Therapy Dog Training - Working With Your Dog
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You respect the fact that they came from a hoarding situation, but you begin a new life with your newly adopted dog. Your dog is out of the misery now and is safe and in a loving home. That's the first step and that's where your focus should be.
Along the way, you will run into hurdles that will make you cock your head like a curious pup. Some will make you giggle, some will make you cry. It will also take a little longer for a pup with this background to adapt in your home than it would a pup with a normal puppyhood. Give him space but use the time to establish a routine. Routines make any dog feel a lot safer. I.e. when are you going to go for a walk. When is feeding time. Play time? nap time? A dog likes these things to happen at t he same time everyday.
I adopted an 8 month old lab mix that had been rescued from a hoarder at 6 months. It took time and patience, but we found our own way to be together happily. The hardest thing was teaching him to play normal puppy games such as tug of war and fetch (which he never got the hang of).
The hoarder pup will exhibit fear...sometimes of really odd things. My dog had a fear of fire hydrants for example. Do not force the dog but also don't run in the opposite direction either. When you come across something that startles the dog just stand still and let the dog investigate on his own terms. His fear of hydrants was gone soon.
Here are some tips:
Obedience training - will help you bond, will give him confidence. The class is a good, safe setting for socialization as well.
Socialization - Take him places with you as much as you can. Let him meet different people in different settings. Be careful around kids though, because they get excited and my dog had a hard time with this. If I asked them to approach calmly from the side he did fine and actually liked the attention.
Take him to the dog park - Dogs are the only companions he has ever known and it will give him a great boost to be able to spend time among his own kind. Or set up play dates with other dogs in someone's home.
Read up on dog body language. What does it mean when your dog yawns? When your dog faces you and looks away? When your dog hangs his head? When you're dog's tail is pointed straight back? When he waves his paw in the air? when your dog scratches the ground? When his paws sweat? When he licks his lips? Dogs are so good at reading human body language, but the hoarded dog is at a disadvantage here, because it has not had the change to study that the normal puppy has had. It will help you both a great deal if you would try to learn his language.
But generally, he needs little more than a dog with a normal background would need...love, patience, compassion, etc.
Good Luck
Train Your Dog - Benefits and Tips For Successful Dog Training
- they need to feel loved beyond belief, but be careful could lead to seperation anxiety. socialization is a MUST! plus dog training like you said.
- They need A LOT OF SOCIALIZATION!
so work work work - Ironically enough, when my husband and I adopted our dog from one of the Humane Society's "foster homes", the H.S. foster lady herself was an animal hoarder! She lived about 20 miles away from us, out in the sticks. Her gravel driveway was about a 1/2 mile long. I remember my husband and I joking around about what if there was some psycho killer living back there so no one would find the dead bodies.... Then we saw this nasty shack of a house. About 15 dogs came running up to my car. I'm not afraid of dogs, but I was not cool with FIFTEEN dogs barking and growling at me. I was afraid to get out of the car! The lady came out & walked us into her house where there were probably 10 more dogs and at least 20 cats. Believe me when I tell you I cannot begin to describe the ungodly stinch of that place! Her house was cabin-style, so the kitchen, living, and dining areas were all just one great big room. She had so much rotten food and garbage on her counters, we couldn't see the countertop or stove themselves. There were cats *and* dogs climbing all over the countertop looking for food. There were heaps of crap all over the floor and huge urine puddles everywhere. She asked if we wanted to sit down-- I looked at the couch which had been chewed to shreds by her many bored animals and saw that it also had turds all over it. I could barely breathe. I asked if we could talk outside.
About an hour later, after she had begged and pleaded with us not to adopt this dog, she started searching for the vaccination records and adoption contract. After about twenty minutes of sorting through the various piles of garbage in the room, she found it and there was this funky brown substance all over the papers-- I put them in a Ziplock bag and haven't touched them since. One of the dogs bit me. Dozens of flea-infested cats were rubbing all over my legs. It was HORRIBLE!!!!! I could not believe someone lived like that and the real kicker is she told us she was an RN-- a nurse should know better than to live like that!
The problems we had with our dog: Because there were so many dogs and she was the youngest and smallest (about 38 lbs when we got her), she was very possessive with her food. We nipped that in the bud right away because food aggression leads to other things. I guess she'd always been the last one to eat and by the time it was her turn, there was no food left. She was hand-shy; didn't even want to be petted. She was scared of everything-- EVERYTHING--, especially black people. She had never been socialized. We solved that by hiring a black female dog trainer-- our dog loved her by the 2nd class and is much less skeptical of people now. Another thing that helped was that she LOVES other dogs! So we take her to the park and Petsmart-- two places with lots of dogs, and she gets used to people there. Because our dog had lived in a situation where she was allowed to just poop & pee whenever, wherever, we had a very hard time house training her and had to buy a carpet shampooer. She was very malnourished and poorly cared for-- how can one person care for 50+ animals alone? All of her ribs were protruding & she had such a nasty ear infection that her ear was filled to the brim with dirt & blood, the fur was rotted off her ear, and she has permanent hearing damage. A few days of medicine & daily cleanings fixed that. And the worst part was, the lady would leave her outside unattended for God knows how long, so she'd get bored and chew on gravel from the driveway. She had 4 broken teeth which we had to have extracted once we got her. In the first few months, we had about $1,000 in vet bills.
This situation just should have never happened. It was absolutely atrocious. Her "foster mom" was a Humane Society volunteer AND a registered nurse. I don't feel bad for animal hoarders. Everyone has "struggles", but they need to get over them, not be babied by everyone around them. I hate that people want to claim that every bad action was based on a faulty state of mind. "I molest little boys because I have a 'problem'." "I mug old ladies because I have a 'problem'." "I hoard and neglect animals because I have a 'problem'." Please! Because of this experience, I will never "adopt" a pet from a shelter again.
Our dog went from being this pitiful, timid, emaciated little 38 lb mutt with broken teeth and a severe ear/skin infection to being a beautiful, healthy 60 lb greyhound mix who loves people, loves running, loves our pet cat, is no longer food-aggressive, and listens very well *knock on wood* lol.DOG TRAINING IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY WHETHER YOUR DOG WAS ADOPTED FROM A SHELTER OR PURCHASED FROM A GREAT BREEDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!… - " If they were reassured, they may learn not to hoard." its not something you can unlearn. Hoarding is a mental issue. They can learn to control it with HELP but its not something they can wake up one day and not do.
As for how to deal with it? you deal with it as you would a dog that came from the shelter, socializing and training. You don't make excuses for behavior you simply work on how to fix them and if need be accept that some things can't be fixed and depending on the severity of the issue find ways to deal with it or put the animal down. - If you have paid attention to the shows about the animal hoarders, the dogs' living conditions are horrible, and they are severely lacking in personal attention and love. You are a dream come true to this dog you adopted. Just be patient and give your dog time to get used to this new life and new rules. I adopted a dog that was rescued from a puppy mill, which is a terrible life, too. From a skinny, scared, deformed little runt, he has become the most loving sweet dog I have ever had.
- No offense but your post is incredibly hard to follow. I am not sure who the birth mother is and the mother who was not allowed to see or touch "their baby". I am not sure if you are talking about dogs or people. I will do my best to answer.
That being said the first rule in rehabilitating any dog is STOP THINKING OF IT AS A VICTIM.
Dogs live in the moment. They don't think back and remember when.
I currently have a dog I rehabilitated that was from a real case of abuse and neglect, actually documented, I never treated her like a vicitim, I did not coddle her and I did not feel sorry for her. She went from scared of everyone and most situations to confident and brave and carries SEVERAL AKC Obedience titles.
Just by your post I can tell you are making this dog a victim and feeling sorry for her.
Forget about where the dog came from and move forward.
It is a dog. It will respond to you treating it like a dog. It is a dog not a baby.
Training will give it confidence- find a real dog trainer, not a cookie and click pet store trainer. - You need to start hoarding asap to make to dog feel more at home. Start with a truck full of old newspapers and outdated electronic stuff and fill a room for the dogs arival. Old dirty cloths may also help the dog to adjust. No need to thank me just pass on a favor to someone else.