I have a new puppy called Goldie. She's a gorgeous 8 month a Groodle. For those who don't know, that's a cross between a golden retriever and a poodle. She's from an animal rescue org who give me mistreated/abandoned pups from death row. There's only a limited time for 'reframing' them or else they end up being put down.
My job now is to reframe her perceptions, socialize her and try to help her overcome her past traumas. Hopefully she'll adapt and become socially acceptable. Because Goldie's obviously been badly abused she's exhibiting very clear agressive, paranoid, depresssed and anti-social tendencies.
For example, whenever I move suddenly she becomes either terrified and cowering or aggressive, projecting onto me her former experiences from her former owners. The clothes blowing in the breeze on the line drive her crazy. Loud voices send her into a (literal) tail-spin. She completely cowers and shakes and wees herself at a kind hand. She snaps food from my hand and growls if I look to take it away.
When I walk her she often has to be dragged, she's so afraid of open spaces. She either cowers or wants to fight when she sees other dogs. If they're bigger she cowers, if they're smaller she bullies. She loves playing with children, but only on her terms. Goldie has a story too. She tells me all about her past by the way she interracts with me and others, and especially by the way she reacts to me, my tones and my movements.
My role is to give her a home, patience, consistency, understanding, love, and of course I have to challenge her thinking. My other role is to introduce her to as many experiences as possible in as safe and a fun environment as possible and to help her re-experience what frightened her, but in a new/opposite context. Once I've done my job (fingers crossed) she'll still probably be a bit neurotic and quirky, but at the same time very lovable and understandable. She's already lovable, just extremely neurotic, which is very time consuming.
And because she can't, I'll have the opportunity to explain to her new owners (fingers crossed again) what I think she must have experienced in the past, and in what ways I think she needs to be shielded/contained/restrained in the future. I've had worse cases than Goldie and it's been worth every minute. I cry when they go and wish I could keep them all, but I can't, it becomes very expensive. I make more of a difference doing it this way, and also I'll admit, I love the challenge.
Thanks for reading about Goldie,
Papillon.
