Misunderstood body language

[jakesmom]

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, and I hope I've posted in the correct place.

I just wanted to let you know how grateful I am to have found this forum, because we had certainly misread the body language of our new dog "Jake" (5 yr old German Shepherd). And we have also learned how to get him to trust someone again following an accident.

We fetched Jake last week from the rescue centre. In fairness, it was more a rehoming than a rescue. He's a beautiful dog, even with his floppy ear, and absolutely fantastic with people.

Our main concern when we went to see Jake, was that is was very important, that he got on with our existing dog Heidi (11 year old Dalmation), as following a very bad slip she had dislocated her hips - we think that's what she did anyway, the vet was no wiser than us, but whatever she did they went back into shape OK- but now her back legs are weak and she is easily knocked over, then she gets worried and will snap (not bite) if harrassed by another dog. So it was important that she was not bullied in any way, that being said, she was used to a very large GSD that we sadly lost a few months back.

Anyway, the rescue centre let him loose on the field with Heidi, and although tentative at first, she soon made it clear she liked him, and he did not bully her, when told not to. So we returned home with Heidi and went back to fetch Jake - we didn't want to force them together into the back of the car.

Once at home Heidi retreated to her den (on her bed, under the table, in the kitchen). Jake was perfectly happy as long as we were playing with him and was totally at home within minutes, amazingly. However, once playtime was over he kept going over to Heidi and licking her face and mouth, and we thought this was nice at first. It was difficult to say if Heidi looked happy or stressed. But when Heidi came out from her den Jake followed her everywhere licking her back end, which we could tell she did not like, so we diverted his attention away from her. Everthing seemed OK.

From then on, however, whenever Heidi came out of her den and headed towards Jake he growled at her. We took this as a sign of aggression and put him outside or in the hallway to calm down for a few minutes. We began to think we had made a mistake having him, as we did not want our older dog stressed or even worse, attacked, especially as he is almost twice her weight and half her age, and she had been very sad since losing her lifelong friend, Sammy (our very precious previous GSD).

Anyway, we did everything we could to make sure Heidi was protected from Jake, and removed him from the room whenever he growled at her.

Then I found this forum, and realised that far from Heidi being stressed, it was infact, Jake, who was stressed, and the licking and growling was his fear, not him intimidating Heidi. From then on, whenever Heidi came towards Jake, we diverted his attention with fuss or play, and he is now, a few days later, much more relaxed with her, and only occassionly growls. When he growls we remove him from the room and stay with him until he is calm (just a few minutes) and they are now eating well together in the same room - swaping dishes of course to make sure they have both got the same.

And to think we almost took him back arghhhh!

Secondly, I'd like to thank you for helping us to regain his trust in my partner's daughter (she loves Jake soooo much).

What happened was this:- Jake was at the side of the house behind a large wrought iron gate and and our neighbour came over to meet him. Just as he was getting aquainted, my partner's daughter pulled up, got out of the car and came over excitedly to say hello to Jake. Jake was equally excited and jumped up for her to stroke him though the gate, next thing he was screaming the place down - he had somehow got his paw well and truly trapped in the fancy ironwork of the gate. He was hurting and frightened and started lashing out as we tried to free him. Luckily I had a muzzle just inside the house and managed to get it on him before he had chance to catch anyone else with his teeth - my partner did get a tooth in his hand though. Anyway, we managed to free him, none the worse for his experience, thank goodness ---or so we thought.

We then noticed that Jakes behavior to my partner's daughter seemed strange, he looked at her strangely, avoided her and wouldn't even play with his ball with her. She returned to our house the same evening to drop something off, and we were shocked that he growled at her--as I said, he is fantastic with people. Thinking about this later , it struck us why. It was clear and understandable that in Jake's mind he was convinced that it was the daughter who had hurt him - not the gate. How could we overcome this? His daughter visits us most days.

I turned to the forums and read up on how to deal with a nervous dog and followed the advice.
ie. the next time the daughter visited I removed Jake from the room so he wouldn't be stressed. Good job I did, as he could see her through the patio door and he barked viciously and growled at her. I told the daughter not to look at him and completely ignore him.

When he calmed down we left him outside so he could see what was going on for a few minutes, with the daughter not looking at him at all. After a while I opened the patio door while my partner body blocked his daughter to see how Jake would react. He entered the room and gave her as wide a berth as possible and went through the other door to the hallway.
After a while he entered the room again, saw her and removed himself. This happened 4 or 5 times.

We then put him out the back door into the garden again and opened the patio door slightly. I then threw some doggy chocs around the garden for him. Once relaxed to started to eat them, then the daughter threw him some more without looking at him. This slowly progessed to him re-entering the room and his attention diverted by playing tug and throw. After about half an hour we had progessed so much that he took a treat from the daughter's hand. By the time she left he was almost back to his normal self.

Thank you all so very,very much.

Sue

[Mattie]

WOW Jake's Mum that has brought a few tears, well done to you and your family.

This is a very good example of how dogs can blame something else when they are hurt because they are looking at them.

Please stay with us, you can help so many others because of your experience with Jake, it is these success stories that give other owners the will and incentive to continue working with their dogs.

I think she should be in articles and pinned Em, so that others can find it easily.

[Noobs]

I think this is wonderful - thank you SO MUCH for sharing it. It really benefits all the members of the forum whether they post or not to read stories such as yours. It's a real testament not only to positive training but also to wonderful owners such as yourself who make a real effort to understand their dogs and to put in the work to get their dogs turned around. Thanks again for writing in, and please do stick around - your input is a great asset to the forums.

[Nettle]

It's made my day, reading this. WELL DONE. People like you make it all worthwhile.

[Noobs]

I think this would be a great post to move into the Success Stories section. Emmabeth will probably move it when she gets a chance.

[Fundog]

Wow! And you achieved all this based upon what you read on this forum! Well done!

[jacksdad]

yes, well done. And thanks for sharing. so few people actually come back and share how they put to practice what they learned. seeing it in action really helps someone with a similar issue just starting out. I also really appreciate you sharing the mistakes you made, then how your adjusted once you realized you had something wrong, and how making just a small adjustment made all the difference. It really helps to see the whole picture and plants a seed for someone else who might have be running into a wall.

Again, excellent job and thanks for sharing.

[emmabeth]

Oh yep, this HAS to go in the Success Stories area - well done to you ALL for listening to Jake and figureing out what it all meant!!

[ladybug1802]

Brilliant!!!!!!

[Malteselover]

Thank you SO MUCH for posting your story. I am one of the newbies to this forum and I am just starting out trying to help my dog overcome his fear issues. I can't begin to tell you how grateful I am to everybody on here who has helped me so far and for people like yourself who are willing to share their success stories. This gives me so much hope and confidence that I can one day be a success story just like yourself. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!!

[nightsrainfall]

Congrats! Stories like these are really great to hear.