foster dog

Question
Hi Charlotte,
Your second reply helped me a lot. I was wondering if anti anxiety medication is given to dogs. I will look into the massage for her also. She is experiencing a lot of anxiety.
Thanks peggy
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
Dear Charlotte, I am fostering a 10 month old mix breed from a local shelter. I want to teach her to over come some behaviors that I think are pertinent to shelter dogs. She was brought to the shelter at 4 months. Her instinct to not relieve herself were she sleeps and eats has been altered. She does not relieve herself while on a lead. She does not come when called and when she does relieve herself it is on concrete and not grass. She is also hypersensitive to noise and fast motion. These are all behaviors she needs to overcome so that I can find her a good home.
Could you make some suggestions?
Thank you,
Peggy
-----Answer-----
I'm sorry you didn't like my answer.
You asjked what would help you train the dog out of bad habits, and I told you what works best for me, and for many others.
The only way you can correct a bad behavior is with training.
The massages help with the training a lot.
If you are going to foster dogs to adopt out to homes, you need to learn more about whay dogs do what they do.
Too many people don't realize animals can have all the phobias and mental problems humans can have.
Depression is a very common problem, especially with dogs that have been previously mistreated or abandoned or abused.
Just as it is true in humanas, it is true with animals.
If you don't ease the reason for the bad behavior, you cannot begin to train them out of it.
I have handled the same problems you are trying to correct for many years, and I gave you the best advice you can get.
Charlotte

Hi Peggy;
Look into aminal massage.
I have used it a lot to alter unwanted behavior, fears, and to relieve pain.
even aggression and excessive barking,I think, are more about nerves and past huirts etc, than the dog's personality, because aggressive dogs react to the massages very fast.
The calming massage cured my English Setter of fear of thunderstorms, with only one 5 minute massage.
When Silky ( the Setter) got older, she had a lot of trouble with Arthritis, and she would be so stiffened up she couldn't walk.
I would lie her down and do a massage for 30 minutes or so, and she would be able to walk and even be a little frisky sometimes. I have gotten relief from Arthritis, Hip Displaysia, and post surgery, on several dogs.
Shelter dogs that have been kept in the shelter for a long time, get used to being on concrete, and in a pen or cage, and some of the natural aversions to things like soiling where they eat and sleep can be overcome.
Not all shelters have enough volunteers to be able to get the dogs out for exercise as much as they should.
Go to this site and read about what can be done with the massages.   www.lindatellington-jones.com
You can order a video to teach you how to do the massages. I think they cost about $35.00 now.
I got the one for dogs for myself, and got videos for massaging cats and horses for my grandchildren that have them.
It is the best training aid I have ever found.
A massage for a few minutes before a training session helps to relax the dog, and maximizes the results .
A good group obedience class would help with the general training to come etc.
God bless you for fostering. We can use all the volunteers we can get.
Charlotte

Answer
Hi Peggy;
I have not had occasion to need anti-anxiety medications, but I would imagine there are such meds.
I have given tranbquillizers since back in the 50s.
The calming massage works as well as a tranquillizer, and I prefer not to put any more chemicals in my body, or my dogs's, than necessary.
I would imagine there is a Proziac eqillivant for dogs.
As much has been done in animal medicine in the last half century as there have been in human medicines.
I wouldn't be surprised if they don't give Prozaic to dogs too, calibrated on their weight.
They take the same anti-biotics as we take, just smaller doses.
I would certainly talk to my Vet about it.
Anxiety is very common in dogs that have had bad experiiences, and the dogs we get at the animal rescues are certainly abused in some way.
After being kept in a small cage for most of her life, she is bound to be fearful of a lot of things, and insecure.
Poor little girl probably hasn't figured out half of what has gone on in her life.
She is just probably waiting for the other shoe to drop.
What the horse whisperer does, and takes credit for discovering, is nothing but they way the Nez Perce' trained and handled their horses for centuries, ever since the Spaniards brought horses to this continent.
the dog whisperer does the same thing.
What it really boils down to is just communication and understanding of the animal.
The animal massage works the same as theraputic massage works for humans.
My daughter is a massage therapist, and what she does before she starts massaging is to run her hands, with just the weight on her had, no pressure, down the spine, with 2 fingers stroking either side of the spinal chord.
She says this is to relax the ( something) nerve. If yoy just start massaging vigorously, without relaxing that nerve first, your muscles go into attack mode, to protect your bady. they tighten up to keep the roughness from harming you.
She makes about 6 to 8 passes down the spine on each side of the vertabrae, then she applies a little pressure and makes about 6 to 8 more passes, then a little more pressure, and another set of the strokes, they she starts the massage.
She gives me massages, and she can take away more Arthritis pain with one massage than two weeks of exercise and meds can do.
It does relax the nerves too.
I have a lot of pain to deal with, and the added trauma of being physically unable to do much.
I was always very active and had 3 or 4 things going at the same time.
Now to not be able to have enough strength to even do a small amount of housework, depresses me no end.
I also have to take a lot of meds, which bring on chemical depression.
Those massages she gives me make it possible for me to put up with all these infirmatives and not be a witch on wheels.
There is certainly nothing wrong with taking the anti-depressants and other meds to help us cope.
I take Prozaic for 4 to 6 months, and that straightens out the chemical depression, and the massages help with the pain, and the attitude. Then I can stop taking the Prozaic for 6 months or so, and still be a human being.
There has always been research in medications for humans, but it has only been the last 50 years or so that anyone was paying much attention to how many of the human frailties animals also can have.
I had a letter from a man a couple of years ago, that had a Blac Lab that was diagnosed with OCB.
The dog would jump in any water he saw, and would no come out. He would swim until he was so exhausted he could hardly stand, and still jump back in if he was let go.
He was afraid the dog would get in the pool when they were all asleep, and get too tired to get to the steps to get out, and drown.
His Veterinarian had the dog on several kinds of medications for mental disorders.
I used to have a little dog that was afraid of the dark.
I had to get up and go out and stand on the porch, with the porch light on when she had to go outside at night.
When she finished her business, she would scoot back into the house like a shot.
She wouldn't walk into a really dark room.
Where her fears came from, who can tell. We had taken in her mother and she whelped the litter here. My little grand daughter loved that puppy and wanted it, so she was told she could keep the dog, as part of her Christmas present.
She lived with us, and that kid got so much loot. She was the first grandchild.
When she had opened all her gifts, and my husband had her close her eyes to get another present, and he put that puppy in her hands, all the rest of the presents were ignored.
We had that dog since her birth, so we know nobody was ever rough with her, but she had that fear of the dark.
It is very different, fostering animals.
We get the damaged ones and have to try to get them whole again, so they can join a family and have a good life.
That is a lot harder than taking a baby puppy and raising it from weaning on.
Charlotte