ChelseaEnslow

Thanks! I think our situations may be slightly different -I think the high severity of our pups anxiety was temporary due to his long journey as a rescue. his fast walking doesn’t seem to be anxiety related - I think that’s just his pace. Since my last post our sweet boy is going on longer and longer walks with so much more confidence. He walks quickly but with tail up and wagging, not pulling the leash and I’m able to get his attention fairly easily (I say fairly because he LOVES other dogs and so it’s a battle between them and me for his attention at times). He’ll also slow his pace if I do or if my husband walks him (I am also a fast walker). This is in contrast to the first week we had him and he would pull the leash in zig zags like he was crazed (that was definitely anxious walking!). He is a high energy breed I think, and still quite young at ten months, so he also loves to run “zoomies” around the yard. He now seems to walk slowly and right close to me if he’s unsure about something. That being said I have been meaning to practice attention healing, which I think is kind of what you have suggested. I hope it’ll be a good way to tire him out on hot days that are coming too! He is really good on leash for a new rescue but like most dogs could be better. A general update: his sit is improving in quality, consistency, and with distractions. He sat while I was diverting him from a neighbour cat! He is also as I said so much less fearful. I think his key fear is humans but he’s improving in that in leaps and bounds - from turning back every time there is a person on the street to now occasionally going up to strangers for a light sniff and tail wag now (without me goading him or anything!)

Update: capturing is working! He can now sit on command with some success (still needs more practice in distracting environments but getting there) and as a side effect he sits randomly on his own more than he used to. question... I wonder if this is because I usually captured him sitting from far away and from the side. When I ask him to sit he takes a few steps away, turns sideways, and looks at me. is there a way to redirect him into sitting more immediately / not turning sideways? I don’t think it’s because he’s afraid of sitting next to me because he’ll sit and lay down right beside me in other circumstances of his own accord. it kind of looks like a fancy trick haha but I could see it being difficult to transition into other training that uses sit.

Thanks!! I’ll try those. That turn sounds like a fun idea. I have been trying training with “target” and that is going pretty well. I think the frustration and boredom is mostly when he doesn’t know what I want (sit). It only takes 2 minutes for him to be bored of that. But with target he was getting it pretty quickly and remaining focused! I’ll let you know how sit goes! I don’t want to bore him away from training so maybe I’ll keep trying to capture. he has finally stopped being afraid of “projectile” treats so it might be easier to capture now (I think he thought I was throwing something harmful at him). thanks again!

Hi again! my rescue pup is miles more brave than he was three weeks ago, but still to afraid to go for a reasonable walk. We play ball in our yard but he gets bored quickly and just goes to eating grass / lying down / slowly sniffing the yard. On walks he will walk fast / run which is great for burning energy but he gets scared quickly and wants to run home (we go maybe one block on a very long stretch. Sometimes if he’s feeling up to it we repeat a short stretch and then back home over and over.) He gets VERY (too) excited when dogs walk by the yard or if he sees dogs on walks (I found an article of Adriennes to work on that). so my question is: are there other ways to tire him out? I know brain training is one but he also seems to tire/get frustrated and walk away from training very quickly, even with treats I know he loves (also, sit seems quite foundational to training and we are having issues with sit- see below). relatedly- I have been trying since we got him to teach him to sit, he will lean his head all the way back but never seems to lose balance. If I move the treat too far he gives up. I’m not sure how to “shape” as I’ve given him a treat for going far back with his head several times but he never progreses to moving his back legs at all. As for capturing - he almost never sits! We went to the vet recently and he got dewormer but that hasn’t made a difference. He doesn’t seem opposed to sitting - I’ve seen him do it occasionally and always try to capture it if I can, but it’s so infrequent (1x/day?) that it’s hard to catch! When I try to “wait him out” he usually lays down instead of sitting. thanks so much! chelsea

Update: he’s doing great! He didn’t love the living room and went back to the basement but we still progressed and no longer need pick ups to get outside (I found a wet food he LOVES and will do anything for, including go into the scary upstairs and outside world!) So far he is awesome with the cats! He sniffs them, wags, play bows. They like/tolerate him but don’t really want to play so I think it’s time for a puppy play date for him! :) thanks so much for the advice!

Thanks so much! We just had a mini breakthrough where He got out of the bed on his own for some treats. 🙂 we will try moving him into the living room which I think will help us implement that first idea. He’s in the basement with me now as it’s quiet and away from our cats. But it is a long scary walk to any outdoor doors. Since We did do a cat dog introduction and it went well, I think he will be okay around the cats in the living room now (supervised of course).

Ive also noticed that each time is getting better and I don’t have to carry him as far now. He doesn’t seem overly scared of me and seems to prefer taking kibble and treats from my hand than from the ground. So maybe I’m being an overly nervous new pup parent haha. Anyways, any advice still appreciated.

Hi folks I have a brand new rescue pup. For context, this is night number two and we arrived home around midnight yesterday. He is 8months old and had a very stressful experience getting to us (international rescue, plane delays, etc.) we knew he was a bit on the nervous side already and this seems to really have stressed him! He is very sweet, is now eating food and drinking water. He seems to very slowly be getting used to me as the “treat dispenser”. The trick is... he is very difficult to move. Once in motion he will go outside to pee and seems nervous but enjoys sniffing around. But I can’t seem to get him to move in the first place (out of his bed). I’ve tried lines of treats, higher value treats, and gentle tugs with a harness to no avail. I think the treats may be being less successful as I’ve been using them a lot to show him I’m a friend and to coax him to eat kibble, as when he arrived he hadn’t eaten anything for over a day. I’ve resorted to picking him up to get him moving to simply go pee outside... but I don’t think he enjoys the pickups and I don’t want him to be scared of me. He’s also not small to pick up! No signs of aggression at all, he’s very gentle just very scared. I’m sure he’ll get over this hump soon I want to help him be as happy as possible given the circumstances. any advice appreciated! thanks Chelsea