Puppy Mill Surivor: Cole's Story - Learning to be a dog

This is my 5th installment of Puppy Mill Surivor: Cole's story

He was still hesitant to get out of the car and go into daycamp. He was getting better, but he still wasn’t sure that is what he wanted to do. They started trying to keep him and Lucy separate to avoid Cole getting over excited and biting someone or another dog. Lucy didn’t mind being separated from the others with Cole while indoors, she would get her naps in at that time. I wanted Cole to get a bit of rest and not keep pushing himself until he crashed. Cole responded well to this new system. The more we got him on a regular schedule the better he would be.

However, he still had the very strong reaction when I picked him up from daycamp. He was just over excited to see me. I would always turn my back to him and fold my arms, be as boring and uninteresting to him as possible. He would eventually stop jumping but he would be barking at me. As if screaming, ‘pay attention to me’!

That night for dinner, I thought I would try and get him down the stairs into the basement. I took his dinner and while he was watching me, slowly walked it down the stairs. He was almost in a panic. I put the food on the first platform step and backed off a bit. Cole wouldn’t move from the top step. He even gave a cry, he wanted his food but was too scared to come down the stairs. I left the food there and continued down the stairs and into the basement area. I waited for a few minutes. I then heard Cole run up the stairs into the bedroom area. So much for that idea. I brought his and Lucy’s dinner upstairs for them to eat.

Now that he was more comfortable in the house and around me, I started to notice how he would react to my movements. When I would approach him, he would always start backing himself up. He would frantically look at my hands back and forth, wanting to see what, if anything, I had in my hands. I sadly realized he had been physically abused. His reactions were not due to not knowing or understanding human movements, it was far more deeper than that. To him, human hands were dangerous, terrifying and meant harm was coming to him. I was the first to show him that human hands could give love, bring food, and provide warmth and comfort. If I moved my arms too quickly he would run from me. He didn’t like anything at all coming over his head, he would lower his head and wince. I had to approach him from underneath his chin. I had to move slowly around him, so he could watch my movements.

I started showing him my hands as I walked towards him, so he could see I had nothing in them. If I did have something in my hands, anything, he would run. If it was something like a leash or his harness, I had to hide it behind my back as I approached him. I would have to sit in front of him, and very slowly put the harness over his head and then the leash, I would reach behind his back.

Many times, I would wait for him to approach me. I would have treats for him and lure him over, just to give him a few snuggles or tell him how good he is.

He was also walking upright at this time. His elbows were no longer sticking out as he walked. He was very bull-legged in the back. Standing up straight; he was about two inches shorter than Lucy in height. Lucy was also longer in length by a few inches. I could see that his back ‘bowed’ in the middle. Not straight across like it should.

His tail still had that crooked joint in it. Either from a break or because he had to keep it curled while in a crate to small for him.

He was still very sensitive to his legs and paws being touched. He would move them if I directly touched him. I started working on the desensitizing him of them by petting and rubbing his shoulders, then slowly work down the legs and paws. He seemed to be ok with that.

The key for him to meet new people was different from other dogs. If you tried approaching him from the side, a more non direct non threatening approach, he would run. He didn’t trust people at all, to meet him, you had to approach him head on. He wanted to see your every move, see if you had anything in your hands that you might hurt him with.

That Saturday I decided to see how he does on a walk by himself at the river. I first took him out for a potty walk around the neighborhood. I was going to leave him completely in the house by himself while I took Lucy out. I wasn’t going to be gone long, only 1 ½ hrs, and made sure everything he could possible get into was off the floor.

When I returned with Lucy, I was relieved to see he left everything alone. The house was intact and nothing chewed or devoured. I then took Cole on his first river walk. I wanted to see how he would react and what he would do by himself without Lucy ‘coaching’ him or encouraging him.

He did very well. He stayed right at my left side and a bit behind me the entire way. He was acknowledging me as being the Lead Dog or Pack Leader. He only stopped if he needed to eliminate. He wasn’t sniffing around at all the different scents, showed no interest in chasing anything, just taking a slow walk with his foster mom. We ran into a few dogs and Cole enjoyed meeting them, greeting them appropriately and returning to my side. I walked him twice that day, he stayed at my side the entire time. No interest in wandering.

The next day, I decided to try recalling with him. I took Lucy for a separate walk before I took Cole out. I needed him to pay complete attention to me and not get distracted. I brought along a lot of treats with me. Like all his walks, he basically stayed right at my left side without going anywhere. We would be walking, and then I would call his name. If he moved towards me or looked at me in acknowledgment, I gave him a treat. He was responding to his name and enjoyed getting the reward. I then dropped his leash; he stayed right at my side. No reason in his mind to run off. I would call his name frequently and he would look at me and give me eye contact, I would then reward him with a treat. He was always at my side. He didn’t sniff around, run after squirrels or anything, just stayed right at my side only leaving me to eliminate.

Then I started to teach him that he needed to sit before he got his treat. This was hard for him, it was like I was teaching him a new trick. He understood ‘sit’ inside the house, but didn’t understand it outside the house. Dogs do not generalize everything. The ‘sit’ command inside the house will be different to dogs than the ‘sit’ command any where else. I stood there for several minutes, waiting for him to just feel the need to ‘sit’ then I would give the ‘sit’ command. Again, reverse training for him. I would stop every 5 feet or so and ask him to sit again. He would still look at me blankly and it would take several minutes for him to understand what I was saying and expecting him to do. Finally at the end of the walk, he was responding faster to the command. He never applied his brain before for thought process or problem solving; basically, he was not used to thinking.