1 or 2 years is a long time
Gracie is terrified of loud noises. Why?
A couple months ago, I was finishing up a walk with Gracie. As we walked past the entrance of the complex, I noticed some people were playing tennis on the court near the office. I thought nothing of it.
WHAPOW! One of the guys hit a huge forehand that echoed across the parking lot.
Gracie shot in the other direction like a bolt of lighting. Her tail was tucked so far between her legs that the tip was against her chest. She jerked back and forth, doing everything in her power to get away from the courts. If she hadn’t been on the harness, I’m fairly confident she would have gotten off the leash.
When I finally got her back inside, she ran straight to the crate before I could even get her leash or harness off. This is when I still had wire in the crate and she went to the other side of it. She sat there shaking and tense, so far back that I couldn’t reach through and take the leash off.
I had to go to a basketball game for work and I wasn’t able to get her out before I left. When I came back, she got out of the crate and was better.
That’s the first time that I noticed just how skittish she really was. She’s scared of people that she doesn’t know and will jump out of her skin if you accidentally sneak up behind her.
And she’s absolutely terrified of loud noises. Not long ago, something heavy fell in the apartment above me. Gracie ran into the bedroom, sat in the corner and was shaking.
It got me thinking: what happened to Gracie before I got her?
I know that getting an older dog from the shelter is dangerous because you don’t know what has already happened to him/her and how it will affect his/her demeanor. But based on her actions, here is what I think.
She’s a foxhound, which is obviously a hunting dog. It makes me think that the fear of loud, sharp noises is related to gunfire if she was around hunting when she was younger. Maybe she didn’t make a good hunting dog which is why she was left at the shelter.
The fear of loud noises could be simpler, in that she used to get beaten by her former owner and loud sounds remind her of that.
She’s scared of most people, but she is especially scared of tall guys. She takes to women much faster than men. My stepdad, which every dog seems to instantly bond to, had trouble winning Gracie over at first.
Gracie also came in with brush burns on her backside, which means she wasn’t kept in ideal conditions.
All I can imagine is that Gracie was owned by some tall male with many, many dogs (because Gracie is very social with other animals) that he used for hunting. He didn’t treat the dogs well, kept them in small cages and probably beat them occasionally.
Of course, that could be completely wrong. But that’s what I think.
What do you think is wrong with her? Do you have a dog that you got from the shelter? What happened to it before you adopted him/her?
Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments
It could be that she was a puppy mill dog to begin with. That could definitely not help with the skittishness. I think you are probably right about why she was left at the shelter. Its sad how other people treat them.
It definitely could be a puppy mill, especially since she is supposedly full-bred.
She’s such a sweet dog, I just don’t understand how people can be mean to dogs.
We got Radar for our local humane society. He is approx. 1 year old. He was a stray before the humane society got him. He was “only” at the humane society for about six or seven weeks before my husband and I adopted him. We do believe that he had a family before though since he is so social with people and knew sit when we first brought him home.
But we think that he was taken in a car and dropped off somewhere in a field, or among dense trees as he was absolutely terrified of the car when we first tried to put him in it. And a couple of times after that, when we took him for a car ride when he got out of the car (anywhere that wasn’t at our apartment) he stuck to our sides like glue. If we went near any open area, other than a store or something along those lines, he whined and almost tripped us from trying to be close to us. Poor pup.
But now we take him for car rides frequently (at least four times a week as we enjoy having him in the car) to show him that we will ALWAYS bring him home. He is much better about it. He now happily wags his tail and isn’t as skittish when he gets out of the car. Thankfully it didn’t take long, but I think all of the repetition and always saying, “Okay lets go home!” helped a great deal.
Your pup is beautiful by the way! We have happily added you to our blog roll so we can continue reading your posts. Feel free to stop by Radar’s blog (our pup.)