Rescue and Regression

[beachdogz]

We have had Rusty for a year-and-a-half (wow, it goes fast.) He was a shelter dog, and I would believe from all I have pieced together that he had spent most of his life crated and little interaction with the world. Of course, we will never know. He has been through an obedience class and currently in agility. He has made great strides in learning to play with dogs and toys. We were told when we adopted him that he had a fear of men. He has improved on that since he lives with DH and my son. However, he is going through a regression stage of sorts.

 

He has become skitterish again with sudden movements and noises. He will be leery of my husband one minute, and then sidling up to him to get petted the next minute. He will also be skitterish with me if I make a sudden movement (like simply moving my chair back to get up from the table.) Nothing traumatic has happened to account for this. I certainly know that all learning has a curve and regression is a part of it all, so I am not really surprised.

 

I would like to hear if anyone else has experienced a similar situation with a rescue/shelter dog, especially this long into it, and what they may have done to help the dog through it (besides time, and patience, and love.) I always feel that on these boards, I learn the most when people share their stories.

[gcv-border]

I will be interested to hear any thoughts also. I have a rescued sheltie mix. She was 3.5 years old when we adopted her (at least that is what her paperwork said), and we have had her for over 13 years. To this day, she will still jump up from a resting position (i.e. lying on her bed) or wherever she may be if she hears a chair scrape across the floor, if I put a pan on the stove too loudly or a dish clanks down on the counter, etc. She jumps up and scuttles off. Even if she sees me make the loud noise, she will still scurry off. I have tried some densensitization (but was not too successful because there are to many things she is reactive to), a lot of positive training with treats to build her confidence, some agility in hopes of building her confidence (she was too stressed to function well in agility class) and a couple of other training techniques that I can't remember. A lot of her 'training' occurred when I was just beginning to learn dog training techniques so I probably was not as 'good' as a more experienced trainer, but I firmly believe that if I got this dog today, she would still be highly sound sensitive, fearful, reactive, etc. despite my best efforts at trying to train her out of it. I have thought of drugs, but have instead chosen to manage it because we live in a rural location without neighbors (and therefore fewer sound triggers) and because she seems to be a very happy dog most of the time (runs and plays, wants attention, etc.).

 

This may not be what you want to hear, -- i.e. that a dog may not be able to recover, but I think my dog has very extreme reactions to certain sounds and situations and she is not 'normal'. I would bet Rusty has a better prognosis. From a previous post, he seems to enjoy agility and can function in a class situation, and that is a good sign.

 

Good Luck with Rusty,

Jovi

[beachdogz]

I will be interested to hear any thoughts also. I have a rescued sheltie mix. She was 3.5 years old when we adopted her (at least that is what her paperwork said), and we have had her for over 13 years. To this day, she will still jump up from a resting position (i.e. lying on her bed) or wherever she may be if she hears a chair scrape across the floor, if I put a pan on the stove too loudly or a dish clanks down on the counter, etc. She jumps up and scuttles off. Even if she sees me make the loud noise, she will still scurry off. I have tried some densensitization (but was not too successful because there are to many things she is reactive to), a lot of positive training with treats to build her confidence, some agility in hopes of building her confidence (she was too stressed to function well in agility class) and a couple of other training techniques that I can't remember. A lot of her 'training' occurred when I was just beginning to learn dog training techniques so I probably was not as 'good' as a more experienced trainer, but I firmly believe that if I got this dog today, she would still be highly sound sensitive, fearful, reactive, etc. despite my best efforts at trying to train her out of it. I have thought of drugs, but have instead chosen to manage it because we live in a rural location without neighbors (and therefore fewer sound triggers) and because she seems to be a very happy dog most of the time (runs and plays, wants attention, etc.).

 

This may not be what you want to hear, -- i.e. that a dog may not be able to recover, but I think my dog has very extreme reactions to certain sounds and situations and she is not 'normal'. I would bet Rusty has a better prognosis. From a previous post, he seems to enjoy agility and can function in a class situation, and that is a good sign.

 

Good Luck with Rusty,

Jovi

 

I do have hope in that he had gotten much better and made a lot of progress; then he regressed everywhere...at home, at class, inside, outside. He even stopped playing with Kylie (we were so happy that he had finally learned how to play.) We are doing some CU with him. However, just in the time when I first posted and now, they had a rousing "king of the bed" play session. That's the first I've seen him play with her in weeks - maybe even a couple months.

 

I wonder if your dog's sound sensitivity is genetic, and therefore it can be managed but maybe never totally overcome. I used to tell students, "you can change learned behavior, but you can't change chromosomes and genes." I still believe that. But wow, she is 16+ years old!! Lucky you!! I have seen some old dogs become less sound sensitive due to loss of hearing.

[Cody & Duchess]

I have 3 from rescues and one that was just dumped- making 4 odd balls. I spend a lot of time with the dogs, bc I work from home. My dogs are really sensitive to my stress level. Is it possible that there is more stress in the environment? Our dogs are such worry worts that I really try to remember to take deep breaths, each in the own ways regress if they think anything is wrong. Good luck.

[urge to herd]

Rather than regression as its own event, I'd be inclined to think that an external event - a loud noise, a slip or fall, raised voices, (even in laughter), etc, has occurred that put him back a bit.

 

The event might not even have been noticeable to you as anything out of the ordinary. Do you have carpet that produces static electricity? Rusty could have shocked himself, or he could have reached out to sniff something and gotten a little shock. These guys notice things humans are deaf and blind to. Something could have happened that reminds him of really unpleasant things. Does your son have friends over, is there boisterous teenage or even younger roughhousing? Something might have happened at agility or even in the backyard that you'll never know about, but it scared him.

 

I don't think you have to start all over again. Be mindful of your body language. Ignore him when he's skittering, don't try to reassure him. Keep training short and neutral. Let him find his own way back. Be encouraging, but don't baby him.

 

Good luck!

[juliepoudrier]

Whenever there's a significant change in behavior it's not a bad idea to have a vet check to make sure there's not an organic process going on that's contributing to the problem.

 

J.