Fear, Part 1: Your Dog Was Not Abused

It is fairly common to hear rescuers and adopters of rescue dogs go on and on about their dog's history of "abuse." In this post and the next I hope to point out two things: 1, it is highly unlikely that your dog's fearful behavior came from abuse, and 2. even if it did you are doing your dog a disservice by hanging onto that label.

The reason I say this is that the highly skittish behavior that many dogs who get labeled as abused will exhibit is very common behavior for dogs who were not exposed to much outside their own home during their very important puppy phase. It is much more likely that someone bought a puppy and never took it outside the home or back yard, than that they were beating the dog mercilessly. Few people put the time into exposing their puppies to all the different environments, people, sounds, textures, etc. that they should be exposed to during those critical weeks of puppyhood when they learn what things are okay in the world. While this can somewhat be done retroactively, it can take years to help a skittish dog move past their fears that could have been managed with  a couple good months of positive exposure as a puppy. So the most common reason for your foster dog's fear and anxiety, actually the most common reason for any behavior issues your foster dog may be having is human laziness/neglect, not abuse.

Former NR foster dog Tim, a dog who hadn't been anywhere further than his back yard, found wearing a cone terrifying and his foster mom took it off soon after this photo was taken. 

If your dog has a fear of a specific thing like people wearing hats, people of a different race than you, trash cans, even the smell of certain foods - it doesn't mean your dog was abused by those people/things. It is much more likely that either the dog just generally wasn't exposed to the world like I have already mentioned, or that something scary happened during puppyhood while the dog was exposed to those things. For example, my dog Frodo is terrified of the garbage cans. I did not beat him with a garbage can. Nor did I leave him in a garbage can as punishment. What happened was that when he was a young puppy I dragged the garbage can into the garage while Frodo was leashed  next to me. He freaked out and to this day he is uneasy around the garbage can and will walk in a wide arc to get around it.

Frodo always tends to be a little concerned about things, even in his own back yard

Another reason that your dog may be fearful is genetics. Some dogs, heck - some mammals - are just more prone to this than others and some breeds even have a higher tendency toward fearful and anxious behavior. Frodo is a skittish dog who I carefully socialized from puppyhood and took through clicker training classes, etc. I promise you he's never been beaten, even though I've felt like it at times. He just has a fairly anxious temperament and managing his anxiety is something we'll always be working on.

Former foster dog Moon, showing she is pretty anxious

So examine the story that you tell yourself and others about your dog. Have you created some dark, misty back story of what happened to them in the past due to a behavior you see in the present? It's just not necessary and it's not even really factual. Don't get sucked into a drama of your own creation,

In the next post I'll talk about how holding onto your dog's past - real or imagined - can actually get in the way of your foster dog making progress.