Some of you may be familiar with Billy's background but I'll do a quick recap anyway. We took Billy on from the Dogs Trust in January, he's a friendly 4yr old black lab boy but he's been badly mistreated. He was kept shut in a room with another dog for most of his life, he's house trained but was never taught to walk on a lead. He's loving, caring, kind, super affectionate and likes nothing better than sprawling across my lap which can be awkward because he's a big lad. But if he thinks he's done something wrong he's an instant quivering wreck. I shook a tea towel out the other day and it scared him witless, he must have thought I was going to hit him with it and it took a lot of cuddles to convince him otherwise. Round the house he's brilliant and looks after our other black lab boy who's blind, quite often guiding him round the garden. Out of the house, well all hell breaks loose. The big outside place sends his anxiety through the roof. He wants go for his walks and is always waiting to go as soon as I pick my jacket up. Once we're outside and he's on the lead he turns into a maniac. He's hauling against the lead dragging me about and I weigh over 16 stone, if he see's another dog he screams to get to it, yelling and jabbering. This as you can imagine makes other dog owners quite frightened at times but there's no badness in him, he just really really wants to say hello. Crossing roads is another thing that has him screaming, even if there isn't a car in sight. I had thought we were making good progress with him for a while as he was starting to act quite calmly once the initial burst of excitement was over but he's all of a sudden slipped back alarmingly and I don't know why. Once we turn the last corner and home is in sight it's like flicking a switch and he's Mr cool dude again, strolling up the close without a care in the world. When we're back in the house and I've sat down with a coffee he'll be on my knee and snoring his head off in two seconds flat. We've tried treat based training as he's very food oriented when at home but whilst out he'll take the treat gently and whoosh, he's off again. Remonstrating with him does no good at all as it just sends his anxiety through the roof and he thinks you're going to clobber him. I got as far as I did with him by constantly talking to and reassuring him and the ecouragement seemed to be working but over the space of a week he's gone back to square one. If anyone has any ideas I'd be very pleased to hear them. But I can't help but wonder, what an earth you have to do to a poor animal to turn such a loving character into this, I can't imagine how anyone can treat an animal in such a way that it would have this effect. But he's part of our family now, two nutcase owners and a blind lab brother and we'll never give up on him, so he's got that going for him...
Billy is lucky he’s with you now and he sounds a great dog. I have had a few rescue dogs including a border collie from the Rspca, the farmer went to jail. He had lived in a barn with 18 collies. He was scared of me when I first met him, hid under the dining table for 2 weeks when I got him home, hated the TV, I couldn’t carry anything as he would be so scared, even a plate worried him. But I could tell he was a sweetheart. He bit if he felt threatened, never bit me though. He came on leaps and bounds, loved camping and he was my best running partner ever. He never fully forgot his past though and I always had to be careful how others interacted with him. We used to take a kong out with us so we could learn to associate scary things with a longer lasting nice thing. We also did clicker training to reinforce appropriate behaviours, he loved this as he just wanted to know what to do right, you could see his pleasure and relief when he heard the clicker. I lived very rurally at that time and so could pace his exposure to the world, slowly slowly. He did so well, never lost all of his worries though but was such a sweet boy. Also used a DAP collar with him. Just thinking with your boy are things going just a little too quickly for him ?? Pacing things slowly I felt worked with my rescue dogs, that was easier living isolated on a mountain I’m sure. I don’t know if anything in that helps you Mart?
Thanks Siam, like you I've had a few rescue dogs, I'll always give a home to a dog that needs it. The guy who owned Black Dog Faye (now passed) before us went to jail as he'd beaten two other labs to death and nearly did the same with Faye. Blind Dog Bruno was in state when we got him as even though he's blind he'd been mistreated too, he's a great success story though as he's now one very chilled out guy. We've been taking it slowly with Billy and have to keep the walks quite short anyway as the longer we're out the worse his anxiety gets. At home in the garden when treat training he's now brilliant. Sits, stays, comes, lies down, gives paws, glues himself to your leg when you tell him to heel. He's out in the yard with my housemate now training with the very soggy 'sock of doom' and loving it. Yet as soon as we're out of that front door it all goes out of his head due to the anxiety. The lockdown is a bit of a problem as we can't take him anywhere where we can let him run as the local open places are full of people doing the same as us and when he sees another dog his normally great recall is none existant. His fear of roads makes me wonder if he's been clipped by a car at some time, he'll walk along the path beside a road not too badly but as soon as he knows that you're going to cross it he starts high pitch barking and screaming. It's awful to see him so wound up, I'm reluctant to go down the medication route as he's such a calm lad when at home.
Wow Mart, sounds like many dogs have been well and truly rescued by you. He may must have had a bad experience with a car as you say or perhaps a bad experience on the lead by cars/ crossing the road? . Sounds like you’ve come so far with him in such a short period of time already. I can’t offer you any expert advice on how to help Billy feel differently , how you do that exactly with your boy may need advice from a behaviourist? I can only offer you praise for what you have done for your dogs! My current lab is my first lab and not a rescue, she is so expressive and communicative, she wears her heart on her sleeve and she lets me know what she’s feeling, I don’t know if that’s a Lab trait , which I know is a little aside but I can imagine your Billy high pitched barking with alarm / fear. Hope you find an answer for Billy soon so he can fully settle into his happy safe new life with you and your other dog.
Thanks Siam, over the years I've rescued a fair few, the ones I couldn't keep I've managed to find homes for. I can't stand to see any animal being abused and even bought a horse because it's owner was mistreating it. If I can get Billy to be as settled while out and about as he is at home I'll be very happy, I know it's going to be a long process but the sudden slip back over this week was alarming.
