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Thoughts on a Rescue Dog's Mixed Behaviour

JenXJen

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We've adopted a lovely sweet 2.5 year old street dog from Eastern Europe. A bit of Shepherd, Collie looking.
Apparently he was in kennels in the UK since rescued with his mum as a puppy for 2 years Then we met him when our son (who works and lives elsewhere) fostered him for 5 months. They adored each other so we adopted him.
He is the most sweet friendly dog, happy, loves life, loves other dogs, loves people and is very tactile and affectionate.
He and our 4 year old Lab boy are best buddies.
He seems confident and is a good guard dog, barks at visitors and some noises but will stop when we say 'quiet'.
The thing we can't figure out is if he's been badly treated. If you lift up anything, like a fly swat, a stick, a frying pan, anything, he immediately cowers and goes to another room. And then when he sees you without the objects he wags his tale and comes for a cuddle. We can't raise our voices even shouting hello to neighbours or on the phone as he looks very worried.
Someone suggested that because he's been in kennels most of his life, he's unfamiliar with household objects or any objects.
But he looks so scared.
Another thing, he loves playing in the garden with our Lab, and following us everywhere when we're in the garden but something has spooked him as he won't come onto our Patio, even if we're all there sitting at the table. He just waits indoors but alert waiting for us to come back in or away from it.
Any thoughts?
 
The fearful behaviour needn't be because anything actually happened to him directly. We have a really good article here about street dogs, I think you will find it interesting, it explains things better than I can.


For the patio, have you any idea what might have spooked him? And when it happened / how long it's been going on?

If not, have you tried putting a rug, or a blanket on it for him to walk on? If he would walk on that, it would be a good start.

If you haven't tried that, give it a shot and let us know how it goes so we can suggest next steps or other ideas.
 
I have a mini dachshund who I got direct from her breeder at 2 years old. She also has a strong aversion to fly swatters, in fact anything waved about in the air. I would not believe that she's ever been treated with anything but love and kindness in her life so as @JoanneF says it doesn't have to be a memory that triggers this behaviour. Treats and reassurance will help.
 
My dog, who I had from 7 weeks, would get agitated if we raised our voices (which tended not to be arguments, but expressing our opinion on the government ;) ) - some dogs are just more sensitive to things in their environment, without having had any unpleasant experiences.

Time and a calm environment may help. You could try putting a bed down for him just outside the door to the patio so see if he'd feel safe there - if not, just inside the patio so he can feel safe in comfort while being able to see you.
 
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