Dog stories: Frights

I was told when I first met this big shepherd that he had not been beaten but he had spent his whole life in a fairly small outdoor kennel with other dogs and with only room to run on the weekends. His people were away too often to socialize their dogs and obviously didn't believe in having house dogs. However, I think something must have happened to make this dog afraid of people to the extent he is. He was alarmed by the sound of people's voices on my computer when I played videos. He was not just surprised that the people seemed to inhabit a little black box, he was afraid when he heard voices and ran from the room. He also shot out of the room when I used a stapler.

Unfortunately on only the second or third time he was out in the fenced area behind my house, my neighbors were working on a garage they're progressively building. He was uneasy about them but when they ran a machine that made a rapid staccato noise, he completely panicked. He rammed the fence to get away and actually bowed it outward when he did this, making me worry that he would damage it and actually escape. The outdoor area for my dogs is fairly small, not a full yard, but it has six foot fencing. Thankfully it didn't occur to him to go over it. He came scrabbling up on the back door and even seemed to try to get in the window beside it. When I opened the door, I saw that he had peed on it--not to mark it but out of fear.

Once indoors, he felt safe and wasn't panicky but it took him a while to settle down. As a result of this scare, getting him to go outside to do his business became a trial. I could haul him out and did for a few days but realized I was creating an expectation that that was the method for going out the door. He braced himself and I took ahold of a choke chain and pulled until he moved. I have tendinitis in my hands, so that was not working in that regard and seemed to be reinforcing his freezing in front of the door. So I decided to make him go out the door without me in front of him by using a walking stick like a shepherd. So, yes, I shepherded the shepherd. Oddly it worked better the first time I did it. The second time, he showed some resistance and I was a less than gentle shepherd bopping his rear end. But he did comply and after those two times, I was able to herd without the stick or I could step out on the stoop and he would follow and then I would go back inside.

His fear of the mere sound of human voices and of sharp staccato sounds makes me wonder if the people who owned him had neighbors who enjoyed shooting guns that freaked him out. Or maybe the two fears are separate and it was noise of hail on a tin roof that was the first fright that cemented his fear of that sound.

The issue of naming him remains. At one time I thought Levi (short for Leviathan) would be great. Then I ended up saying Heel Levi and realized that the sounds get mushed together, making it a poor choice. Since he has a lot of black guard hairs and a black face, I thought to call him Shady Brady or Shady Grady. Those were close. My pet-sitter, Leah, wanted to call him Boris, which is not bad but to me it has a somewhat negative (Boris and Natasha), even if comical, association. I want to downplay anyone's wariness of him as a big dog and give him a fairly unintimidating name.

Somehow Brady and Grady weren't sticking for me. While away at my parents' place, I thought of Rufus because his legs and undercoat are quite red. That has potential. I could easily see calling him Rufus Dufus. However, when I came home from the visit to my parents, I was struck again by his essential nervousness and found myself saying to him, "you're such a nervous Nelly," because he seemed uncertain about how to behave now that I was back. Though a feminist, I'm not going to flout convention in this arena of my life by calling a male dog Nelly. But the name Nelson immediately suggested itself as a male alternative. It has a little dignity without too much and doesn't strike me as likely to reinforce anyone's assumptions about his viciousness. I like it so that's what I'll call him for now. Don't be surprised if it morphs again.

Back to the door incident and Nelson's reluctance to go through it. It can be hard at times to determine when he's being fearful and when he's being stubborn. The two may be melded in his mind or he may not be sure when he's acting from, "I just don't want to do that," or "I'm afraid and so don't want to do that." I certainly understand that the first few times he was asked to go back out after his terror, it was fear making him reluctant. But after a couple of days, it seemed to be a stubbornness routine. (If anyone wonders why I didn't use treats, he's not a food-motivated dog. When stressed, he doesn't instantly respond to food. Later, when he became more accustomed to the routines of the house, he would respond to treats but not initially.)

Take another example, when confronted with steps, he would put on the brakes. For people who've raised puppies, this may bring to mind a stage at about five months when they balk at steps. Yet here's a year-old dog who likes to figure out how to pick locks. So why would figuring out how to walk up stairs be an utter NO? He would freeze and only force would get him to tackle the problem, however awkwardly. It was clear that he didn't know what to do with his legs. He's pretty much got it figured out now, mostly from watching the other dogs. He still prefers to take the four back steps in one big, though easy for him, leap.

But his NOs aren't always refusals of a puppyish, "I don't get it and I don't want to get it," sort of stubbornness. He also freezes, or what some people now call "shutting down." He goes still. This is a sign of fear and stress. Sometimes, I think he freezes because he doesn't know what to do with his big body. He'll be halfway through turning around in a tight space and freeze. If too much is going on in a small space, he freezes. When I take him for a walk, he may go a bit ahead of me and start to cross in front of me and then freeze. I've been bumping into him or push him to get him moving again. His freezing episodes are usually very short-lived, but they're definitely symptomatic of anxiety and uncertainty. I'm optimistic that he will someday get over them but I also expect it will take years and that it will always be how he responds to anxiety or stress.

Next time, more on our walks.