# Protective Issues in Rescue: Rant/Advice Wanted



## Eowyn (Aug 29, 2013)

So a few of you may know that I rescued a golden back in April, although I haven't said much about her on the forum, as I fear repercussions from her previous owner. She is a really good girl, but her prior home life was not what it could have been. She was/is dog aggressive, she pulled like a freight train on a leash, she was crated a lot and under exercised. But she is a really, really good girl. She is so sweet and so good. She has come a long, long way on the dog aggression, she walks on a leash nicely now. I am planning on getting her CGC as soon as I can locate where to get her tested (our training center does not have them a lot). So today the farrier came out to the barn. I decided to let her walk out with me (she is really good with horses) and I fear that was a mistake. :uhoh: The farrier is built very similar to the husband in the family of her previous owner and she got very protective of me with him. She has really gotten attached to me, and has been known to give a low bark if a guy is scaring me or I get mad at them but not like this. She stood in front of me the whole time and really growled at him. She was barking, her fur along her back would sometimes go up. She DID NOT like him touching "her" horse either. The whole episode lasted only 5 minutes, but I am aghast with myself for putting her in a situation where she felt unsafe. This was very unlike her, she has never not settled down for me and she has never growled like that at anyone. I've been suspicious that the husband was a heavy handed trainer with her, but she has done a couple things that make me think more along the lines of abuse. I don't mind her being protective of me, but I didn't feel like her response was grounded. Has anyone experienced this (overly protectiveness)? Any words of advice or encouragement? I am just so discouraged that I put her in that situation!


----------



## JanetBionda (Jul 21, 2014)

Eowyn said:


> So a few of you may know that I rescued a golden back in April, although I haven't said much about her on the forum, as I fear repercussions from her previous owner. She is a really good girl, but her prior home life was not what it could have been. She was dog aggressive, she pulled like a freight train on a leash, she was crated a lot and under exercised. But she is a really, really good girl. She is so sweet and so good. She has come a long, long way on the dog aggression, she walks on a leash nicely now. I am planning on getting her CGC as soon as I can locate where to get her tested (our training center does not have them a lot). So today the farrier came out to the barn. I decided to let her walk out with me (she is really good with horses) and I fear that was a mistake. :uhoh: The farrier is built very similar to the husband in the family of her previous owner and she got very protective of me with him. She has really gotten attached to me, and has been known to give a low bark if a guy is scaring me or I get mad at them but not like this. She stood in front of me the whole time and really growled at him. She was barking, her fur along her back would sometimes go up. She DID NOT like him touching "her" horse either. The whole episode lasted only 5 minutes, but I am aghast with myself for putting her in a situation where she felt unsafe. This was very unlike her, she has never not settled down for me and she has never growled like that at anyone. I've been suspicious that the husband was a heavy handed trainer with her, but she has done a couple things that make me think more along the lines of abuse. I don't mind her being protective of me, but I didn't feel like her response was grounded. Has anyone experienced this (overly protectiveness)? Any words of advice or encouragement? I am just so discouraged that I put her in that situation!


I know how it feels to some degree. We just adopted as well and Scrappy Doo growls at other dogs. He also was attacked twice since we adopted him by the next door neighbours dog. It won't ever happen again. We've built a fence. Bought an air horn, pepper spay and citronella. I will protect him from anything that comes his way. 

You need to be the leader... Take control. Don't let your dog decide what the right behaviour is, teach what is acceptable. When we are in a situation now that happens that I can't control. I have him sit and look at me and I will physically get in between Scrappy and the other dog. I want it to be very clear that we will protect him not the other way around. 

I think that sometimes when you adopt a dog that has been in a lousy environment they can view you as a precious resource. So resource guarding can be a factor. He knows he has it good and he wants to keep it that way. 

Don't feel bad about putting him in that situation. You're still in the stage of getting to know each other so their will be things that happen that you just couldn't have anticipated. 

Congratulations on your new fur baby!


----------



## nolefan (Nov 6, 2009)

Eowyn said:


> So a few of you may know that I rescued a golden back in April,... She is so sweet and so good. She has come a long, long way on the dog aggression, she walks on a leash nicely now. I am planning on getting her CGC as soon as I can locate where to get her tested (our training center does not have them a lot)………...She has really gotten attached to me, and has been known to give a low bark if a guy is scaring me or I get mad at them but not like this. She stood in front of me the whole time and really growled at him. She was barking, her fur along her back would sometimes go up. She DID NOT like him touching "her" horse either. The whole episode lasted only 5 minutes, but I am aghast with myself for putting her in a situation where she felt unsafe. …. I don't mind her being protective of me, but I didn't feel like her response was grounded. Has anyone experienced this (overly protectiveness)? Any words of advice or encouragement? I am just so discouraged that I put her in that situation!


I don't think I realized that you had a rescue, or if I did, I'd forgotten. I know it probably seems like she's part of your family and belongs like she's always been with you, but four months is such a short time and she has so much to 'unlearn' and maybe somethings she never will. Please give yourself a break on putting her in a situation like this, you are still learning about what she has been through and who she is. Now you know that her worries run deeper and you have some more confirmation that her past was not what it should have been. Now you know that you have to back up and take baby steps and not rush her. You can do more to help her as you gain more understanding of who she is. I am by no means an expert on dog behavior, but I have learned that they are as individual as people and some have personalities/temperaments, that are softer than others. Just like people some can take more stress and more pressure than others. You can make every effort to work with her and gradually, incrementally expose her to more, but you may have to accept that she has limitations, she is who she is. Hopefully with time you can do more with her to build her confidence, let her have success, hope that will help. Please do give yourself a break on this. She is a lucky girl to have landed with you. I wish you all the best in your efforts to help her.

p.s. Are you able to work on more than just obedience with her? Maybe some agility work, things you two can do at home? (touch, wobble board, tunnel, low jumps?) Just the experience of success with some of those skills and earning your praise and enjoying the experience could be a useful tool for working on her confidence and continue to strengthen your bond.


----------



## Eowyn (Aug 29, 2013)

JanetBionda said:


> You need to be the leader... Take control. Don't let your dog decide what the right behaviour is, teach what is acceptable. When we are in a situation now that happens that I can't control. I have him sit and look at me and I will physically get in between Scrappy and the other dog. I want it to be very clear that we will protect him not the other way around.
> *This is something I need to work on. I have taught her that if she looks at me when we are around another dog I will give a treat, but I don't get in between her and the dog.*
> 
> 
> Congratulations on your new fur baby!


I should clarify, I actually never intended to keep her. I bought her because she needed a home (and was being sold un-spayed and her owners were really pushing breeding her). I planned on keeping her for a few weeks to assess temperament, work on any training that needed it and then I had a wonderful home lined up for her. That all fell apart when she attacked my golden, and I had to tell the home for her that they weren't going to be able to take her (the lady had a service dog is training, and wanted to continue doing that). I put placing her on hold so I could work with her on the dog aggression and hopefully get over over that as much as possible. In all honesty though I am getting really attached and may end up keeping her.


----------



## Eowyn (Aug 29, 2013)

nolefan said:


> p.s. Are you able to work on more than just obedience with her? Maybe some agility work, things you two can do at home? (touch, wobble board, tunnel, low jumps?) Just the experience of success with some of those skills and earning your praise and enjoying the experience could be a useful tool for working on her confidence and continue to strengthen your bond.


I started her on agility (just the tunnel and umps with the bar either lying on the ground or low cross rails) but haven't done more than 2 or 3 sessions. I do plan on doing more with her if I can though, as she seems to be really good (I had her cantering through the tunnel in under 5 minutes). She is incredibly ball/food driven too, so that would making training easy.


----------



## Charliethree (Jul 18, 2010)

Go easy on yourself, you inadvertently put her in a situation that she was unable to cope with. Though it is understandable to think that she was 'protecting' you, consider the possibility and likelihood that she was simply -afraid of him, and she felt most secure , but not totally safe, staying close to you. It could be associated with past abuse, could be lack of socialization with men in general - it is so hard to know the 'why', or find a logical 'reason' for it all.
This was a new and stressful situation for her, and from her perspective, he 'ignored' all of her signals telling him she was uncomfortable with him. Her 'warnings' escalated in typical dog fashion, first the growl getting louder, then the barking and the change in physical appearance. The longer he ignored her, and the more he moved about, the more anxious she became and the more 'threatening' she tried to be - in an effort to get him to go away. She couldn't, not 'wouldn't', settle down, it was a very frightening situation for her, her mind and body were prepared for 'fight or flight', she doesn't have control over that.
So what you know now, is that for what ever reason, men make her feel unsafe, could be all men, could be only certain men, but she needs your help to change that for her.


----------



## cubbysan (Mar 13, 2007)

Years ago, we were in a similar position. Rescued a GSD on our own from a neglectful / abusive situation. Timing was all wrong, I was due with my first baby in four weeks. We had a family lined up too - but the week we were waiting, she fell in love with my husband.

The first week I took her out on a leash, she would not allow any men near me. It took about a year for her to seem settled, before that were had submissive peeing, if my husband was yelling at the TV for a ball game or if we praised her for anything. She did stop.

She also saved us the second week she was at the house by scaring off a would be intruder that had a knife.


----------



## Eowyn (Aug 29, 2013)

Charliethree said:


> So what you know now, is that for what ever reason, men make her feel unsafe, could be all men, could be only certain men, but she needs your help to change that for her.


I don't think it's all men. She went everywhere with me this summer and met hundreds of people. There were 3 guys with about the same build as the farrier/husband of the family that she kind of "slunk" up to kinda low (not aggressive, but unsure of herself, almost like she expected to be hit for asking for attention?) as opposed to her normal happy golden greeting. You could tell she wanted attention, but wasn't sure it was ok. There was no growling, no signs of aggression, and she quickly warmed up to them and was fine on second greetings (2 of the 3 I tried to make sure she got to greet again).


----------



## Ruby13 (Dec 28, 2013)

I have a terrier mix that came to me with very similar problems. He was terrified of men and children, and exhibited the same fear aggression problems you are describing. 

We've had him for 4 years now, he's come a long way, with a lot of work and patience, but we've come to the conclusion that we have done all we can, and we just know his limits and deal with them. 

While his triggers used to be _any _child or _any _man, now we just have to worry about tall tattooed men who are strangers. Any child will always be a concern, as he has suffered the most abuse from children, so we do not allow him to be around children at all. (We don't know where the fear of men came in - he lived with an elderly single lady to ran an unruly day care for children out of her home.) He loves my husband now, but the first 6 months we had him, I fully expected my husband to say "It's me or the dog" at any time. He never did that, he helped me with him and didn't push himself on Pedro.

The only thing my husband can't do now is walk into our dark bedroom if I have already gone to bed with the dogs! He has to announce himself first, otherwise, Pedro isn't letting him anywhere near the bed! 

We know his limits and his triggers, and there may have been something we could have done differently, but he's come a very long way and has a forever home here, where he's understood. Sometimes that is as good as it gets!


----------



## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Ruby13*



Ruby13 said:


> I have a terrier mix that came to me with very similar problems. He was terrified of men and children, and exhibited the same fear aggression problems you are describing.
> 
> We've had him for 4 years now, he's come a long way, with a lot of work and patience, but we've come to the conclusion that we have done all we can, and we just know his limits and deal with them.
> 
> ...


Ruby13

Sounds like you have made progress with Pedro. Bless you for being patient with him and loving him!


----------

