Quote:
Originally Posted by christie0918
I posted this in the Pets thread, but thought that some of you dealing more with rescue canines might have some ideas for the transition/socialization of Sookie, our latest Giant Schnauzer rescue.
All of our schnauzer pack are rescues. Max who is almost 22/23, Scooter was a Katrina rescue boy and Samson also came out of rescue.
Here is my conundrum. In all my years of having rescues as pets, I usually get the overly excited to have a home, in your face untrained behaviored pups.
Not our Sookie. While she has made great strides the last couple of days, I have never had a dog that just wanted to den up and be completely isolated. Since she came out of a horrific situation where she was found in a medium crate with a full size shephard, and obviously had no socialization/training, I am not expecting her to just perk up and be all, "Yay, I have a home" but I do want to figure out how to ease her process without reinforcing the behavior of isolating herself.
Treat bribing isnt working (I know Caesar would have my head for trying it), and she has started to come up to us for affection. I am hopeful that its just a time and patience thing. Ya'll all should know I have the patience of a gnat!
Any ideas for how we can facilitate the process?
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Her comfort zone is going to be the crate, but she needs to get out. I would hook her up on the lead at regular times during the day and take her for a walk. She'll hate it at first but then it will become part of her routine and she will bond with you and eventually come out of the crate. She needs to go for dog walks with you, take her. It's the right thing to do. The best day will be when she walks over to you and puts her head in your lap. Or does the happy dance for a walk. It'll come. Sherman came out to me while I was reading in the yard and licked my arm today. Huge progress since last Friday.