Fear, Part 2: Let Go Of The Past

In the Fear Part 1 post I talked about how what most people label as abuse is more likely to be underexposure/lack of socialization. In this part I'd like to talk about a few of the different ways that using the label of "abused" does a disservice to rescue dogs and tends to hurt, not help them.

Thwarts Progress: 
I think the most detrimental thing that the label "abused" does is it sets up a picture of a dog who is irreparably damaged; a dog who needs to be accepted as they are and who will never be a relaxed and happy dog. It gives the human an out for doing the needed work and forever attaches the idea of "broken" to a dog who is so much more. I agree you need to accept the reality of the dog you have before you, that by no way means the dog can't grow, learn, and overcome some of the barriers that keep them locked in anxiety.

I think the dog that most paints this picture for me is my personal dog Chima. When she first came to us as a foster dog she would not let people near her and hated being touched. In the beginning I didn't set up any long term goal of creating an easy going dog but instead started with baby steps - first teaching her to allow short touches from a long handled artist's brush and then moving up slowly from there - always moving forward in teeny, tiny increments. In the back of my mind I figured she was never going to enjoy hanging out on the couch with me but I figured we'd just keep working and see where we ended up.

You can barely see Chima behind Troy in this picture with her tail down. She would approach from behind to sniff but wouldn't come close otherwise.

Getting braver and moving in for a shoe sniff. We had to keep her on a long line so that we could help her come inside without feeling like we were crowding or grabbing her. 

It took us about a year and a half, but I can tell you that she has far surpassed any expectations I had. She is a strong, independent terrier who is playful, loving, and sometimes laughingly naughty. And she now actively seeks out touch from me and loves to curl up next to me on the couch. She is happy and active, and willing to try new things - no longer confined by her fear. Had I taken the road where I just gave her love and attention and a place to sleep and eat she would maybe be a bit more relaxed but she certainly wouldn't be willing to go up to perfect strangers and let them pet her or roll on her back next to me on the couch for a belly rub. Her world is so much bigger and happier now! I didn't do anything magic. It was pretty basic training stuff. But I did allow her to move at her own pace and I made sure I didn't let myself fall into thinking she would never be more than the scared dog who arrived here. And I also didn't create a vision of the dog I wanted her to be. We just walked a path together, one baby step at a time and tried to never look further along than the next step.

Chima today: She always wants to be near me if I'm sitting down and if another dog is in my lap she finds a way to squeeze in

Chima during a Nose Work class, letting our instructor Karyn be her handler for the search

As I've said before - in the world of fostering, love is not enough. If you are going to take on a fearful dog as a foster then you owe it to the dog to try to help them start working on their fear issues. If you don't want to put that kind of work in - that's fine. I understand not everyone has the time or the patience for that kind of training. But if you don't want to put the work in, it means you need to choose foster dogs who are easy going and confident.

Attracts the wrong type of adopters:
Overly dramatizing a dog's past is also a good way to drive away the kind of thoughtful adopters that a dog really needs. I have found that the people who are drawn to the dramatic stories tend to be caught up in the moment. They rarely have thought through the reality of the time and training and environmental changes that a fearful dog needs from them. When reality hits they are frustrated and overwhelmed which will further stress out the dog. Or the dog gets returned and has their life turned upside down again. You don't want adopters who have been sucked in by a sob story. You want ones who have thought things through, talked it over with everyone in their family, and in the end decided they are willing to make the changes needed to bring a fearful dog into there lives and hopefully help that dog move past their fear.

Paints the wrong picture of what a "rescue dog" is:
One thing I've noticed too is that so many foster dogs get this label of being mistreated and damaged - even dogs with very minor fears - that saying a dog is a "rescue" has become almost synonymous with saying a dog is irreparably messed up. And that just isn't the case at all! The majority of the dogs that I foster have pretty minor things to work through and most of them are just teenage dogs who have never had someone take the time to teach them the basics of how to live in a house.

If we create this picture of rescue dogs always being "damaged" then we will drive away a lot of great adopters who maybe aren't up for a dog with extreme fear issues but are fine with a dog who needs a bit more work on house training, or is super energetic and just needs an active home, or maybe loves to chew so needs someone willing to supervise them. Do we really want to be driving these adopters away to breeders when there are so many great dogs needing homes?

This is a "rescue dog" - happy to be out of the shelter, loves car rides, people and snoozing on the back of a couch. Dobbes is available for adoption through New Rattitude once he completes heartworm treatment.

Why do we do it?
I think we need to question ourselves about why we feel it is important to attach this label to a dog. I personally think it has a lot more to do with how we want others to see us "the person who takes care of poor, abused dogs" than we think it is best for the dog. And please don't take this as me judging because I have done plenty of this labeling in the past. Would we forever want to be introduced as "this is Jane Doe, that lady who was beaten as a child"?  Would we introduce a friend that way? Making a dog forever be that "abused rescue dog" and tying them to a label does the same thing. It is seeing them for a past they had no control over rather than the dog they are today, full of potential and ready to grow.

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.