Morgan was my 4th foster dog from Wayside Waifs, Kansas City, MO. I ended up with her because she was extremely aggressive and needed some additional socialization and training. She was found on the streets, intact, hungry and in poor health. She was estimated to be between 4-6 years old at that time.
She was brought into the shelter and it very quickly became apparent that she couldn't stay there. She attacked her kennel door and lunged at everyone who walked by. She was put under anesthesia, which was no small feat. They ended up having to 'dart' her with a pole dart, because they could not get close enough to her to inject the anesthesia by hand. Once she was under they decided to do all of her medical procedures at once because they were unsure if they would be able to sedate her a second time. She was spayed, vaccinated, examined, micro-chipped and had a dental. They had her wake up in puppy quarantine, an area where there happened to be no other dogs and only one staff member was allowed.
She did bond with this staff member enough to be handle-able. When the directors got together to discuss her situation, the foster care manager suggested that I be offered the chance to take her. If I wouldn't take her, she would be euthanized. She was too much of a risk to keep in house and the foster care manager did not feel comfortable sending her home with anyone else. I took her home 1/9/2010, she had been in the shelter since intake on 12/9/2009.
She growled at me for the first few days. She had a blue stuffed dog that she carried everywhere with her. She was a pretty sad sight, a very viciously growling dog holding onto her 'baby' for all she was worth.
Thankfully she was food motivated. I crate trained her immediately. She was either in her crate with a Kong stuffed with treats and peanut butter or we were out walking. She was unsure about the leash at first. It was clear that she had spent little or no time in a house or on a leash. I trained her to sit while I attached the leash and heavily rewarded her for allowing me to touch her collar. After 2 days of heavy reinforcement, exercise and crate training she was comfortable with me. She stopped growling at me. Everything was new to her, she didn't know how to play with toys, did not know how to interact with me. At first she just held her baby and stayed in her crate. When she stopped growling at me she allowed me to touch her everywhere and pet/ scratch her. She didn't really seem to care too much about petting or scratching. She would not roll over on her back though. After she was allowed out of her crate at all, I attached her leash to my couch leg, so she was still contained. She learned quickly that Johnny, my cat, was the boss. She did try to lunge at him, but he was used to new dogs and moved in slow motion whenever she was out of her crate. He avoided coming within the leash boundaries and therefore never ran when she lunged. He did smack her nose once and drew blood. From then on she seemed a bit more wary of the cat.
She continued to be very aggressive to other people and dogs when we were out walking or running. After she bonded with me she became incredibly protective. She would threaten anybody within 200 yards of us. She would growl, snap, lunge, snarl and even foam at the mouth she would get so worked up. Now I almost wish I had a video of it, just to document the change! I worked hard on training her basic behaviors. We worked on sit, down, speak, paws, spin and roll over. "Sit" was our main behavior. I began training her to sit through anything. Her threshold to deal with 'threats' was very low, so when anyone was around I would quickly move to a comfortable distance for her (started out as 50 or more feet), have her sit and reward her A LOT. Even this took time. If it was a bigger challenge, say a human with 2 dogs as opposed to just 1 human I would have her in the down-stay position while rewarding her heavily. I found she was most comfortable in the sit-stay as she seemed to feel threatened when in the down position. From the very beginning I worked with her on loose leash walking. This was probably made easier by the fact that she seemed to never have been on a leash before. If she did pull (not in a threatening situation, that required evasive action) I stopped walking/ running and waited until she sat down. She learned fast that the best way to keep going was to not pull. Of course the no-pull went out the window if there was any stimulus in the situation. So we ran and EVERY time there was another human on the path we moved out of the way and she sat, when they passed we continued on our way. I learned that most of her issues were severely worsened by her barrier aggression. She could meet new people only if they came into the house and she was loose. New people had to ignore her completely. At first it would take 1 or 2 visits from the same person and then she would accept them as part of her pack, now it takes less than 5 minutes for most people to be accepted. She also LOVED dogs, on leash she would growl and lunge, but if let loose with other dogs she did what herding dogs do, they herd- nip and run, but she was not aggressive toward them. Thankfully in the zoo keeper profession you have a lot of friends who are not afraid of animal introductions! I was able to introduce her to a bunch of dogs, she didn't really seem to know how to play and didn't have the best dog behavior, but she did well. She usually became the ref in large groups of dogs. And of course she protected me. Usually after the initial meet and greet with other dogs she would sit right by me with the humans and only go running to the dogs when they got too rowdy! She would run right through them and break them up, then come back and sit with me.
I officially adopted her on 11/17/2010. She had many people who were interested in her, but none were prepared to deal with her behavioral issues. They had a hard time believing me that she would growl at them and they had to give her time. Having her growl and lunge at potential adopters did not go over well. She is much improved these days, but her issues will never fully go away. She still is a special dog and requires lots of stimulation and training. She is happy now, we still run every day and she still protects me from everyone. She is part of our little family and we couldn't be happier!
