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I thought I would share the progress my rescue dog, Tigan, has made since joining our family a year ago. It may give hope to people struggling with their dog's behaviour problems.
Tigan's history, given by the rescue centre, was this - He came from Romania, with is mother and litter mates, at around 4 months of age. He was rehomed with a local family. They had various issues with him. The first was him being infected with Giardia, a parasitic worm. which gave him diarrhoea. He was returned to the centre for them to investigate his diarrhoea and treat him. Then he escaped from his garden and was gone all night. The owners went to bed and, when husband went to work at 7am, he was not back. He came back at 7.30am in a terrible state from some sort of accident which skinned his back legs down to the bone.
He would not let his owner near him so, at gone 11am, she phoned the rescue centre for help. They went and collected him and got him the, much needed, veterinary help. Because of the delay in seeking medical help for him they were not allowed to have him back.
We rehomed him once his stitches were removed. He was fearful of being handled, fearful of traffic, fearful of some other dogs. He was a resource guarder. We chose him because he was not a sighthound likely to go off chasing wildlife. How wrong could we have been!
The first few nights he was very unsettled until we let him have the run of the house, after, initially, crating him and confining him to the bathroom, Did I mention his toilet training did not seem established?
Roll on a year and we have discovered that Giardia can give them sensitive bowels. It is not diarrhoea, just that his bowels need to empty more frequently and in smaller amounts than other dogs. This can be in the middle of the night. It only happens occasionally now so I hope it is on its way to being cured.
Walking him, with his fear of traffic, was a challenge. We had to let him dive in the hedge at every approaching car until it had passed. He still jumps at really rattly traffic but is otherwise fine.
He now allows us to handle him all over unless he is in pain, when all his memories of his injuries come back to him and gets defensive. He has just started to allow most strangers to stroke him.
Tigan is fine to be left on his own. Such a bonus! I put it down to his independent streak.
The resource guarding has almost disappeared as his trust in us has grown. We never challenge him. Just work around swapping what he has for something he wants more. Approaching his bed or chair is done using treats to persuade him that we are nice people not out to grab or hurt him. He was, probably, grabbed after his accident and would have been in so much pain that the memories of people approaching him will still resurface.
He is not a sight hound but has a very strong chase instinct! We are still working on that
Tigan's history, given by the rescue centre, was this - He came from Romania, with is mother and litter mates, at around 4 months of age. He was rehomed with a local family. They had various issues with him. The first was him being infected with Giardia, a parasitic worm. which gave him diarrhoea. He was returned to the centre for them to investigate his diarrhoea and treat him. Then he escaped from his garden and was gone all night. The owners went to bed and, when husband went to work at 7am, he was not back. He came back at 7.30am in a terrible state from some sort of accident which skinned his back legs down to the bone.
He would not let his owner near him so, at gone 11am, she phoned the rescue centre for help. They went and collected him and got him the, much needed, veterinary help. Because of the delay in seeking medical help for him they were not allowed to have him back.
We rehomed him once his stitches were removed. He was fearful of being handled, fearful of traffic, fearful of some other dogs. He was a resource guarder. We chose him because he was not a sighthound likely to go off chasing wildlife. How wrong could we have been!
The first few nights he was very unsettled until we let him have the run of the house, after, initially, crating him and confining him to the bathroom, Did I mention his toilet training did not seem established?
Roll on a year and we have discovered that Giardia can give them sensitive bowels. It is not diarrhoea, just that his bowels need to empty more frequently and in smaller amounts than other dogs. This can be in the middle of the night. It only happens occasionally now so I hope it is on its way to being cured.
Walking him, with his fear of traffic, was a challenge. We had to let him dive in the hedge at every approaching car until it had passed. He still jumps at really rattly traffic but is otherwise fine.
He now allows us to handle him all over unless he is in pain, when all his memories of his injuries come back to him and gets defensive. He has just started to allow most strangers to stroke him.
Tigan is fine to be left on his own. Such a bonus! I put it down to his independent streak.
The resource guarding has almost disappeared as his trust in us has grown. We never challenge him. Just work around swapping what he has for something he wants more. Approaching his bed or chair is done using treats to persuade him that we are nice people not out to grab or hurt him. He was, probably, grabbed after his accident and would have been in so much pain that the memories of people approaching him will still resurface.
He is not a sight hound but has a very strong chase instinct! We are still working on that
