can be confident taking her on a walk. I live in a big neighborhood with tons of dogs and kids using their bikes and scooters, and it just gives me a lot of anxiety to bring her out.
Our main issues are reactivity (toward anything, really, but mostly dogs and scooters/rollerblades) on a leash and in the car. She's been improving a little, but there are also days where she just loses her mind at the smallest trigger. She also is not great with other dogs - she's annoying and gets up in their faces and only takes correction part of the time. She goes to daycare a couple days a week, but for the moment she's not able to play with the other dogs because she pinned one a while back (actually named River, so hopefully it wasn't yours....).
We've also had some issues with her biting my husband, but that's a whole other thing that we're dealing with. My main concern is just getting to a spot where I can be confident taking her on a walk. I live in a big neighborhood with tons of dogs and kids using their bikes and scooters, and it just gives me a lot of anxiety to bring her out.
@tacoma215 I feel u. It wasn’t River bc she doesn’t go to daycare but I fully understand the anxiety of bringing her out. River is able to be off leash on hikes but we have to be very careful where we take her bc w bikes/mountain bikes she just loses all control. She actually went after a dude on his mountain bike a while back and she wasn’t biting at him but she was biting at his bike bc it’s more the bikes than the ppl on them that scares her. He actually kicked her and she backed off and came back to me but it’s still not good. That’s why I’m doing the desensitization w her on bikes and readdressing some solid recall training without any hesitation. Also I fully understand the rough play being a problem. River pins dogs, bites at ears, tugs on tails, and often will allow them to pin her backwards (mouth near their back heels) and then she latch onto their back heels until they jump away. We are working on having her play w dogs that snap back at her so that she learns (my friends dog is great bc she doesn’t attack or anything but she does stand up for herself) and that is making a lot of difference. I would suggest desensitization and set up playing w other dogs like my friends dog who don’t take shit without reacting not necessarily aggressively but definitely firmly. Also I have been working very hard on heel under all circumstances (on and off leash) w full coverage concentration on me so that she can ignore stuff while on walks
@tacoma215 Happy to talk to anyone about dogs
I’m something of an introvert but mention a dog and I’ll talk forever
I’m something of an introvert but mention a dog and I’ll talk foreverimagebeastmarkbeast
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I can't help but have moments with my new rescue where I ask myself "can this ever get better?" but reading stories like yours reminds me that with time, patient and work it definitely will.@imagebeastmarkbeast Glad I could help! I remember feeling the same way (and even still wonder why I’m doing this now) which is why I made this post in the first place but all u have to do is look at the dog who doesn’t understand why what they’re doing is wrong and u remember that it’s ALL worth it!