A very strange topic for me to be posting especially when it is about my own dog but I am beginning to see where rescue dogs may exhibit strange behaviour we could not hope to find the root cause of.

I have been doing up my house to sell and every night when OH got back from work (to his house) I had been going over to my house to decorate and remove bits and pieces.  We have both done a lot of work getting it straight not being in our prime we were completely knackered.  However, my OH decided to go to dog club one evening and I was going over to put finishing touches to the bedrooms because we had a viewer the next day.

We had the conversation about who was going to club and it was decided that the girls would go.  The girls has always meant the older three.  So loaded up the car separated out the dogs, the ones that were staying and the ones that were going, and went out into the garden.  The back of the car was opened and the dogs jumped in.  I was dropped round at my house and that was that.

When I returned to OH's house two hours later a little figure came running at the gate, no barking or sign of greeting, it was my little TT.  She had been left behind in the garden, all enclosed and dog proofed, for two hours and was clearly shaken by the experience.  She dashed into the house, picked up the nearest bone and sat by the radiator making her TT noises not wanting to be comforted.  After 10 minutes or so she came to me for a fuss and settled in her basket and went into a deep sleep. 

Not wanting to give a dog human emotions I have to say I really did feel she was trying to tell me she didn't trust me at that point.

A couple of weeks later even though she is her usual self in the house and back garden she is very reluctant to go into the front garden unless I take her out there ready for a walk.  She is clearly worried she may be left behind.  Because I know why she feels like this I can deal with it and she is coming round but it must be awful for rescue dogs whose history we know nothing of because we don't know how to treat them.

We now identify the dogs by name before we take them anywhere.  We don't ever want to repeat that experience.

Hiya,

Bless her little heart.  I don't see a problem with trying to understand what emotions yours or anybodys dogs go through,  There are a lot of differences between dogs and us but I think there are an awful lot of similarities - fear, trust, comfort, and lots of others aren't just human emotions, the're just emotions that lots of beings feel.  We each know our dogs best, and some people are more in tune to what an animal is feeling than others.  A lot of the time it is guess work, but it is educated guess work!  Y ou are more than likely right about what your doggie was feeling but the good thing about doggies is as a rule they are much more forgiving than us orrible people :-)  It is so hard to deal with the problems that rescue dogs must go through, which is why it's so important that they are treated with love and patience and most importantly given time to settle and trust their new people - it does often surprise me how quickly peole expect a rescue dog to just settle into being part of their family and when they don't, off they go to their next home.

Hope all goes well with the viewing :-)

Karen

I can quite agree with the sentiments.  I got my dog from rescue last July (he is 4) and have had issues from day one.  Thought things were coming along really well - had a bad day yesterday with two people being nipped! 

My poor little dog really does not like visitors - the story we had for him being sent to the pound was that the owners got fed up with him jumping on to visitors laps.   Funny since I've had him he doesnt jump on anything or anybody.  He does however consistently try to nip/bite visitors so I think I can guess what their real reason was for getting rid of him.  I cant allow myself to guess how they treated him when they had visitors......

Hopefully your little one will work out quickly that she can trust you....

Maxine

It does feel awful when they do stuff like that,as you just know its something that happened in the past,
Even after 3 years(I think) my boy jumps away from me as I walk past him and place my hand on his head if he hasn't noticed me,perhaps he is just daydreaming and I surprise him, but I doubt it.

He was messing about the other day and I kept telling him garden wee wees,and when I used a firmer tone and said it again he just stood there and peed in the kitchen.:rolleyes: he knew what I wanted him to do,so he just did but looked really scared.
So even after time and although we have never ever been unkind they still have a very small doubt.Our dogs were locked away,so also no closed doors in our house.
You get a feel for what not to do,and it sounds as if you have a great connection with your little one,I hope she grows more confident I m sure she will,just more hugs and kisses

Pip forgot herself today and ran out into the front garden to play with the puppies, only for a few minutes then she was back inside again sitting on the office desk shouting out of the window.  She's back 100% to being a lap dog at every opportunity.  I think we have turned a corner and will have to work on it some more.

Thanks for all the positive thoughts.

We had a problem with Tara nipping the odd visitor on the back of the leg :( The only way to prevent it is just not allowing it to happen :) Tara is only allowed in to see visitors on a lead. No nipping for a long time :)

Daisy

my daughter got dog from the rescue in irealand that is were she lives she only had it a week when she came across last year when you open the door to let it out in to the garden it would jump over the fence and run off but we always got it back we had two dogs off our own and luckly we live near fields so we took it out and told her to give it biscuits and to call it back and as long as there was no roads to let it off and it came back with a lot off love and this year she as been across  and you would not think it was the same dog most people will not take on a resue dog but i am glad there people like you and my daughter that will take the time and love to do that