Amber, (we find ourselves calling her Annie), came to us in September 2010. She is about 7 years old. We are fostering her for our dog listeners rescue, “Every Chance Rescue’. This was set up to give dogs that are not helped by other processes every chance of having a happy relaxed life. She has been in several homes who could not cope with her repertoire of tricks. She was reported to be showing severe anxiety, becoming shut down and near a nervous breakdown so we agreed to give her a home. We knew we could help.
Amber does tend to be very anxious and can lean toward shutting down. She shows her anxiety by trying to bury herself under a cover. She can be very frantic about it. It almost appears to be an obsessive, compulsive disorder. She was unaware of the personal space of those around her. Personal space is like an invisible bubble that surrounds us. If other beings move inside this bubble, it may make you feel uncomfortable. It is the same for dogs. She behaved as if there were no other dogs around and would barge into the other dogs space. She also does a kind of star gaze when she is anxious. She very quickly would show her belly which is the dogs way of saying ‘I’m no threat. Please don’t hurt me’. We were very aware of her energy. At greeting time she likes to get a ‘trophy’. I expect this action would usually get a response from her people. We just leave her alone. She does not damage the trophy and she is in no danger.
The burying and star gazing are another response to stress. I wonder about why they have become such strong reactions in her and I can imagine that in the past her previous people may have found it cute and funny. They will have encouraged the behaviour not realising how she was really feeling. She has no intention to bite so these behaviours may have been encouraged as party tricks..
She came with a history of chronic conjunctivitis. The eye rims were red. We understood that it was a result of her covering her head so much. We took her to our vet fairly early on so that he could get a look at her eyes for a base line against which to measure any change. She wiggled and pushed, squiggled and dodged to try to avoid him. Then this "let me make you feel I am very stressed" dog took a treat very nicely from him....how many very stressed dogs do you know that take a treat? Little monkey. That behaviour has obviously worked for her for a long time. It is very interesting how she has learned to use her stress behaviour as a control behaviour as well. It is going to take her a while to unlearn that. She has had no episodes of conjunctivitis since she arrived and her eye lashes are growing back.
When she came to us we didn’t interact with her very much. Once or twice a day when she was quiet we would look at her and ask her to come. If she showed any of her stress behaviours we would break off our request and take the pressure off of her. Often it would be best to give a dog with her symptoms only small spaces (like Oscar) but she would panic. She manages better with more space.
In the 4 months we have had her we have seen her energy levels lower. She has an almost uncontrollable wiggle when she is excited. Now it is much more controlled. In general her behaviour is more controlled rather than manic. She is acknowledging and interacting with the others more. She has enjoyed some play with Bobbie. The burying and star gazing is reducing. But she is no push over. If our little Bobbie plays too rough Amber soon lets her know. Our cat who thinks he is a dog put his paw toward her as she lay on what he considered to be his chair. She made it clear that she was not moving. She will accept some eye contact without rolling belly up. If she does we take the pressure off. If we were to accept it as an invitation for a fuss she would show more anxiety and leak urine. It is not nice for her to feel so worried so we just let her be with us. We reward her calmness and ignore the worried behaviours.
She is beginning to change her tactics with us and visitors and tries to hump. It is a new question. We just quietly push her away. If she persists she is isolated for a short time. She is desperate to know that we are leaders that she can trust.
It will be interesting to see how far she progresses over time. It will take a lot of time. We can give her that time while we give her consistent messages that we are leaders she can trust.
We have taken her out for walks a few times when she has been calm but she is not consistent so it needs to be slow so that she is not overwhelmed. |
