Monty's Diary

[Sheltie Darren]

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Well I'm going to try and record Monty's growth from his arrival on adoption day when he was all scared, timid and covered in fleas. All the way to hopefully him developing into a confident happy lil guy!

Here goes, day 1 when the little guys fur was a mess, as mentioned he was covered in fleas and petrified of everything. He didn't sleep for a full 32 hours and would tremble and be sick if anyone spoke.

 

[Sheltie Darren]

Over the next few days he was comfortable enough to have his first sleep after nearly 2 days and then after managing to finally get his fur clean our very first attempt at walkies.....which consisted of him not moving an inch, pulling back on the lead and being carried back to the house haha

 

[Sheltie Darren]

Week 2 and 3 he is Finally comfortable in his home but still needs his makeshift kennel

 

[Sheltie Darren]

FINALLY his first walk on his lead and then his first nervous trip to the beach

 

[JudyN]

He's such a lucky boy to have landed with you.

 

[Sheltie Darren]

He's such a lucky boy to have landed with you.

Thank you Judy, I'm going to do my best not to disappoint.

 

[Sheltie Darren]

Month 2 and we have a little bond forming, he is comfortable enough to play with me and we even shared his first takeaway (ok a bit naughty of me buttt he only had a tiny bit of naan bread and we have not started training yet haha)

 

[Josie]

Welcome Monty! Looks like you’ve finally got some some luck in your life

 

[Sheltie Darren]

End of his second month and he starting to develop. Still very nervous of other dogs but will let people near him if he is next to me and they move VERY slowly. I decide it's time for him to meet a few new faces so we take a quick trip during quiet time to his local pub. Once the staff and my friends knew the 'Monty rules' he settled right in. Even made a great chair warmer for me while I was up

 

[niamh123]

Sounds like the 2 of you are in tune with each other,sounds like Monty is loving his life with you

 

[Sheltie Darren]

Sounds like the 2 of you are in tune with each other,sounds like Monty is loving his life with you

Thank you, we are trying. We still have a number of obstacles to overcome but it has only been 2.5months so we'll get there haha.

 

[Sheltie Darren]

Now he appears to be settled into his home It's time to work on his main little issues.
*He can't be left alone for even 1 minute without something being destroyed (see below)
*He will not drink tap or bottled water it must be milk (will not even drink diluted milk).
*VERY timid of dogs and most people.
*Goes into meltdown if you raise a foot/leg off the floor near him (cries,trembles and is sick).
It's going to take a little time but we'll get there

 

[JudyN]

I hope that wasn't your pet budge, Darren

Goes into meltdown if you raise a foot/leg off the floor near him (cries,trembles and is sick).

Oh, the poor lad - no prizes for guessing why he does that :-(

A while back I wrote a long post about separation anxiety on another forum: https://positively.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20143 I'm not an expert, but it was approved by someone who is, and who specialises in SA. I hope there's something in there that might help.

 

[JoanneF]

I've read Judy's article on SA and it is excellent.

Regarding the water - have you thought of using a drinking fountain, or adding water to his food?

VERY timid of dogs and most people.

For this, predominantly don't force him - nobody is cured of a fear of snakes by being thrown into a snake pit.

He will have an invisible radius of space around him where he feels secure . Find out what that is and keep him far enough away from people and other dogs that he is relaxed. Reward his calm behaviour. Gradually, over weeks and months, not days, work on reducing the distance. This may mean you have to be selective where you walk - choose places with good visibility so you can give other dogs a wide berth, or where you can turn and walk away easily. But - be aware that if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for up to 72 hours so a distance he was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch his body language.

Trainers describe behaviour like this with reference to the three Ds. Distance, as above but also be aware of Duration (your dog might be tolerant for 10 seconds, but not 15) and Distraction - how distracting the stimulus is; a calm dog might not trigger any reaction at a given distance but a bouncy one might.

Alongside that you could train a 'watch me'. As your dog looks at you, mark and reward the behaviour. Ask for longer periods of watching. Then if a dog approaches, after you have worked on the distance issue, you can get your dog to focus on you and not the other dog. BUT - some dogs find this scary as they cannot see the thing they are anxious about so you need to judge your dog.

 

[Sheltie Darren]

I hope that wasn't your pet budge, Darren

LOL I'm thankful I don't own one ha.

Oh, the poor lad - no prizes for guessing why he does that :-(

Ugh I hate how people can do that, I would love to return the favour so they can see how it feels

A while back I wrote a long post about separation anxiety on another forum: https://positively.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20143 I'm not an expert, but it was approved by someone who is, and who specialises in SA. I hope there's something in there that might help.

Thank you for that, I'm sure it will be extremly helpful. I'm looking forward to having a read through tonight.

 

[Sheltie Darren]

I've read Judy's article on SA and it is excellent.

Regarding the water - have you thought of using a drinking fountain, or adding water to his food?

He only eats wet food as he will not touch anything hard for some reason (dental check up found nothing wrong with his teeth). I think the water in that was getting him by until I discovered the milk. I've not tried a drinking fountain though so thanks for that idea, I will order one tonight and see if it helps.

For this, predominantly don't force him - nobody is cured of a fear of snakes by being thrown into a snake pit.

He will have an invisible radius of space around him where he feels secure . Find out what that is and keep him far enough away from people and other dogs that he is relaxed. Reward his calm behaviour. Gradually, over weeks and months, not days, work on reducing the distance. This may mean you have to be selective where you walk - choose places with good visibility so you can give other dogs a wide berth, or where you can turn and walk away easily. But - be aware that if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for up to 72 hours so a distance he was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch his body language.

Trainers describe behaviour like this with reference to the three Ds. Distance, as above but also be aware of Duration (your dog might be tolerant for 10 seconds, but not 15) and Distraction - how distracting the stimulus is; a calm dog might not trigger any reaction at a given distance but a bouncy one might.

Alongside that you could train a 'watch me'. As your dog looks at you, mark and reward the behaviour. Ask for longer periods of watching. Then if a dog approaches, after you have worked on the distance issue, you can get your dog to focus on you and not the other dog. BUT - some dogs find this scary as they cannot see the thing they are anxious about so you need to judge your dog.

Thank you, that's some really great advice. He does have a radius of space, other dogs are not allowed anywhere near him. He cries,cowers down and drools badly if they come within 'his zone'. It does not seem to matter what size the other dog is.
People can come as close as they want as long as they do not look at him haha. Once he knows they are paying attention to him he backs off and hides. If they very slowly crouch down and stay still he will move towards them and let them pet very slowly. Any quick movements and he hides again....and if anyone raises their feet off the ground for any reason in his line of sight he goes into meltdown mode.

 

[JoanneF]

as long as they do not look at him

That's pretty normal. To a dog, face to face eye contact is quite intimidating body language.

 

[Sheltie Darren]

I hope that wasn't your pet budge, Darren



Oh, the poor lad - no prizes for guessing why he does that :-(

A while back I wrote a long post about separation anxiety on another forum: https://positively.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20143 I'm not an expert, but it was approved by someone who is, and who specialises in SA. I hope there's something in there that might help.

That made a great read and his given me lots of ideas to try, thanks for that.

 

[Sheltie Darren]

We had a local park to ourselves so I let him off his lead for the first time away from home. He passed with flying colours and even recalled first time.

 

[houseof_fraser]

Well I'm going to try and record Monty's growth from his arrival on adoption day when he was all scared, timid and covered in fleas. All the way to hopefully him developing into a confident happy lil guy!

Here goes, day 1 when the little guys fur was a mess, as mentioned he was covered in fleas and petrified of everything. He didn't sleep for a full 32 hours and would tremble and be sick if anyone spoke.
View attachment 111978529

What a gorgeous dog, how sad that he was so afraid. Hope he's doing better now (I'm sure he is)