tojules
November 7th, 2005, 12:08 PM
Sorry this is a long one, but I wanted to give a bit of background as well as ask some questions. We just recently rescued an approximately 2 yr old Lhasa Apso cross from the pound and are in the process of helping her adjust to her new home. She is just beautiful and the most awesome pooch...we are totally in love with her!!
When we first saw her she was ultra shy and very timid, took the tech at the pound 4 days to have her warm up to her before she was able to be friends with her. She's very docile, you can do anything you want to her and she doesn't bark, nip or anything...she's very very patient. When we first met her...she hid under a chair and then trembled to the point of we thought she'd vibrate off my hubbie's lap when he was holding her. We fell in love big brown eyes and really saw a lot of hope for her in the right home. We are more than willing to help her overcome whatever happened in her past and she is adjusting pretty good to being with us. :) We will be looking into obediance training for her and for us as well to help with the adjustment period.
We believe she was beaten when she was younger as she tends to cower at sudden movements and when you scold her, it totally devastates her, she hides in her kennel and won't come out at all. She also tends to hide behind either me or my hubbie when the other comes into a room if we've left. Hubbie scolded her this morning for pooping on the carpet and it took a long time to get her out of her kennel after that. She wasn't shut in, but just refused to come out after we let her be for a while. He didn't raise his voice with her, but was firm and told her "no" several times while sitting her next to the poop...he didn't raise a hand to her either as we refuse to do that. Odd thing was...he had just had her outside for a while before she pooped.
She never made a sound her whole time at the pound, never made a sound at the vet clinic and didn't growl until my sis came over wearing a hat. She then barked at a lady on the street who was hearing a hat and the snow removal guy who was wearing a hat. We figured the reason she was steering clear of my hubbie a little yesterday is because he was wearing a hat...so we know she has issues with that...but, we're still going to wear hats around her so she gets use to it. We're doing hat on...hat off with her and reassuring her it's ok. She has very vivid puppy dreams and tends to whoof or whine a lot while dreaming, her little legs just a twitching as well. She is not a vocal dog at all...heck we didn't think she was capable of barking until Saturday...the hat barking came after this next thing.
We had a huge issue with her on Saturday when we went to put her into her crate while we went out for a little bit. She loves her crate, sleeps in it at night with the door closed no problem, she goes voluntarily..in fact, she lets us know when it's bedtime...but the minute we put her in to crate her so we could go out...she freaked out. She was barking, yipping, crying, howling, pacing back and forth...pawing at the door so hard it was shaking the crate. She was inconsolable, she even pee'd in there. We tried to calm her down without letting her out, we tried to be firm with her, telling her "no" everytime she freaked out..but she wasn't having it. It wasn't the fact that we were going out that upset her so badly, but being in her crate. We ended up taking her with us to go to the pet store to buy a gate for her to leave her in our kitchen. She had no issues with that at all...in fact. She went to lie in her crate after the gate was up and all was good. No issues. We didn't want to force the crate thing seeing she loves to be in her crate and we didn't want her to feel punished or have her hate the crate, so we didn't push the issue and looked for an alternate solution. I know some would say work it out, but we didn't want to ruin a good thing by having her associate a bad thing with it.
At 2 yrs old..she knows no commands...she doesn't know sit, outside, treat, cookie, or anything like that. But we are sure to say "outside" several times before we take her out. We also positive reinforce when she does go pee outside..she gets a ton of "good girl" "good Sophie" and a training treat when she gets inside. However, we're having a problem with her pooping in the house (like I mentioned above). We stay out with her for quite a while...she'll pee a few times, but the minute she gets in the house...she poops on the living room carpet in the same spot. I will take responsibilty for some of this...I might not have "de-scented" where she went the first time enough...but we're not sure how to deal with this. We've taken her poop and moved it outside to where we want her to go...shown her where it is...we've scolded her, rubbed her nose in it like we've been told, but that doesn't seem to work either. We've started doing the no treat thing until she poops as well. Is there something we are missing here??
All in all her personality has changed a TON since we got her home...it's been 4 days, she's a little more outgoing, willing to cuddle, not so scared or timid at all. There is a ton of tail wagging, a first, so we know she's good. I know she's testing us with some stuff...she jumped on the sofa and then looked at me to see if I would yell at her. I don't have a problem with her on the furniture so now she likes sleeping on our love seat as well as in her kennel and the cushion we got for her. I was going to take it back seeing she wouldn't go near the cushion and the minute I mentioned taking it back, she literally walked over to it and laid down on it. It was too funny!
She finally touched her toys for the first time yesterday...she started jumping at a ball, batting it around, springing up on it...but when hubbie went to play with her...she jumped on the sofa next to me. He's been trying to encourage her to play but she tends to just sit and watch him instead playing with her toys. My hubbie gets down to her level to play and will try to imitate puppy behaviour. Is this a good thing or bad thing? He use to do it with a goldie and the goldie loved it, however, Sophie just stares at him like he's nuts.
Anyhow, the point of my long winded post...are there things we can do to help her adjust? Anything to help encourage playing? Anything to discourage pooping in the house?? Any suggestions for helping her over come her timidness?? I know we've only had her 4 days (hubbie is off this week to stay home with her which is great), and she has made amazing progress so far...but I want to make sure we get her off on the right foot...well, not only her...but us. I want her to feel safe and feel a sense of consistency with us as well to help ease her fears. We all need training and will be doing that soon, we just want to help her settle in first.
When we first saw her she was ultra shy and very timid, took the tech at the pound 4 days to have her warm up to her before she was able to be friends with her. She's very docile, you can do anything you want to her and she doesn't bark, nip or anything...she's very very patient. When we first met her...she hid under a chair and then trembled to the point of we thought she'd vibrate off my hubbie's lap when he was holding her. We fell in love big brown eyes and really saw a lot of hope for her in the right home. We are more than willing to help her overcome whatever happened in her past and she is adjusting pretty good to being with us. :) We will be looking into obediance training for her and for us as well to help with the adjustment period.
We believe she was beaten when she was younger as she tends to cower at sudden movements and when you scold her, it totally devastates her, she hides in her kennel and won't come out at all. She also tends to hide behind either me or my hubbie when the other comes into a room if we've left. Hubbie scolded her this morning for pooping on the carpet and it took a long time to get her out of her kennel after that. She wasn't shut in, but just refused to come out after we let her be for a while. He didn't raise his voice with her, but was firm and told her "no" several times while sitting her next to the poop...he didn't raise a hand to her either as we refuse to do that. Odd thing was...he had just had her outside for a while before she pooped.
She never made a sound her whole time at the pound, never made a sound at the vet clinic and didn't growl until my sis came over wearing a hat. She then barked at a lady on the street who was hearing a hat and the snow removal guy who was wearing a hat. We figured the reason she was steering clear of my hubbie a little yesterday is because he was wearing a hat...so we know she has issues with that...but, we're still going to wear hats around her so she gets use to it. We're doing hat on...hat off with her and reassuring her it's ok. She has very vivid puppy dreams and tends to whoof or whine a lot while dreaming, her little legs just a twitching as well. She is not a vocal dog at all...heck we didn't think she was capable of barking until Saturday...the hat barking came after this next thing.
We had a huge issue with her on Saturday when we went to put her into her crate while we went out for a little bit. She loves her crate, sleeps in it at night with the door closed no problem, she goes voluntarily..in fact, she lets us know when it's bedtime...but the minute we put her in to crate her so we could go out...she freaked out. She was barking, yipping, crying, howling, pacing back and forth...pawing at the door so hard it was shaking the crate. She was inconsolable, she even pee'd in there. We tried to calm her down without letting her out, we tried to be firm with her, telling her "no" everytime she freaked out..but she wasn't having it. It wasn't the fact that we were going out that upset her so badly, but being in her crate. We ended up taking her with us to go to the pet store to buy a gate for her to leave her in our kitchen. She had no issues with that at all...in fact. She went to lie in her crate after the gate was up and all was good. No issues. We didn't want to force the crate thing seeing she loves to be in her crate and we didn't want her to feel punished or have her hate the crate, so we didn't push the issue and looked for an alternate solution. I know some would say work it out, but we didn't want to ruin a good thing by having her associate a bad thing with it.
At 2 yrs old..she knows no commands...she doesn't know sit, outside, treat, cookie, or anything like that. But we are sure to say "outside" several times before we take her out. We also positive reinforce when she does go pee outside..she gets a ton of "good girl" "good Sophie" and a training treat when she gets inside. However, we're having a problem with her pooping in the house (like I mentioned above). We stay out with her for quite a while...she'll pee a few times, but the minute she gets in the house...she poops on the living room carpet in the same spot. I will take responsibilty for some of this...I might not have "de-scented" where she went the first time enough...but we're not sure how to deal with this. We've taken her poop and moved it outside to where we want her to go...shown her where it is...we've scolded her, rubbed her nose in it like we've been told, but that doesn't seem to work either. We've started doing the no treat thing until she poops as well. Is there something we are missing here??
All in all her personality has changed a TON since we got her home...it's been 4 days, she's a little more outgoing, willing to cuddle, not so scared or timid at all. There is a ton of tail wagging, a first, so we know she's good. I know she's testing us with some stuff...she jumped on the sofa and then looked at me to see if I would yell at her. I don't have a problem with her on the furniture so now she likes sleeping on our love seat as well as in her kennel and the cushion we got for her. I was going to take it back seeing she wouldn't go near the cushion and the minute I mentioned taking it back, she literally walked over to it and laid down on it. It was too funny!
She finally touched her toys for the first time yesterday...she started jumping at a ball, batting it around, springing up on it...but when hubbie went to play with her...she jumped on the sofa next to me. He's been trying to encourage her to play but she tends to just sit and watch him instead playing with her toys. My hubbie gets down to her level to play and will try to imitate puppy behaviour. Is this a good thing or bad thing? He use to do it with a goldie and the goldie loved it, however, Sophie just stares at him like he's nuts.
Anyhow, the point of my long winded post...are there things we can do to help her adjust? Anything to help encourage playing? Anything to discourage pooping in the house?? Any suggestions for helping her over come her timidness?? I know we've only had her 4 days (hubbie is off this week to stay home with her which is great), and she has made amazing progress so far...but I want to make sure we get her off on the right foot...well, not only her...but us. I want her to feel safe and feel a sense of consistency with us as well to help ease her fears. We all need training and will be doing that soon, we just want to help her settle in first.