We adopted a young female dog about 7 weeks ago. We were told she was a breeder at a puppy mill. My husband and I are decently experienced dog people (though not experts by a long stretch) and have done a fair amount of rescuing, fostering etc. However, we have never dealt with a dog like this and I’m interested in hearing others’ experiences, recommendations for resources etc.
She is a complete sweetheart of a dog, but so wary, so shy, and so worried. She will not drink water out of a bowl. Some days we still have trouble putting a collar on her. She’ll follow us from room to room, but often runs away if you turn or look in her general direction. Not surprisingly, she is terrified of being picked up. She gets along well with my 2 much older dogs, but doesn’t interact/engage them beyond following them around.
If allowed, she would spend 24/7 in her crate. We let her do that for the first few weeks, and since then have been shutting her out of it for periods of time. She rarely seeks attention, but will allow petting if conditions are right and occasionally seems to enjoy it. The one thing she REALLY loves, go figure, is sleeping on the bed at night with us and the other dogs, so we have allowed that even though it’s probably not great from a potty-training perspective.
From internet reading, I know much of this is normal. I’m just looking for anything else I could be doing to help this poor, shut down little girl. If nothing else, I just want her to feel safe. Thank you in advance for any suggestions, recommendations, etc.
