Question About a Very Scared Rescue Sheltie

M

missus_e

Forums Regular
Hello, all! This post is kind of doing double-duty as an intro post, so I'll tell you a little bit about us! My husband and I are involved with a very active local Collie rescue that takes in probably 30% Shelties as well. The head honchos are not necessarily dedicated Sheltie people, but we have several volunteers who have Shelties in addition to Collies, or even just Shelties. We have a sable Collie named Violet and a bi-blue Sheltie named Mavis, an alum of the rescue organization. My MIL also lives with us, along with her sable Sheltie and mixed breed. We transport, foster, and do events and fundraising for our state. Mavis came to us very traumatized and scared, and after several months has done a complete turn-around and is extremely happy, confident, stable, and bonded to my husband. We've gone and gotten ourselves a reputation as a Sheltie family and as people who enjoy and are good at working with very timid dogs.

Well, we just received the latest foster - a three year old blue merle male Sheltie. He was owned by a breeder and evidently kept in a shed in total isolation - for all three years. Needless to say, he has a few issues.

The biggest issue is that he won't walk. He is so petrified that if he's removed from his crate (I'm told from the volunteer who had him very briefly before us that he will never leave his crate voluntarily), he'll just plaster himself to the ground, against a wall, into a corner, etc. and refuse to stand. The only way that he will walk even a step is if he's bodily carried to an open area and set down - he's afraid of the sky, afraid of open spaces, afraid of everything except the other dogs. (It's not that he's engaging with them, just indifferent.) He seems to want to sink into the ground or the wall.

A lot of this (all of this) is completely to be expected - he seems to have some slight, buried, hidden desire to connect with humans, and will sometimes, briefly make eye contact with us which seems promising. I expect that he's going to be with us for quite a while, so I'd love to hear from anyone who has dealt with a seriously isolated and scared Sheltie and get any tips on helping him, particularly with the walking issue. I'm not sure how going potty will work out - he's been here for five hours and that definitely seems to be off his radar, but it's bound to happen eventually and I can't imagine how when he won't move. Thank you in advance for your wisdom and experience!
 
Emmasmom said:
Welcome. A good thread to read is Tinsel's journey by Tagg.

http://sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=12991&highlight=tinsel
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You beat me Ronna! I just tracked down the thread and was about to post it!:rolleyes2: I strongly recommend reading Tinsel's Journey. It sounds similar to your situation and I'm sure it will help.:yes:

Praying for you and you little boy, hopefully he can soon have a forever home where he can live a long and happy life. Who knows, maybe you'll become one of the many sheltie foster failures.:biggrin2: What's his name? I'll add you and him to my prayer list. Best of luck!:hugs

PS Welcome! We'd love to see pix!
 
Welcome! this is a great place to get advice on all things sheltie. Do read about Tinsel. it will give you hope & let you know that it isn't unusual to run across a severely anxious/scared dog. Right now I am working with my latest rescue, Lady. She came from a breeder & is about 6 years old. When I took her she had been outside in the sleet & cold in a run with her sister. They only had a dog igloo for shelter. The breeder had to corner her to even let us get near her. So incredibly sad. This was a beautiful dog who had no idea how to be a "normal" dog. It broke my heart that the breeder wouldn't let me take her sister because I think it would have made things easier. But that was 4 months ago & there is some improvement. She is most comfortable in her crate but has stopped darting around like a wild thing. I walk her on a leash & she has finally stopped spinning like the Tasmanian Devil. She still freaks out if there is any unusual sound or distraction but she calms more easily. She does potty on the leash which took some work. Your latest guy is probably trying to make himself invisible so he is safe. When Lady gets spooked/stressed she freezes & goes down into a laying position but you can tell she is not relaxed. We stop what we're doing & I talk to her until she is calm enough to go on. My guess is that both dogs was so used to their small world in the space they were in before that this new freedom overwhelms them. I had to carry her out at first to potty too. Having a dog like that around a calm "normal" dog is the best way to show them that it's ok. The most important thing is unlimited patience & not to rush things. It does get better but dogs like that have had their whole world turned upside down so trust is not something they give without a lot of time & effort.

Good luck & keep us posted.
 
That thread is really turning out to be a treasure trove! It turns out that my husband had read it when we brought home Mavis, and I wondered where he came up with it when he suggested that I sit outside his crate and read to him last night.

Tabitha said:
What's his name? I'll add you and him to my prayer list. Best of luck!:hugs
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Your prayers are so appreciated! I don't know if I'm free to post his name or photos yet - they have a policy of not sharing dogs on "social media" until they've been fully evaluated and posted on the website to avoid getting bombarded with inquiries about dogs who just came in and haven't been evaluated/aren't ready for adoption/etc. I think that this thread should be fine since I didn't name his name or the organization and as rough of a go as he's had, I want to stack the deck in his favor and get any words of wisdom I can to help him. Trust me when I say that he's a sad sight.

Today is day two. He stayed in his crate all yesterday evening and seemed reasonably relaxed in there. Hopefully it will help him adjust to the sounds of a house - water running, dishes clinking, TV shows, people talking, typing. He's sound-sensitive but not quite as bad as he could be. We took him outside before bed - didn't really think that it would go anywhere but it seemed like I should at least give him an opportunity to go to the bathroom out there - but no dice. He tried to climb the side of the house in terror. We put some food in the crate with him last night and to everyone's surprise he ate a little - he's way malnourished so this is great. I've noticed that he seems very uncomfortable being called by his "old" name and I am thinking, pending the higher ups' approval, he may need a new one. He peed in his crate last night, I expected that and am glad that he's hopefully not feeling about to burst anymore. This morning, he's still not walking willingly at all except to occasionally bolt from one place to another. Interestingly enough, he spent the morning in his crate with the door open and around 10am bolted from the crate, across a big room, and under my husband's desk (he's at work), which was about fifty feet closer to me than the crate was. He laid under there and licked the computer console for a while. I left the house briefly and when I came back he had found a new spot in a corner between the couch and the wall, where he remains.

I think that the saddest thing about him, for me, is his reaction when people stand up. If everyone's sitting down, not looking at him, going about their business, he's not relaxed but seems to be in a state of familiar tension - like he's stressed but not acutely stressed, kind of recovering between Big Stresses. But when a person stands up, directs attention toward him, etc. it's stress signals out the wazoo. Licking his lips, frantically stealing glances at us and then staring at the floor in front of him, us and then the floor, us and the floor, over and over. He hunkers down and seems very torn between whether to freeze or flee. He's killing me. It's got the be the saddest response to a human I've ever seen in rescue, and two fosters ago a collie came in who would drop to the ground in terror if I dropped a Kleenex.

So, I'm going to go read to him now. He's getting a great education in women's health from the book that I happen to be reading right now, but I'm not sure he's impressed.
 
missus_e said:
Your prayers are so appreciated! I don't know if I'm free to post his name or photos yet - they have a policy of not sharing dogs on "social media" until they've been fully evaluated and posted on the website to avoid getting bombarded with inquiries about dogs who just came in and haven't been evaluated/aren't ready for adoption/etc...
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Ok, I understand. I'll just send my prayers to baby blue boy!:smile2:
Keep us updated!:hugs
 
Patience and time - what we sometimes need with these rescue dogs. Natalie was a well-loved puppy from my breeder, who just didn't warm up to people coming in to the house. She would run and hide. Now, she is right at the door to greet anyone who comes in.

Joanne had great success with Tinsel. Another one to contact would be Melissa (OntarioSheltie). She took in a rescue boy and has had great success with Toby. Or Judy from the rescue squad (Sunchaser).
 
The rest of day two was a day of a lot of small, baby-step milestones.

First, I looked over in the early afternoon and saw a pair of sheltie legs...straight up in the air. He had evidently gotten so comfortable in his spot between the couch and the wall that he had gone to sleep...on his back. I have a picture, and I hope that eventually I'll have the clearance to share it. :)

A while later, I sat down about eight feet away from him, facing sideways, and read to him from a book for about an hour, tossing him treats every few pages. Finally, he ate one. And then another. It was the first time that he had taken food while still somewhat in the process of interacting with a person - I mean, he'll eat kibble if we put it in the kennel with him and go far away, but it was the first time that he ever seemed to be taking it from me. He certainly seemed to enjoy story-time. He never even considered inching any closer or making direct eye contact, but he laid his head down on his front paws and seemed to relax as I read to him. Still, he had never walked.

A little while later, I took him into the backyard on a long-lead and sat down on the patio with a book. I read to him while he hid around the corner. After half an hour...he stood up and took two steps forward to peek around the corner. This thing that would be so ordinary for any other dog - we might as well have won the ultimate agility competition together, it felt like such a victory. He walked. He scuttled from the grass on the right side of the patio, across the patio, to the grass on the left side, keeping close to the house, avoiding me, not making eye contact. I continued to read and could see him watching me in my peripheral vision. He took refuge in his new spot. Ten more minutes passed and...he walked again. Into the yard. And peed - then pooped. Again, this felt like the ultimate victory. I took a picture while he was pooping, and texted it to my husband. He completely got it.

Back inside, and I did my thing while he did his (hiding). A bit later, I sat down on the couch and read to him from across the room - and wonder of wonders, he crept out of his hiding spot and walked around a little. Not toward me, but around. My turning the page was enough to have him bolting for cover, but still - he was walking.

He ate a little bit in his kennel that night, and we found that if I go outside and sit on the patio, read to him while he's on a long lead, he'll bolt into the corner, plastered to the wall, and generally seem petrified, but after about 45 minutes he'll start moving. We did this about four or five times on Friday. Thankfully, my husband understood why I'd gotten nothing at all done all day when he came home from work.

Today: day three. At some point, I never saw him do it, he vacated his three usual spots (crate, under my husband's desk, between the couch and the wall) and...relocated to underneath mine. Now, I'm not going to go so far as to say that he likes me just yet, but this is significant for two reasons - one, my husband's desk is about three times bigger than mine, so it's much easier to avoid the occupant's feet under there. Two, he almost never sits at his desk - I am up and down from my desk all day. So he bypassed several proven safe zones to find a few one that was more populated and less secluded. He stayed there all day, in spite of being terrified every time I got up and down and clattering around, kicking my console like a spooked horse, and in spite of having a million opportunities to move - in fact, we left the house for two hours and found that he had not moved at all when we came back. It was his spot of choice all day.

Again, we went outside for about four 45 minute long stretches, sitting and reading and waiting.

And of course, two steps forward and one step back. He chewed through his harness in the backyard on the long lead and bolted for a section of four foot chain link fence. It would have been easy for him to climb up it from sheer terror and never be seen again, but thank God he froze in the corner instead and let me catch him, throwing panicked looks every which-way the whole time I approached. That was scary.

I saved some tasty bits from dinner and sat only about 3-4 feet away from my desk, where he was, facing sideways and reading to him. We finished the book. I threw him bits every few minutes, and he ate them. Once, he even took a step forward - toward me - to get one - the back under the desk. Two steps forward was more than he would consider, but one...another victory.

I went to bed and put him in his crate. After about half an hour, I heard something strange - he barked. I'd never heard a sound from him before. Three more barks and I got up, got him out of the crate (he was trying to crawl up the sides to avoid being touched), took him outside...sat on the patio ground. Read him Tinsel's journey out loud from my phone, it was too dark for a book but he will only move if I read to him. There were moths, and beetles - ack. But in very little time, for him, he went into the yard and pooped! Communicating to me that he needed something by barking - another milestone.

Now, he's back in the crate, quiet.

It's very difficult to foster a dog like this. With every trust gain, I feel like I'm lying to him - "It's okay, you're safe now," when although he is safe now, of course, as soon as he reaches whatever his pinnacle of trust and stability is - he'll be moved. To a loving home, no doubt, but still. With a dog this petrified you want to be able to say okay, I'm in this for the long haul, and settle in to work on these issues for the rest of his life. And likely, he'll be here for at least six months to a year - but I know that if he ever trusts me and comes out of this, he'll be leaving, and with him that is much harder than other fosters. He'd be a foster failure waiting to happen, but the organization has a rule (a perfectly understandable one) that you have to foster a certain number of dogs before you can adopt one of your fosters, and we're not there yet. So there's no possibility that he won't be moving eventually. That isn't usually hard - there's usually that twinge of "You're a good dog, and you've been here a while, you fit into our home now - it'll be a shame to see you go" but it's okay. With him, it's hard.
 
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