Training the abused puppy....

[lilqhgal]

I rescued a puppy from the ditch by my parents house about 2 months ago.  She's an Akita-cross (lab??), and is about 5 months old now.  She was dumped there along with 5 of her brothers and sisters, all of whom a neighbor lady caught and took to the animal shelter.  However, this last little gal wouldn't come near anybody, and I tried helping the neighbor lady but we couldn't catch her.  I didn't see her for a few days and assumed she got her and took her to the shelter too, but when I saw her a few days later, I realized nobody would be able to get her if I couldn't, so I stopped my truck and sat down in the ditch along the road and waited for her to come to me, which was only about 10 minutes.  Long story short, I'm 100% convinced that not only were these pups neglected, probably not kept inside at all, but also abused to various degrees.  They were all "skittish" to say the least, but my little gal was VERY shy, especially around men.  She's warmed up some, but it's taken 2 months, and she still has issues with men.  She won't "come" to anybody if she thinks you're trying to "catch" her.  She's got very good natural manners, but it's time for training (past time) and I'm afraid I can't accomplish anything with her, and I'm afraid to do anything to harm her further... if she does something wrong, I don't want to tell her "NO" because it scares her, (tho she really doesn't do much wrong)... but like she gets up on the couch (my fault, I know) but if I try and "happily" convince her to get down, sometimes she gets scared and pees on the couch.  She has not yet been leash trained, and I'm really up a creek on this one -- I put a leash on her the other day and she *FLIPPED* out, tried running from me, peed, tail 'tween legs, flopped over and submitted, wouldn't get up, just totally scared to death.  I'm really hoping someone else out there has had an abused puppy and could give me pointers on how to train her.  I want to take her to the local PetSmart where they offer training puppy classes and so forth, but I can't even get her on a leash!  I don't know what to do and I love this little gal, I don't want her to grow up with no training!

Thanks!

[Anky]

Hi, my name's Ang, and I just wanted to welcome you to BPO (If you posted before and I didn't see it I'm sorry, the board moves so fast!)  I know your pain.  All the foster dogs I've ever dealt with have been the painfully shy ones, and my baby I have now is horribly skittish.  Let me tell you a bit of his history then I'll tell you what's helped me  

A friend of mine is a Dane breeder in Michigan.  She sold a male puppy on a nuetering contract.  The woman who bought him falsified nuetering papers and used him as a stud dog.  My friend was flipping through the paper and noticed the phone number of this woman on an ad for Dane puppies.  She thought this sounded fishy and went over to find that there were 19 Dane puppies locked up either in a shed, or a makeshift dog house made of hay.  They were 12 weeks old (The woman had sold 2 of the original 21 puppies, and now these 12 week old ones were "Too old" and no one wanted them), they had horrible staph infection, were never handled, all underweight and their mother's face was falling off from a skin infection.  My friend took all the dogs, vetted them at her own expense and found homes for them.  That would be where I got my baby Sanity.  He FREAKS if people he doesn't know try to go near him, and flinches if you try to pet him wrong.  I am a bit luckier than you in that he bonded very closely to me from the start.  He isn't as bad as two of his brothers who a friend of mine took.  If someone they don't know goes near them they scream bloody murder and pee. 

Often I felt like a failure, it seemed that for every step forward we rolled 20 steps back.  I had this dog from a puppy and there are dogs that have been abused for years, in horrible horrible ways and yet they're still happy people friendly dogs.  What was I doing wrong?  But last week I took him to a pet festival with well over a thousand people there.  He was AMAZING!  Going up to total strangers for pets, leaning on people, giving kisses, I almost cried.  It was a culmination of a lot of baby steps and small victories.  He still has a ways to go but he is lightyears beyond where he was.

The not coming if she thinks you're trying to catch her....  Have you tried running from her?  I still do this with my dogs if they're being pills.  Or just ignore them, act like you're intersted in something on the ground and they come up to see what's so interesting.  DO NOT try to catch her the first time she comes up to you.  She'll learn that coming to you only means play time is over.  Pet her for a while, then leave her alone.  Do this 3 or 4 times.  NO SUDDEN MOVES!  Eventually (After the leash issues are taken care of) you can just have her on a long line, then tug and run backards as you roll it up. 

For the leash issue.  Try a tab or a traffic lead.  These are only about a foot or less long.  Put it on her and leave it (DO NOT LEAVE A PUPPY UNSUPERVISED ON LEAD EVER!)  She might freak, but she'll eventually realize that it isn't going to kill her, and in fact, won't hinder her at all.  Do this for a week or two till it doesn't phase her anymore, then work to a longer lead that'll drag behind her.  That might freak her out, or she might start to chew on it.  If she does that give her a toy or something that she can chew on.  When she gets used to the long lead, get a caribeaner and clip it to your belt loop on your pants.  She'll get used to being near you, and walking with you.  Then go to the long line thing I mentioned earlier (Redyre posted a great article on using that method to get puppies to enjoy coming to you)

The thing with abused dogs is that they have learned not to trust people.  You have to prove to them that they can trust you.  It isn't going to happen overnight, Sanity still has relapses.  But the bond that you have with a dog that you've given new life to is amazing and you'll never regret the time you spent forming it.  If you ever need help, feel free to email me.  Exception2rule s@hotmail.com


Ang