Rehabilitation of Rescue Dogs
Giving a dog a second chance in life is a wonderful and rewarding experience, and we applaud you for getting or considering getting a rescue dog.
In most cases, you won’t know much about your rescue dog’s history. Over the first few weeks and months, you will discover many things about your new rescue dog – what they like and dislike, what they thrive on and what they fears. You will learn how well socialised your dog is, and what level of training they have had.
You may need to be patient with your rescue dog and yourself on this journey. Be aware that a rescue dog’s behaviour in a shelter can often be quite different from a home environment. Spending a longer time in a shelter (two months plus) can significantly influence a dog’s behaviour.
A story written by our trainer Julie a few years ago is proof of this. She titled it – Not My Fault
A very sad story today, called “Not My Fault”. A home visit to a mixed breed dog that was rehomed 7 days ago. In that time he had grabbed two people’s arms as a warning without breaking the skin. Not the dog’s fault: someone got a cute little puppy 9 months ago and gave it no education about bite inhibition and resource guarding. Not the people’s fault: they trusted that the rescue organisation had temperament tested the dog and that it could cope with all friendly interactions from humans. When I met the dog he was willing to interact with me in a training exercise to reduce jumping. He willingly took treats from my hand. I was not afraid. The dog had been picking up rocks from the gravel path and would not drop them without motivation. I figured that trading out a rock for a dog treat would be a more than fair deal for the dog. As I reached out the treat and offered to trade, the dog lunged forward and took 2 hard chomps at my hand. Not my fault: my trade wasn’t good enough because in fact what was in the dog’s mouth was a 3cm piece of old, dried bone (obviously very valuable to a rescue dog with an unknown history!) The humans were very distressed that their only safe option seemed to be to return the dog to the rescue organisation. The ethical dilemma now is to warn the rescue organisation that this dog is an extreme resource guarder and will need a lot of specialised and constant work if he is to be rehabilitated. Not the dog’s fault! Very sad day.
Not every story is like this! At Barkers in Balance we see a lot of rescue dogs come through our Private Consults are classes.
We would recommend starting with a private if your rescue dog is not as well socialised as you like, seems a bit anxious or aggressive. This is a safe space for our trainers to assess your dog, and see whether they would benefit from more privates or one of our specialised group classes.
Below we have a few stories of some of the rescue dogs that we have trained that have had a great outcome!
We hope you enjoy these stories below
MY NAME IS HOLLY.
I’m a Bull Arab x Dingo and I’m 4 years old. I came to my human as a rescue dog about three years ago. We’ve done lots of interventions for my anxiety and certainly I’ve made heaps of progress. It seems though that changes in my life come at me like curved balls and every so often I need a little boost along the way again. I’m living in a different house now, the human dynamic in my house is changing and I’ve lost my confidence to be out on the lead. We’re going to do some more confidence-building exercises in and around the home and we may even visit a behavioural vet to look at some complementary therapies we haven’t tried yet. I’m a lucky girl to have picked such a committed and loving human to share my life with.
OUR NAMES ARE KEETA AND LUCY.
We are rescue dogs, aged 2 and 3. We are very loved but Keeta in particular is quite an anxious dog. Mind you, neither of us really copes when our humans are away. In fact, that brings us to another point….When our humans are away we rush out into the yard and call for them to come back. Apparently this is called “nuisance barking” and one of our neighbours called the rangers to complain. Our humans don’t want us to be distressed and they don’t want the neighbours to be distressed. We are working really hard on lots of strategies to help us feel calm even when our humans are away. We’re all for peaceful neighbourhood relationships. It’s a shame we can’t share our successes with the neighbour cos the ranger said they were “anonymous” and we don’t know anyone by that name around here.
MY NAME IS GILBERT.
I’m a Husky and I’m 10 months old. When I was 4 months old I was surrendered to the RSPCA because someone had tied rubber bands around my muzzle. The photos were very graphic so I suggested they didn’t share them. My face required reconstructive surgery and they had to take a skin graft from the side of my body. That’s why my muzzle looks a bit unusual. Lucky for me, one of the vet nurses attending my reconstructive surgery fell in love and adopted me! Now we’re at the stage of making up for lost time and practising strategies that will help me cope when I’m out and about on the lead. From sad things, happy things grow!
MY NAME IS LEO.
I’m 5 years old. No-one really knows my genetic make-up. Some say Kelpie cross, some say Dingo cross. Anyway this is my story: I lived all of my sheltered life with the one human who didn’t take me out much. A few months ago my human very suddenly passed away. I ended up in the RSPCA for a short while and then someone who knew my human adopted me. She is SO committed to helping me but is struggling cos I haven’t really had a good dog education. On the weekend we had a home visit and my new human learnt heaps of fun stuff to improve my manners on the lead, to help me bond with her and to recall to her reliably. She seems pretty cluey so I think she’ll be very good at this behaviour stuff.
Check out our website page here that is all about our private consultations and work out if it is right for you! We would love to have you and your rescue dog to come and meet one of our highly trained, passionate trainers