Hi, I am Dea and my dog is Marley. I found him at a "Humane Society" and adopted him in early April 2023. I do not know know much about his past, he is two years old and 50 pounds. He was picked up as a stray and not claimed by his previous owners. He has obviously been obedience trained in the past but he can certainly use a refresher in that area, I see some bad habits forming. I am guessing about his past by the behavior he has displayed since being with me. He is so afraid of almost everything (except me, now, most of the time – yay) I assume he has been beaten. In the beginning, if I picked up anything, he ran and hid. If we were out on a walk and I picked up an air plant on a small tree branch that had fallen in a storm (I love air plants) he would duck and try to run, so I stopped doing that. He is very afraid of vehicles when he is on a walk, even if they are parked. He does ride nicely in the car, though it took awhile to get him to get in and out of the car without being lifted. He walks well on a leash, does not bark at other dogs, though if they get too near (same with other people), he gets very nervous and wants to retreat. He watches everything and everyone like a hawk. He is terrified of loud noises and thunder and even rain. The garden hose is scary.
We have just moved into a new house and he was kind of ok until the delivery people brought appliances to install and now he really wants to live under my bed which I do not want (bedroom is carpeted and bed has a bed skirt and he sheds so much.) I just bought a crate which I will assemble today to keep in the living room, I am hoping he will adopt it as his safe place. I am thinking I will put storage boxes or something – having just moved, I have no shortage of boxes!) to block him from going under the bed in the beginning. Wondering if I might be wise to cover the crate so it is like a den… I got the kind of crate that has wood trim, looks like a side table with a wood top.
He does not resource guard. As afraid as he is, he has never even snarled, growled or snapped. Just now, I answered the door for a man who will be installing a security system, and this will probably set Marley back a week or so until he calms down after a stranger being in the house.
When he goes to the back yard to potty, I have to get a leash or his harness to get him to come back in. I inadvertently have created a bad habit of him running and being super happy with the "zoomies" when I call him to come in. I remember the first time he got happy and got the zoomies, maybe three weeks into him being with me. I thought it was so cute to see a personality emerge that I encouraged it by encouraging him to run, so now he thinks it is a fun game. I need to learn how to get him to come when I call.
He is not at all food motivated. I put his daily ration of food out in the morning and he usually eats it in the middle of the night. He is not interested in bones much (though he has on occasion eaten one in the middle of the night. I think he may have been beaten for eating in the past as he is very cautious while eating and looks like he is expecting to be punished.
He never wagged his tail for a few months. In the past month, when I come home from work (I work all day and leave him inside inside while I am gone, he has never done anything naughty – perfectly housebroken, does not chew or destroy, I think he just sleeps), so when I get hime and he sees me come through the door, he comes running and wags his tail in a happy dog dance.
He has made friends with two of my friends and will come greet them when they come over. Otherwise, when people come over he is very nervous and would prefer to hide.
I got him a thunder shirt the day after I got him when I saw how terrified he was and it does help. When he needs it, he is so scared he wants to lay down which makes it hard to put it on.
I don't really know what else to tell you about him… I would like to learn to help him be more desensitized and socialized so he can enjoy life more and not live in such fear. Thanks, I am happy to be here!