Your lack of dog knowledge is stunning. Maybe back off on being an internet expert?

Try this. When watching TV sit or lie on the floor. Being on her level is less intimidating. Put a couple of treats and toys around you and let her come and get them. Then just sit their with a treat in an open hand at floor level. Don't bother trying to reach for or touch her. After a few days/week get your wife into it by having her sit on the floor facing you about 10 feet from you. Each load up with treats and take turns letting her come for a treat. After she gets good at that add in the come word to reinforce recall. Two birds with one stone. :)

The day finally arrived for her first vet visit. She is in good health :) and the vet gave us some drugs to help with her behavior issues.
Penny's whole world revolves around Vicki. If she isn't in Vicki's presence she gets extremely anxious to the point of panic. She gets so frantic I'm afraid she's going to hurt herself. Plus, she can only ride in the car for maybe 5 minutes before she starts salivating and puking.
I'm not much help. I can pet the dog and get her to come to me for treats as long as Vicki is no more than 10 feet away. She's getting better, but a man must have abused her in the past because she is terrified of me. So Vicki has been pretty much housebound for the past 7 weeks and is getting a little tired of it.
Turns out the vet rescued a dog with the same issues, so we're in good hands. She said we can look forward to a year or more before Penny settles down.
We're up for it.
She gave us some puppy Prozac, Trazodone for when we have to leave her alone, and anti nausea pills for when we need to take her somewhere in the car. This should make things a little easier on us. Vicki would like Penny to be a little less dependent on her.

I once had a dog that got car sick. I decided to fix that. Started one day after work I put the dog in the car and drove around the block. Next day 2 blocks. Slowly increased the distance. In a matter of weeks that dog loved car rides.

Good luck with your new pup. Miss Fiona says hello!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1734623060.jpg

Well, it didn't work out.
After 6 months, Penny never got close to being comfortable here. She is still afraid of me and runs to get away from me when I merely walk into the same room with her. I can't share in her care, so all the feeding, walking, grooming, and attention-giving fell to Vicki. It's more than she can handle.
We took her to a dog behaviorist to help us understand what was going on and see what we could do to help her. The behaviorist gave us a long list of things to do to try to make Penny more comfortable and warned us that it would take a long time to turn her around, and she may never become a relaxed, happy dog. The trauma of her early life is deeply ingrained in her.
We returned her to the shelter Thursday. They have 3 permanent resident dogs that have the run of the office area. Penny walked in, and her tail immediately came up and started wagging. She interacted with the other dogs like a normal pup.
Vicki and I marveled at the difference in her, and it became pretty obvious what our problem had been. Penny needs a pack of dogs around her to be comfortable. Being in a house with two humans and no dogs was so alien to her that she could not relax.
Leslie, at the shelter, said she would have no trouble finding Penny a home with a woman and other dogs to interact with.
We have decided not to try again. No more dogs for us. For me - there will never be another Maddie, so I'm fine with being dogless.

Sometimes the fit just isn't there. When we fostered cats and dogs, we were lucky in that our alpha dog, Casey, was an amazing , nurturing animal who worked to help all the others to get along. The pack taught the cases like Brindle and Gaia how to be a dog. Thank you for trying so hard. She just needed something you didn't have.

Best
Les

I'm sorry that it didn't work out, but the good news is that you and Penny both seem comfortable with the end result.

Sorry it did not work out. You sure gave it a great effort. Our younger dog is way more bonded to my wife than I, but I can certainly play with him, feed him, etc. That works for me.

Sometimes things just work out. I'm betting Penny will find a good home. We adopted a Cocker Spaniel from the shelter several years ago when my oldest granddaughter was about 6 or 7. He was fine with us but young kids, not so much. He ended up biting her in the abdomen when she picked up a stuffy (that was hers) from the floor. It was a very light bite. No broken skin. I called the folks at the shelter and they asked us to bring him back. They said a single man with no kids had come to adopt him just after we took him home and were happy to take him back and contact that person. It all worked out in the end.

So sadly our gentle boy passed almost 1 year ago. We have been devastated as predicted. His last couple weeks was mostly sleeping. He was suffering some sort of dementia and the last 4 days he stopped eating and only drinking a few laps of water. It was time and we did our best, crushing really. We were all in the room with hands on him when the Vet gave the first of two shots. It was a real throat punch for all of us.

So now we finally feel ready to bring a new puppy into our world. We were looking for another Maltipoo with different coloring but happened on the Bernadoodle breed and found a local resource. Surprising that the breed is tough to find locally, most are out of state. If our meet and greet goes well Wednesday AM we will be driving home with him. We will name him Gem, from the book ‘To kill a mockingbird’, from which Scout got his name. He is a Mini Bernadoodle so should grow to max 30 lbs. I have been prepping the house for his anticipated arrival. Fingers crossed!

We have also looked at the local shelters/rescue options but as sad as it is to see those lonely faces none really work for our needs. Folks need to neuter/spay their dogs so these shelters don’t end up so tragic. Of course the breeds we are looking for are not present in those facilities. We are spending way more than $120 this time around but the desire to get a great fit in our home makes the money secondary. I will update this again with a Wednesday post of the results.

Sorry to glump onto this thread. I was thinking of starting another but lots of folks here already participating could probably relate.

wdfifteen - sorry to ready the struggles you both have faced. Perhaps if you consider a puppy from a local source you may avoid the baked in issues some rescue dogs may present. All my best to you.

I was checking out GSDs with a friend who wanted a dog and wound up with Mia. She went for a fluffier family dog and got a miniature Bernadoodle. She's over the moon happy with the dog. Super happy and playful.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1745699571.jpg

I'm sorry to hear about this whole experience but I was sorry when I read the first post describing the dog's behaviour. That is not the type of thing that is going to change, no matter how much you wait. It's something deeply wrong with the animal's mental health and it might have absolutely nothing to do with how he or she was treated previously but everything to do with how it ended up in the shelter in the first place.

Dogs have been bred for thousands of years to be human companions and it's normally in their DNA to be attracted to us. Newborn puppies that can barely walk are attracted to humans, which is bizarre when you consider the size of us to them. It's one of life's amazing things.

I have studied dog behavior and read multiple books on training, etc., when I had my dogs. Most people love their animals and think that they are the best, my dogs were truly the best. Not because of my training, (they were both incredibly easy to train), but because of their DNA. With both of them, I got them as puppies and was able to meet both parents in their home with owner and puppies present. The way that the parents behave with a friendly stranger in the house will tell you absolutely everything you need to know about the dogs' breeding and temperament. You cannot train this into or out of an animal, the DNA is too strong. They will definitely respond to how they are treated but you cannot turn a fearful/aggressive/paranoid animal into a friendly one. It doesn't happen.

I'm not talking about the hundreds of videos of people bringing terrified animals home from shelters that just needed to feel safe and became friendly, this is a completely different animal, pun intended.

Sorry for your experience. :(

Thank you, Denis. We're feeling sad and a little guilty. Affirmation that it was hopeless from the beginning helps. We were really hopeful, going to give this poor dog a good home, etc, but it appears we were on the wrong track. She needs other dogs, and may never care about humans at all.

^^^^ You and Vic gave her a chance imo... she needs a pack to guide her into trusting us ... if it is even possible. Denis knows the reality too imo. You tried.... just like you always have.

Best to you Patrick....