As most of you know, we adopted Gretel. When we got her we were told that she was not socialized as a puppy. We were told she was extremely anxious around dogs and strangers, especially men. She was apparently so bad that they had her on anti-anxiety medication.
After we got her, we took her off the medication almost immediately. We have spent a lot of time working with her, both providing training to give her confidence and socialization. As you have read, we give her plenty of exercise through hiking and go out of our way to expose her to strangers, other dogs and unfamiliar places.
Gretel has made huge leaps and bounds since she has found her forever home with us. When she came to us almost 4 months ago she would always growl and bark at strange people and dogs.
It is still her first reaction when startled but she doesn’t do it as much. Currently, this tendency is manageable we are hopeful that urge will completely go away with time and patience.
Gretel is still somewhat of a wild-card for us though. Not having a complete picture of her background, we are still discovering her personality quirks and issues.
We feel very lucky that Motley Zoo Animal Rescue selected us as her parents. We feel fortune that we are the ones that get to provide her with stability, patience, proper training and lots of love so she can turn into her best doggie self.
She is a very special little girl and the light of our lives.
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According to Gus says
It sounds like Gretel was taken in by the perfect people to help her with her anxiety and fear issues. She’s a lucky girl!
adventureweiner says
We like to think we are the best doggie parents for her 🙂
Kristen says
I loved this post. Gretel definitely hit the jackpot with you as her new family. Being involved with rescue, I’m aware of first hand that there are so many people who take on a dog with history and then send them back because they don’t want to work with them and help them overcome the issues. We foster and we’ve been lucky enough that all our dogs who have had anxiety issues have been adopted to wonderful families just like you who are really willing to work with them. The love and work that we put into our dogs comes back to us tenfold 🙂
adventureweiner says
Thanks so much for checking us out.
I have always had pets that came to us in less than ideal curcumstances and always had issues. We had a cat for 10 years who we found half dead in a ditch. She wouldn’t even come near us for the first two years but we kept feeding her and working with her. Eventually she would come in the house and snuggle with us.
I love the challenge of rehabilitating an animal in need and providing them the love they need…that others might not have the patience to provide.
Krystin says
Do you have any advice for someone working with an anxious dachshund? Mine will bark and growl at strangers, two or four legged. She cowers behind me and won’t let anyone near her. I feel so bad for her that she gets so scared but I don’t know what to do!
AdventureJess says
I am sorry Krystin, I don’t have any solid advice. My family and I have been taking in strays and working with scared and anxious animals pretty much my whole life and they just always seemed to come around in the end. There wasn’t any secret formula. I can say that one key for me has been my attitude. I always try to maintain a mellow demeanor and just act like they are less anxious than they are. I mean I respect where they are at but I slowly keep giving them little challenges and act like I expect that they will handle it. If they don’t, we back off but if we keep trying they always progress. Another big key for them is building confidence. An obedience class does wonders and it seems that asking them to do more and more complex tasks (sit to wait to lie down, etc) and then lavishing them with treats and love helps. I also know when they will react and try to anticipate the situation. I find ways to ease them into those situations but still expose them situations that might scare them. We are very easy on our anxious little Gretel but when she doesn’t react appropriately we gently correct her. She catches on little by little. Finally, I would get advice from someone more qualified than myself. Even a half and hour with a dog trainer can yield great tips and insight.