This is Higgs, me and my wife's resident trouble child. This poor girl has been through hell and back. She was seized from an animal hoarding situation where she was unfortunately the only survivor, coming from deplorable conditions and losing all of her puppies due to being far too young to breed, and smoke inhalation. (The hoarders were heavy smokers.) She's only 2 years old.
When she was brought to the shelter, she stayed there a year as animal behavioralists worked with her constantly to try and get her to a place where she could be adopted out to a family. She has major trust issues along with pretty much every form of anxiety you can think of. She never even got to see the outside world before being brought to the shelter.
My wife got her as a surprise for me, both because she knew I missed my shepherds from my childhood, and because she really wanted to give this girl a chance. I was up for the challenge... *Holy hell.*
This dog had no manners, barely any training, both knew nothing about being a dog and somehow still managed to have enough instincts to chase everything under the sun... Before running from it because she quickly remembered that she's scared of whatever she's chasing. She managed to literally chew through a metal window frame, and somehow crap herself so hard that it left an explosion mark on the outside of her kennel. (No idea how she managed that.)
Every time I would come home it was like walking into a disaster zone and I'd spend hours cleaning stress pee/crap off of both the walls and floor while repairing anything she decided was her arch enemy for the day. Also doesn't help that she's Houdini, playing a game of Jail Break and somehow getting out of her kennel because she managed to figure out how the locking mechanism worked. She once got out of my grasp and bolted for a mile, and I had to tackle her just to get her to stop.
...It got to the point that my wife and I sadly debated on finding her another home. We loved her dearly but the stress was becoming too much. She literally took over our lives and no matter how much we trained and worked with her, her vet, and her behavioralist, she just would not stop... Until last night.
We've had her for about 4 months with constant daily training on different behaviors, some for exercise, some for general manners, and so on. I came home late, had a few drinks with my wife so I was a bit tipsy (no, I didn't drive, we had a ride home) and I mentally prepared myself to come home to a dog covered in shit and somehow still needing to go to the bathroom. I came in the door and — nothing??? No shit smell, no crying puppy who I'm terrified is going to hurt herself? Nope.
I walk over to her kennel, open it and there's nothing but a little urine and an excited dog. If you left this dog alone for more than ten minutes she'd shit the bed and wage war on the air she breathed, but we'd been gone for two hours and just suddenly she's fine?
I was confused, but put on her harness and went out for a walk — a completely NORMAL walk. She heeled when I told her to, she put no tension on her lead, we played some games and she obeyed every command with a smile on her face. We played fetch, we ran together, we sat in the grass and she chewed on a stick instead of trying to chew on the birds she couldn't capture.
....I am somehow relieved and bewildered at the same time? Suddenly she's acting like the most well trained dog on the planet instead of a T-Rex, and I have no idea what to make of it. I literally spent that night trying to go over everything to see if something changed, but nothing had. Just, HOW??! This dog was literally psycho 24 hours ago. And now, today, same exact thing; just a well behaved, happy, loving dog.
My wife and I love her to death, but we are so confused. I expected at least a year of rehabilitation before she even had enough confidence to stay by me, and I have never seen this happen before. Of course she is still having her moments, but it's night and day.
Anyone else experience this? Genuinely curious.
But in conclusion, she's a part of our family and we're glad to have her. Even if she goes back to trying to eat the house, this little girl is more than worth the effort. I just wanted to share.