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dog problem. PLEASE HELP!!
Right now I have a friend's dog that she is giving up because she doesn't really have the time/space to take care of him. He's a mix - Australian cattle dog and I think he has some German Shepherd in him. He's a year old, updated on all his shots and he's been neutered.
Anyways, he's been abused and is really skiddish, but not at all aggressive. My parents agreed that we can take him in for a couple days and see how he acts around us, our house, and any kids in our family.
He's happy when he's outside it seems but his tail is barely up. My friend says he's not much of a tail-wagger but to give him time. When he's outside and I'm running around with him he seems to be in his element, but when we are inside he's scared of everyone in the household but me, and even me he's not completely used to yet.
He seems very depressed a lot of the time and like he'd much rather stay away from people than interact with them. Well, my parents don't like that. My fear is that he won't open up to me or them and my parents won't want to keep him, when I think this could be a great home for him. He obviously has a lot of trust issues and has been hurt/moved around a lot and if I tell my friend that we aren't going to end up keeping him, then she will really have no choice but to bring him back to the shelter.. and I'm dreading that.
My question is.. is there any way to make a dog happy/more comfortable? I'm trying but it's like people around him aren't approaching him much except for me due to the fact that he's so 'anti-social'. I'm willing to give him a fair chance and see how it goes but my parents seem already set in the fact that they don't want to keep him.
I really don't want to have to give him up and risk him not having a good home and a lot of attention.
This also may sound silly but do vets give any sort of medicine to make dogs less anxious or afraid? To make them more comfortable and social??
I'm trying to make him as comfortable as possible and he absolutely loves me and follows me everywhere but he seems to feel scared unless he's near me.. I'd like him be able to open up and I have no idea how. I really don't want to have to give him up and risk him becoming more depressed..
Also, his name is "Ranger" (my friend named him that) but before that I guess his abusive owner named him "Bob"... so she changed his name and have been calling him Ranger now ever since she's had him. I've been saying his name a lot to make sure he knows it and even when I pat my legs and motion to him to come over to me he doesn't always come. He will look at me sometimes but it's like he's not all that responsive.. but I know he's just scared and hesitant. That's another thing my parents don't like. He will come to me sometimes when I tell him "Come here, boy" or "Come here, Ranger"... but not always. Mostly, he will just lay on his bed or tag-along with me when I walk around the house. Also, I will take him for walks and after the walk I will bring him inside and leave the front door open with the screen door closed still and he will just sit by it and stare outside for awhile like he wants to go back out.
So I take him back out sometimes but it's like he wants to stay there and I can't always take him out and I don't want to just tie him up outside right now because then he won't get any social interaction from us and he won't get used to the inside of our house.
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I was in the same boat you were in. I had a st. benard. I rescued him from a shelter. He was abused so badly that everytime he saw someone who was a man, he would shake and cry for no reason. Turned out the person who abused him was a man.
Anyways. After a couple of weeks, he began opening up to me. I baby talked him, I showed him as much love as I could.
I gave him treats, almost 5 times a day, if not more to show him that he's a good dog and he has done nothing wrong. Every time I'd go to pet him, he'd flinch. Guessing I was going to hit him.
He's depressed. You have to treat him like a member of the family. Have your family members in the household spend time with him. Most dogs like this won't cause harm. They are just expecting the worse, ya know?
If he doesn't come to you, than go to him. Or go pet him, and than try again. Play with him.
He's probably distant because he doesn't know your family well. He's probably scared and nervous.
It took 2 weeks of bonding for Diesel to open up to me. It felt like forever, but I worked at it for hours, and hours a day.
Praise him for good things he does, even when he doesn't let him know he's a good boy.
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First off, here's a link to possible pills you could give the dog;
[Link](Mouse over link to see full location)
When I was about six or seven, my parents rescued a dog from a shelter that was abused really badly by her owner before us. I don't remember that much of the first coule years since I was very young, but I do slightly remember her being very skiddish at first. Many years later, she passed away this year loving every human she came in contact with.
Your parents are not being very fair. Things like trust take time. This dog won't come around with just a couple weeks of kindness. It could take months. If worst comes to worst, this dog may never trust another human for as long as he lives.
Continue showing him kindness. Make sure you and everybody else that lives in your house takes at least ten minutes out of their day to pet him, talk with him in a kind/sweet voice, and play with him. Don't ever raise your voices, ever. I cannot stress that enough. This dog as been beated and screamed at, come at him slowly, make sure he sees your hands coming at him slowly if you're going to pet him. Sneak attacks from behind might scare him. And once again, DO NOT raise your voice, whether he's done something wrong or you're in a fight with another family member. Just don't do it. Make sure everybody in the house understands this.
He is obviously coming around to you, as you seem to be the only one making a real effort to comfort him. That needs to change, your parents and any siblings need to do that as well.
What seemed to make my dog come around were treats. My dad constantly fed my dog treats when we got her (His sneaky way of making sure she loved him most, ha!). You and everybody else in the house should hand feed him a doggy treat at least once a day. You can obviously cut down the treat feeding in a few months if he starts trusting more to just one treat a day, but every day it's a new family member feeding him.
Get him toys. A tennis ball is practically a dogs best friend and sqeaky toys make dogs go crazy with excitment. As I said before, everybody should be taking a little time out of their day to play with him.
Everybody should take the time to walk him as well. If you have younger siblings that couldn't handle a dog with a leash by themselves, have somebody older go with them.
The re-acurring theme here is: Everybody needs to participate in making this dog feel comfortable.
I hope I could help you a bit, feel free to inbox me if you have any other questions. Make sure you're actually inbox me and not asking me questions in feedback, I cannot reply to feedback. Good luck!
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