Fear Aggression
Our lab of 16 years passed away this past January. The first of August we adopted a roughly 2 year old lab mix from a rescue organazation. We know she was from a divorce couple and neither wanted her....
Forum Discussion
Thought I would give an update on Sahara.
We came across some information from the rescue group she came from. Originally we thought she was around 2 years old but found out she is close to 4. At some time in her life, she was in the Miami Florida area as her ID chip was from that area according to the company. Don't know all of her journey from there to TN, but it doesn't appear to be a good one.
Know for how she is doing since last time I updated. She has really started to come out of her shell and start acting more like a lab. By that I mean more adventurism, wanting to play, explore, nosey.
She is starting to act better around people. When out on a walk, if she sees someone at a distance, she might bark 1 time. If they walk up to talk, she shows no aggresion, just stands for a few minutes and will lay down if conversation goes longer.
We are presently at the beach, and she is being exposed to new things that she has never experienced from the way she acts. Even though she came through Miami, she doesn't act like she had saw the ocean before. When a wave would come in, she initially ran from the water. After letting her see it wasn't something to be scared about, she didn't run but just walked along us on the beach in the water.
The biggest thing she overcame was riding a golf cart. We rented one and she didn't even want to get near it. We started getting her around it and eventually put her on the backseat with my wife and she rode there. You could tell she was scared, but we went slow and you could see the fear subside. After a while, my wife came up front and she rode some by her herself.
Later in the afternoon I took her outside by the cart, and she jumped up in the front floorboard. I patted on the front seat and she jumped up and we went for a ride. Wife came out and set in the back and we rode for a while longer. After dinner I took her out, she jumped up and we rode for an hour and you could see the fear level was very low. You could also see her grin as she was enjoying the ride.
One good thing about this was after all of the time we spent riding around, seeing people, dogs, just so many new things for her to experience, never did she bark or show any signs of being upset.
I know this is small steps for most dogs, but for her it has been a leap. T
We came across some information from the rescue group she came from. Originally we thought she was around 2 years old but found out she is close to 4. At some time in her life, she was in the Miami Florida area as her ID chip was from that area according to the company. Don't know all of her journey from there to TN, but it doesn't appear to be a good one.
Know for how she is doing since last time I updated. She has really started to come out of her shell and start acting more like a lab. By that I mean more adventurism, wanting to play, explore, nosey.
She is starting to act better around people. When out on a walk, if she sees someone at a distance, she might bark 1 time. If they walk up to talk, she shows no aggresion, just stands for a few minutes and will lay down if conversation goes longer.
We are presently at the beach, and she is being exposed to new things that she has never experienced from the way she acts. Even though she came through Miami, she doesn't act like she had saw the ocean before. When a wave would come in, she initially ran from the water. After letting her see it wasn't something to be scared about, she didn't run but just walked along us on the beach in the water.
The biggest thing she overcame was riding a golf cart. We rented one and she didn't even want to get near it. We started getting her around it and eventually put her on the backseat with my wife and she rode there. You could tell she was scared, but we went slow and you could see the fear subside. After a while, my wife came up front and she rode some by her herself.
Later in the afternoon I took her outside by the cart, and she jumped up in the front floorboard. I patted on the front seat and she jumped up and we went for a ride. Wife came out and set in the back and we rode for a while longer. After dinner I took her out, she jumped up and we rode for an hour and you could see the fear level was very low. You could also see her grin as she was enjoying the ride.
One good thing about this was after all of the time we spent riding around, seeing people, dogs, just so many new things for her to experience, never did she bark or show any signs of being upset.
I know this is small steps for most dogs, but for her it has been a leap. T
