Does anyone have experience working with physically abused dogs? My husband and I volunteer at the Humane Society. We've come across several dogs that are absolutely terrified of him. Often, the staff is not even aware of this because most of the vet techs, the vet, and the behaviorist are all smaller women. We want to work with these dogs and help show them that they will not be abused anymore, but we're not sure how to go about this and don't want to frighten them more.
Here is an example of what happens: Saturday I decided to walk Elka (see photo below). She is a large dog and rather mean looking. I love walking the GSDs and GSD mixes. When I walk a dog I haven't worked with before, I go to their kennel and crouch down so they can come and check me out before I open the latch and lasso them. I did this and Elka came out of her bed to sniff my hand. Just then, my husband came by and she quickly ran back to her bed, sat down, and made a quiet growling noise. She would not look at him or me. I asked him to leave, but Elka would not come back to the door so I left her alone for a while. When I came back, she would not get out of her bed, but she was looking at me so I slowly went inside, gave her treats and talked to her for a minute. She let me put the lead on and got up. I usually put them in a dog run before the walk so they can stretch their legs first. We were walking around in the dog run and she was coming to me and sitting for treats when my husband came out. Elka ran to the farthest corner and crouched down. Again, she would not even come back to me for treats. My husband came in the run, but she kept running away from him with her tail down. I got her back on the lead to go for a walk and my husband came by. Elka hid behind me and kept looking away when he offered her treats. I finally asked him to leave b/c she was only getting more scared. We had a good walk and she was very happy to perform her tricks for my treats.
In the past, my husband has noticed a lot of the pit bulls will run from him. Some even growl and bare teeth. Two weeks ago, we walked a lab and border collie mix that were kenneled together. They were going along fine until my husband turned to look at something and the BC mix I had ducked away and tried to run. He is also apparently very hand shy and not comfortable around my husband.
We're not sure how to appropriately convince the dog he is not going to hit them. He wanted to go in Elka's kennel and talk to her, but I said no b/c she actually runs and hides from him and since she's very big, I don't want her to react aggressively out of fear if he goes in her kennel. I'm actually e-mailing the shelter right now b/c her Petfinder listing says nothing about her being shy or terribly fearful of men. Any tips on how to help these poor dogs?
Here is Elka. I'm not sure what she is. Looks like GSD and something. She has the oddest face I've ever seen but I think she's beautiful. Her face is a bit more scouly and wrinkley than in this photo. She has a very sad, distant look about her most of the time.
