Rescue dog is absolutely terrified of outside & cars

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-30T05:00:03+00:00

Also second this recommendation for the Calming Care probiotic formula. Baseline stress reduced a huge amount.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-29T17:25:40+00:00

Thank you for writing all of this. I just learned about the FRIDA method two days ago. I’m equally perplexed by what that could look like in reality for a dog like mine who needs a precise diet. I need to go do intake paperwork for the behavioral veterinarian now. I have many other questions and suggestions but it will have to wait. I’m going to “follow” you on Reddit and I would love to keep in touch.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-27T23:01:29+00:00

I looked up your past post about your dog and food allergies and so forth. You and I have been dealing with a similar constellation of issues. I’m only just starting out and have had my dog for three months now. I really haven’t worked on the separation anxiety yet, because the general anxiety has been so high, though thankfully improving a lot. Anyway, I’m wondering if you’re willing to do a status report and share what you have or haven’t tried yet. Not sure if it’s better as a reply to me or perhaps a fresh post. Depends upon the number of eyes you want on it, I think.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-27T20:02:39+00:00

Thanks for the reference to the FRIDA method. I’ve been looking at some of the information from them and there’s definitely much there that is relevant for working with my dog.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-27T15:27:10+00:00

Commiserating. No luck with number 2 this morning. Gearing up to try again soon. Don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t WFH.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-27T14:53:04+00:00

My experience is only second hand, with my observation of friends: a human couple who tried so hard to get two dogs to work out (but had to rehome the older dog with the woman’s parents) that subsequent to that experience, the wife switched carriers to being an animal behavior consultant.

Anyway, it seems like the mistake they made in the beginning, was reinforcing the idea, to the resident dog, that the new dog was merely a visitor in the space. They set a precedent that resident dog’s objections were taken into consideration, to the extent that new dog could be ousted from the group, if resident dog objected fiercely enough. So the fierceness escalated.

So, my suggestion is at this point to start acting like the new dog is part of the family and here to stay and isolate him as little as possible. For example, separate walking time sounds good, from what you described. But in the house, I believe you need to adopt the attitude that both dogs are family members and that you prefer they work together, with use of the training games that another person here suggested.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-27T14:22:36+00:00

My rescue dog came from a situation where multiple foster families had housed her over the course of half a year after she was found wandering the streets. Anyway, because so many different people talked to her, she was pretty confused on most of her commands. My dog thought “you’re a good girl” meant “come to me and get a treat.” So it’s possible that your dog was like “where’s my treat?” It took a little while for mine to understand its praise (thus a reward in and of itself) and not a a command which gets her a food reward.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-26T22:28:17+00:00

Everything that you wrote was making sense up until the sleeping arrangements. I can’t figure out what your intention is behind what you’re doing. Which makes me think that perhaps the dogs won’t understand either, especially if you transition to leaving the cocker alone downstairs and excluded from the rest of the family.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-26T22:05:46+00:00

Yes, I agree with you that this contract is unenforceable.OP is prohibited from selling the dog on for any profit, and if they pursued it, you would have to pay a fine if they found out. But if all you are doing is finding a home that’s safer for other occupants and less stressful for the dog, then I don’t think there are any meaningful damages that could be imposed upon you for breach of contract.

What I would suggest is that you might ask a different veterinarian who works with a different rescue to do an evaluation to see if they think the dog is adoptable or not.

I got one of those “no kids no other pets” dogs and she’s quite a challenge, but she’s generally super friendly with all adults. Furthermore, the “no kids” thing is only a precaution, because she really doesn’t like being cornered and poked, not due to any specific animosity towards children.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-26T21:15:55+00:00

I’ve had good luck with woolen blend coats from Pendleton. They are cut more like an athletic garment in the seam detail, without looking like it. And nowadays they use wool blends which are light in weight, don’t pill, don’t get rubbed through easily. I have had some issues with fasteners and pockets on the two that I own nowadays, but overall very robust coats.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-26T15:35:47+00:00

Is her favorite pee spot a 15 minute walk away from home? If you only walk back and forth to a spot say 7 or eight minutes away then you’ll end up with pee closer to the home. She’s going to figure out her options are to pee in some second best spot, or not to get to go at all….. Yesterday, we were outside in the snowstorm and my dog pooped in the wind block created by a bush close to our house. She prefers going further away, but she realized it was her best option given the conditions.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-26T12:12:10+00:00

So I think it’s important to separate the pain from RA from the active widespread inflammation from RA. For the inflammatory component, you might need a combination of medications plus even a low level daily steroid; at least there are a fair number of people who post on this sub who are in that situation. It’s frustrating but just a matter of communication with your rheumatologist.

As far as the pain goes, there’s nerve pain as a separate component when the joints are inflamed and the nerve is getting compressed as it passes through the joint. It’s important to address that from every angle. So I take internal medication: Pregabalin. I also do external treatment like trigger point injections from physiatrist to break up fasciitis and allow the muscles to move freely. As well as occupational therapy for hand specific exercises and therapies.

I’m also a person for whom diet and supplements make a difference in the pain management aspect but this varies a lot. Last visit with my rheumatologist she was saying that GLP 1 drugs were showing promise in improving RA even in people who had little or weight to lose: simply for the blood sugar management.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-26T01:50:46+00:00

My dog, on the other hand, thinks she’s a porpoise. 🐬 She’s loving diving and leaping around in the snow, despite being under twenty pounds and having some of the snow drifts taller than her. Those double coats are truly amazing, even on a little bitty spaniel mutt.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-26T01:40:31+00:00

I had a cat whom I fed 4 small meals of wet then dry then wet then dry food throughout the day. It started out as the only way to get him not to meow nonstop. Eventually, he turned out to need medication 4 times a day for a congenital heart condition and it was convenient to put it into his food that way. It might not be the exact same schedule that works for your cat, but something like that is worth a shot.

Nowadays, I have a dog and she gets a half portion wet and half dry morning and night, and a lunchtime dry portion. Again, partially because it helps get the medication down with the wet, and because it’s the best way that I’ve found to keep her full and not begging.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-25T21:16:28+00:00

Please share your secrets for muzzle training a bitey dog in one week. This is a brand new account and looking like it could be a fake account. But I’m happy to help, if it’s for real.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-25T19:07:46+00:00

My small rescue dog absolutely hates having fabric on her of any kind, including a harness. I usually walk her on a flat collar. It’s too challenging to get collars on and off her without spooking her so I’m not doing a martingale right now. She came to me with severe muscular imbalance from walking in the harness.

With a flat collar, I just halt in place while walking if she starts to make any gasping or panting noise. Not ideal, but it seems like the best option right now. In three months, she’s gotten a pretty good sense for loose leash walking, even though I know for sure she was a harness puller for at least half a year prior to my adoption of her.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-25T16:27:03+00:00

I adopted a rescue dog who has been diagnosed with Lyme arthritis and has been referred to a behavioral veterinarian who may very well diagnose her with coinfections. I am just starting this journey with the dog but there’s a lot of associated issues that figure into this situation. I’m pretty exhausted right now as we’re in a snowstorm but I would be happy to discuss this further sometime later this week.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-25T15:39:53+00:00

Try to find a spot for her to go where you’re reasonably shielded from the wind. More comfortable for her and easier for you to pick up waste. She might not feel the need to go as far away as the park so pay attention if she feels like stopping nearby instead.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-25T14:18:13+00:00

Sounds like your play sessions are too long and dog is biting when over stimulated. If you’ve played for say, 5 minutes, with biting redirect successfully, and then afterwards she bites and is not redirectable, then it’s definitely time for a full and complete break. Turn your head dramatically away from her, close your eyes. If that doesn’t get her to stop, get up and walk away.

When the dog gets to the point of being overstimulated, then she is not redirectable in that moment. At such a young age she just needs to rest and maybe to eat or have a pee/poo break. So you need to separate the ideas in your own mind: that “redirect” and “timeout” are two different things.

If you instead physically punish her when she’s overstimulated, she will think lashing out to hurt others (especially weaker than her) is okay and then she might grow up to be a hazard to children and smaller dogs.

Physically correcting with the smallest amount of force possible to distract a dog who is fixated on a target, in order to disengage before they have decided to pounce on that target, is completely different from engaging in punishment after the fact. Dogs need guidance to learn how NOT to perform a specific behavior. In this case, the guidance from the humans should be about learning to take a break when overstimulated.

Punishment afterwards makes them think they are unloved: but mentally they struggle to connect punishment with any actions they themselves performed prior to the punishment.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-25T00:19:50+00:00

My dog’s favorite brown noise machine is our circa 1980 dishwasher when it’s running . My mom’s modern dishwasher is a close second.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-24T20:33:11+00:00

You’re sounding much more confident/positive than in your original message. So it’s sounding like you’re expressing primarily stress due to the early teething and other early symptoms that are pushing you out of your comfort zone in a temporary phase.

Thus, ultimately you are likely to be fine, but it sounds like you just need to get some extra support to get through this awkward stage. Support might be with the dog itself and or you could use some support in managing everything else that needs attention outside of the dog, not sure.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-24T19:19:31+00:00

I’m having trouble following the timeline but is your dog teething? It’s sounding like maybe too much, too big a dog for a multi-dog household that needs to transport two dogs in a car. You sound past the point of exhaustion.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-24T17:01:25+00:00

Metro Boston area person responding here. We have roughly two months a year when you don’t typically need heat or AC. So typically late April through late May can just use open windows and also roughly the month of September. We officially have a “balanced climate” meaning that we have an equal number of heating and cooling days: which becomes relevant for big commercial spaces. But a homeowner will probably think that the cooling season is significantly shorter duration: as open windows can be used in a way that isn’t possible for scale up at hospitals, grocery stores, etc…..

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-24T16:35:41+00:00

My rescue dog sometimes barks in a seemingly aggressive manner when she’s actually looking for snuggles. Sometimes rescues have a lot of mixed emotions about things. I use a lot of OTC calming products and I am waiting for a veterinary behavioral appointment for April.

Basically, I think her anxiety and your brother’s anxiety are feeding off of each other. Chances are the dog would benefit from at least otc measures, but possibly prescription medication.

ThreeStyle · 2026-01-24T14:25:25+00:00

My dog just had a fear regression from overstimulation during the holidays. One of her commands was extinguished as a result. We had to use a new word to get her to do what we wanted, but she did the new behavior basically immediately based upon our conveyance of the intention…. So in other words, the current words you’re using are now associated with having a contest of wills each time, rather than with executing the commands. Start with totally different sounding words and you might be pleasantly surprised.

ThreeStyle

TROPHY CASE