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Hi everyone, we did a little foster doggie reshuffle, so Casey (=Rosie) is now with us!
I’m happy to say Jack and Rosie are getting on great. She was a little wary of him (and us) yesterday when she first came to us, but they started playing (pretty wildly, I might add) very soon and passed out together shortly after. She was quite interested in our cat yesterday and we weren’t sure which way it was going to go, but today she seems to have decided that there are too many sharp bits about him to be worth the effort.
She walks backwards now when he approaches – that cat really rules the roost! The first night was amazingly uncomplicated. We’d all settled in the living room but had to move her to the kitchen mid-snooze. We expected some resistence on her part, but we stayed with her another 5 minutes and she just went back to sleep. There were no accidents during the evening or night, and she waited very patiently by the door for us to get ready for walkies. She’s not a barky dog, but will sound alarm when there are noises just outside the house or at the door – she’d be a great guard dog as she’s got a biiiig voice
. Rosie will just have to be kept secure until she bonds enough to WANT to stay, so potential adopters will need to have a safe garden and/or only take her out on a lead, on which she walks very nicely. She’s got a thing about chasing vans, but that may have to do with her previous life, or simply the collie chasing gene.
A few words on her "breed": At first glance she looks like a pure collie, but she seems a little too long and tall for that, so she may be a Collie Spetter cross – a Spetter being a springer/ setter, a term we coined for our Jack.
She’s got a gorgeous face with huge brown spaniel eyes and the much more manageable coat and feet of a collie – spaniel parents will know what I mean. An absolutely stunning girl that we would keep in a heartbeat if we could.
Rosie and Jack1.jpgRosie and Jack2.jpgThis is Rosie’s second day with us after another perfect night, and we’ve learned a lot about her in this short time. Whether it has to do with her history – whatever that may be – or simply her shy and flighty temperament, Rosie is generally very timid and has a way to go to learn to trust humans as well as learn doggie social skills.
Our own dog Jack is a rescue with deep seated fear issues that impact his and our life every day (he’s afraid of children, all strangers, tall men, buggies, bikes, objects moving unexpectedly, the wind, and a million other things). He’s come on loads since he came to us 3 years ago, but we recognise some of his fearful behaviours in Rosie. As boisterous as she can be in play, she lacks the skills to express what she wants and doesn’t want, and can very easily go into defence or run away mode (either growl and give a "stay away from me" warning snap, or duck and cower against the next wall or corner she can find).
Today it seems she’s realised that she’s here to stay and that she’s expected to behave in certain ways, and it’s clearly stressing her – she’s left her breakfast untouched, when she ate all her other meals the previous days without any problems. She has no concept of "earning" good things – something that in my mind is important to teach all dogs, but fearful dogs in particular, as it makes the world predictable and gives them confidence. For fearful dogs, freebies unfortunately result in uncertainty and more nervousness, so humans have to discipline themselves (not the dog), show consistent and predictable behaviour, and create situations where the dog can draw the right conclusions/ make good decisions. Obviously "earning" based training and conditioning only works if the dog is confident enough to take treats (food, a toy, belly rubs) and understand that THIS is the stuff to work for, which Rosie is not yet able to do. She does take treats, but when it comes to having to sit for them, she gets stressed and leaves the treat rather than put herself in the situation.
Rosie has also shown a tendency to physically put herself between Jack and us and is reactive when Jack tries to take back his place (which he does in the gentlest way possible, sneaking past), so she may have some resource guarding issues that will have to be addressed.
More than with dogs that simply have no training (be it house training or obedience), seeing nervous/ fearful behaviour in a dog makes me angry at the people who caused it, and throws me back to the first – frankly horrendous – year we had with Jack, working and fighting every day to undo the damage that was done to him during his socialisation, or lack thereof. Countless times I’ve wished I could get my hands on the soulless monster that did this to him and make him feel the fear that he feels, every single day of his life.
With Rosie, it’s hard to tell whether she was handled badly or important stages of her development were missed. Physically, she’s well looked after, so the neglect is psychological. She may have been left to her own devices without much interaction, thereby drawing her own conclusions about the world she lives in – one where she has to defend herself all the time.
I realise I’m making it sound very dramatic. Rosie is not Jack. She’s not damaged. She does however need time, patience, and work.
Hi everyone, apologies of the long radio silence on Rosie – I didn’t feel I could read her well enough to really talk about her character, and wanted to give her some time to relax before posting an update. I am happy to say that Rosie has come a long way in a very short time and is getting more confident each day. In the first few days she was so unsure of herself that she gave a lot of warning snarls at Jack and Tuck and tended to become possessive of our attention, but she has made really great progress in accepting the other two guys near her even in close spaces (our kitchen is quite small but is of course the centre of the house, so everyone’s constantly crowded in there)
. She is now able to sit beside Jack and be petted without jealousy. Jack will even try to body block her sometimes and she doesn’t seem bothered by it. Tuck, having no sense at all, will sometimes walk right under her nose as she’s eating (which is a particularly bad idea with a dog with slight resource guarding issues), but she kindly ignores him or even turns her head away. Meal times are still a bit hit and miss. If there are any sudden noises at all, she will get unsure/ nervous and not finish her food. She is getting much better though and is actually wagging a little when she sees the food bowl coming out, so that’s a great improvement. Her nervousness still causes her to bark at strangers coming into the house or noises just outside the door, but again she is getting much better and will stop once she’s told that everything’s OK. On walks she is good as gold. We haven’t had her off the lead yet but she walks nicely on a long lead and doesn’t veer to much from paths – quite a difference from Jack’s all-terrain approach. She’s not pully on a long lead, but can be strong on a shorter lead, as things, people, and other dogs in the distance can spook her. So far, we haven’t been able to do a lot of training as she’s not very food driven (yet) and won’t take treats, especially not on walks, but being very smart, she’s learning as she goes. In her heart of hearts she’s very eager to please, but is often unsure how she’s supposed to do it. A slight touch of her back will make her sit (we discovered this by accident), whereas the word "sit" is often ignored and hand gestures mean nothing to her. We’re a little unclear on what kind of training she received previously, if any, but we’re starting to get some reliable responses from her on "sit", "down" and "go to bed".
All in all I think she’s made great progress and is slowly opening up and showing her personality – we are starting to see the occasional wag and smile. There may be a little bouncy clown underneath all that worry after all.I’m glad this dog is with you. Your sensitivity to her and your past experience with Jack means she has fortunately landed in the ideal home to help her forward. She is so pretty and has such a soft vulnerable look about her – really, really pleased she’s with you.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Hebe.
Rosie is doing better and better each day. I can’t believe it’s been 2 weeks since she came to stay with us! Despite some minor setbacks in the beginning, she has been no hassle to have around, and fits into the household quite nicely.
As both Jack and she are a little aloof, they don’t interact with each other an awful lot, but have learned to accept each other’s presence as if it had never been any different. Where during the first week we had to make sure Jack wouldn’t walk past her too closely as she would snap, I realised just yesterday that this hadn’t been on my mind for a few days now, and so is clearly no longer a concern.
We’ve been watching her closely and trying to learn what makes her react – a lot of our dinner conversation is taken up by doggie talk and the latest developments.We are currently working on building some control over her defensive barking. Noises outside the house, people’s voices, children playing, the doorbell are all things that set her off. I mentioned before that she will stop once she’s told that it’s OK, but it does take some persuasion on our part. In order to bring a bit more structure into it and give her reliable long-term coping mechanisms when she’s anxious, we’ve started establishing safe havens for her. Downstairs, it’s her bed in the kitchen, upstairs, it’s my or my husband’s office, depending where we are and who she sits with. When she starts barking we simply ask her to go to her bed and sit, or if we’re upstairs and she runs down the stairs barking, we ask her to come and sit. This has worked really well the last few days, and she seems relieved to have another behaviour to focus on, as the barking makes her agitated and unhappy. It’s a sign of her growing willingness to take our guidance that we are able to disrupt the unwanted behaviour and in parts replace it with a desired one.
In addition, to set her up for success, we’re trying to become aware of noises that will set her off, and give her reassurance BEFORE she reacts. In the long term, this should change her emotional response to noises that frighten her, and eventually help her be less frightened.
We’re very careful not to break any routines, be they ever so small and fickle. This is also the reason she still sleeps in the kitchen by herself. She has come to see her bed as a safe space, and even though we’d have no issues with her sleeping on the landing (as Jack does), and in fact feel like bad foster parents for it sometimes, it is better for her to know what to expect each night. Just a few days back, she may have whined for a minute when the door was closed for the night. Now, there’s no noise at all when we go to bed, and when we open the door in the morning, she greets us waggy and relaxed on her bed.
During the last few days, we’ve also made enormous progress with meal times – she eats! She’s a veeery slow eater so it’s a real test of patience for Jack.
We tried separating them a few times so there would be no resource guarding from her or excitement from Jack at ALL THE FOOD THAT HE COULD EAT but that is so unfairly withheld from him… However, she got confused and upset as she sensed that something was different, and refused to eat or even go near her bowl. The same goes for locking out our cat, who has an unfortunate tendency to walk and sniff around her when she’s eating. The moment he gets banned from the kitchen and the door is closed, she walks away from the bowl and presses herself against the door. So, for better or worse, the whole gang needs to learn to get along and respect one other’s space when eating – as if there wasn’t enough to learn already. I am very impressed with how well they’ve all been doing recently though. Well. All except for Tuck, who seems to have an instinctive knowledge of his nine lives.A little update on the beautiful Rosie.
3 weeks on and Rosie is a completely different dog. Gone are the days that she would snap and cower; she is now a more confident and loving professional cuddler, snoozer, and guard dog extraordinaire. I joke about the guarding as we’re still working on controlling the barking, but she has come on leaps and bounds in that regard – she no longer jumps at every noise she hears and can even be persuaded not to bark if we manage to catch her just before she reacts. This is huge progress, and I am surprised at how willing she has become to take our guidance.
We are continuing her training and socialisation and have found that she responds really well to one particular high-value treat: sausages!
As she is currently in heat, she is obviously showing a lot of interest in the boys while on walks (and audibly so), but even during this rather preoccupied time the sausage treats help re-direct her attention and get her to walk on. As her trust in us grows, she allows us to handle her more easily and without any stress: we can now put the harness on her without any trouble. She is even learning to enjoy hugs and squeezes, and gives a little kiss here and there in return!
Like many nervous dogs, she wasn’t exactly a fan of hugs – this human way of showing affection can often be interpreted as “I’m bigger and stronger than you”, but we think it really important that she knows it means only good things in case she is hugged by children in her future forever family.
Here she is on one her bed – isn’t she just gorgeous? She’s looking somewhat pensive here but was actually about to fall asleep and didn’t approve of the kitchen sounds around her. Tough life!Rosie1.jpg
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