Maggie was shipped over from Cyprus with several siblings and then in kennels for a while. The lady has had her for four months now.
Maggie’s brothers and sisters are even more fearful than Maggie apparently. In the rescue she refused to come out of her kennel at all.
What is strange is that she started off, when she arrived, a lot more confident.
Everything seemed to start off okay
She would go outside to toilet whether it was light or dark. She would, though hesitant, much more happily leave the house to go on a walk.
Gradually she has withdrawn.
I have known this to happen before – for the dog seemingly to be amenable to everything to start with. He keeps his head down and more or less shuts down – ‘going along’ with everything new until he begins to react.
This case is a little different. Maggie seemed positively joyful and relaxed. Not shut down at all.
After about six weeks she first became scared of the dark. Next the car. Then she began to shake when the lady put her harness on. Now she won’t willingly walk outside at all.
This could have all coincided with the evenings drawing in and a fear of the dark. She’s scared of the wind and rain also.
Could it have started with someone at the door when the lady was out? The doorbell could have panicked her (something we will be dealing with).
She has been 27 hours without relieving herself!
It was about ten days ago that she simply stopped going out. It all came to a head, I suspect due to a build-up of stressors. Bit by bit they add up until Maggie panics.
After the first few weeks she had stopped sleeping in her bed in the living room. She took up residence under the dining room table.
One positive is that when encouraged she will join the lady on the sofa in the evening for a cuddle.
Puppy pads
My first suggestion was to put puppy pads down – which the lady had actually started to do the day before we spoke. “I’ve never been so relieved to get home to see a mess!”
Over night, when Maggie was alone and the lady at work, she had gone into the kitchen to toilet. This is significant because she never goes into the kitchen. She was defecating and urinating as far away from her sleeping area as she could.
Pressure and persuasion
The lady has to apply pressure to get a harness on the shaking dog. She has to put a resisting dog into the car and to drive her to the field where she meets other dogs.
For a while in the company of other dogs Maggie is transformed! She happily runs about and plays.
This is for a limited time only. The curious thing is she will suddenly stop after a while and be scared again like she remembers the journey home. The only way the lady can get her back to the car is if the other dogs go with them. It’s like she senses in advance when they will be leaving. She’s as scared on the journey home as she was on the journey out.
What can the lady do about getting her to toilet in the garden again?
I suggest during the day and evening she creates a routine. She goes out of the door, leaves it open a little and hangs around the garden for a couple of minutes. Just like she would if Maggie was with her. No enticing or persuasion. (Maggie, when scared, isn’t tempted by food).
The lady is intuitive and has also recently cut down on enticing and persuasion. She will do whatever it takes.
What do we do about walks?
My instinct is to say stop walks altogether for now and remove all pressure. This, though, is the only time Maggie ‘lets her hair down’ and has fun. She loves running and playing with the other dogs.
Let’s give continuing with the walks a go. It goes against the grain but may be necessary sacrifice. We will try to run with it for a while and see what happens.
Firstly the lady can disassociate the harness from walks, by putting it on first thing and just leaving it on.
At the field and during the play, several times she will make as if she’s going back to the car. Then she will turn back into the field. She will do this several times on each walk; Maggie will be unable to tell if they are really going to get into the car or not.
Giving Maggie choice.
If things don’t improve she will take things back to the beginning and deal with them one at a time. Harness on. Walking towards the door or maybe garden gate. Walking out and back in. Getting in and out of the car. Walking a few feet down the road in the direction of the nearby field and so on.
Maggie would have choice at every stage. The lady will be able to use food because she will keep Maggie under threshold.
We will review the situation in a couple of weeks.
