I have a dog - in fact I have two. Both rescue dogs from Romania.
Annie, the eldest by a year, was found trapped under a pile of pallets by a railway line, aged around 9 months, bedraggled, emaciated and full of crawling things.
Her rescuers took her in to their kennels, fed her, vaccinated her and sent her to the UK.
That's where we found her - in with a bunch of other Romanian rescued dogs in Norfolk, UK.
Annie as we brought her home
Annie was matted, dirty and smelly but otherwise healthy, and was very pretty. I'm all for a lost cause so she was my choice to adopt.
Annie was/is afraid of everything.
When we first got her home she sat in the travel cage which we'd carried in (dog and all). The door was open but she sat in it shaking. We left her to it, sat within sight, attempted a few coaxings but then got on with the evening.
Eventually she comes out of the cage
After about and hour and a half, and ignoring food, cooing calls, petting etc, she came out of the cage herself, saw the TV, and freaked out, running back to her cage. This poor dog had barely had human interaction in her young life let alone been inside a house.
We turned the TV down, coaxed her out and life with Annie began.
It's been tough, and still is at times. At first she was afraid of the kitchen, the food bowl, bags, cushions, strange noises such as the bathroom fan or the washing machine. She was scared of traffic, wheely bins, other people, banging, fireworks, thunderstorms, the wind, snow, the rain, the bath, the towel after the bath, the collar, the lead, the vet (well the last one is acceptable).
Annie fretting as the washing machine starts a spin cycle in the kitchen
You get the picture. Absolutely everything new was greeting with shakes, panting, the attempt to escape. She was just a complete stressball. Yet she trusted me.
Within weeks 75% of the scary stuff was overcome. I walked her up and down the main road on a close lead for two hours until she stopped shaking when a car or lorry or bus passed by. I fed her a mouthful of food in the bowl and when taken praised her, gave her another and so on. I stood her in the bath without water and gently stroked her a dozen times a day until eventually I could introduce water, then washing, then towelling off. I did this and more until 5 years later she's still scared but only a little - more wary than totally afraid.
Annie enjoying a good runaround
The one thing I can't stop is her fear of rain. Storms are ok. As with fireworks we usually get warnings, out comes the Adaptil to calm her and the Thundershirt (which works a treat) is put on when the sky goes dark and she will have a little puff and pant at the thunder but it's completely manageable.
However, Rain is a different ball game.
We live in the UK., It rains a lot and never when the forecasters say it will. By it's very nature it's unpredictable, I can't keep Annie drugged up for life. I can't be with her for every splattering drop that lands on the window. Yet she gets herself into such a state.
We've done all the usual stuff - grooming to calm her, tried playing with her, tried getting her to relax and then have a treat (that never has worked fro any learning activity), walking out in it, ignoring her, playing rain sounds endlessly on a CD to acclimatise her... nothing has worked. All the tricks that have helped her conquer her fear of pretty much everything fails with rain. She shakes, she pants, she refuses to toilet even if its a whole day or night, and then promptly does it in inside the minute the rain stops or sits and cries in pain if she goes too long. The vet has given her Valium and other drugs but with the Great British Weather being as it is she'd have to be doped up constantly to make this work. Even he is reluctant for this.
This is Annie panicking because it started to rain
It's just one of those things we need to keep working on but I doubt after all this time she'll ever really handle the sound of rain on the window/door/roof
I need to take her to the Sahara or somewhere .....
Tess doesn't care about anything but cuddles and food.
Tess giving us her usual tongue-lolling grin
Thanks for reading
