Post by starburst604 on Jun 1, 2018 21:44:40 GMT -5
I just want to say your pup is lucky to have you as his family. So many people couldn’t be bothered to try and figure this all out, it makes me happy that you’re really committed to making him comfortable and happy.
My rescue was found as a stray and then had two failed adoptions. At his last home, he was a backyard dog with no toys, bed or affection. It took him about 4 months to show his personality and before he started barking.
He had the sad lost eyes when we first got him and almost a year later, he has the sparkle of love in his eyes. He loves to be petted and is a completely different dog. You can tell how happy he is.
You have a lot of great advice about the urination. I also think it sounds like submissive behavior. I would not be concerned about barking at all. I have two dogs. One barks about every twenty minutes (even in his sleep) and the other barks well when I am taking too long to open the door...but she gives me about half an hour so I rarely hear her voice. I have had her 14 years and she has barked about twenty times. This surprised me because she is an exuberant animal and loves everyone (even the feral dogs that tried to kill her), so it is just a personal difference. Dogs have personalities, it also helps to try to keep your stress and annoyance at any of this that bothers you hidden from the dog as much as possible.
It sounds like submissive peeing. Our rescue corgi did that all the time. Basically you just need to get his confidence up. Obedience training does wonders for that, mostly because it helps them figure out what you want from them.
When your DH pets him, make sure he gets down to the dog's level and isn't bending over him.
Yes, he is very submissive. I really want to try to build up his confidence. Thank you for the recs, I will start reading them.
We have an extremely submissive rescue (also a terrier, also not a barker and still isn’t almost 4 years later). He had a huge issue with submissive peeing when my wife approached or pet him. She is so kind to him so it wasn’t related to her behavior. We used a behaviorist who did some training sessions mostly to train my wife how to approach the dog and it worked like a charm. A lot of the same advice as the link Pixy posted. Good luck! Our pup is still very submissive but is so much less nervous than when we first got him and after about a year he got much less worried and his personality started to shine through.
Also if you want to get him to come out of the crate in the morning for a walk have you tried a high value smelly treat to entice him?