My dog - Animal cruelty

Hi guys,

Ive picked a lovely 9 month old basset hound cross springer, he was free to good home, came with uptodate vaccinations, and loads of other stuff (hilti, harness, lead etc)

Ive had him about 3 weeks, and hes brilliant with my wife and kids, hes like a bottle of pop, so we have to put his hilti on him which puts him into some sort of depressed state?

But when i try to approach him he shakes and pisses himself and cowers, which makes me think has he suffered animal abuse by the previous owners, or the owners before that if there was any?

Its got so bad ive got to keep him in the garden on a chain cause he either legs it over the fence or eats everything in the garden, hes fully house trained but its just when i approach him the male of the house....

What can i do to make him feel safe around me, ill admit I've shouted at him and rubbed his nose in his piss but now i can see the fear in his eyes so have stopped it, I'm at the point of getting rid of him as its no good having a dog that pisses himself in the house with the kids about, and it gets a pain when you have to keep cleaning it up!

Any suggestions please

Take the fucker back and get another one. You obviously got a faulty unit.

we've just got a border collie ourselves 4 months ago, we've had him since he was 6 months old. and to be honest mate that is normal, our dog does the exact same if he is either excited at something, if he see's new people or if you shout at him. I think in 6 months you'd be looking at having him purely house trained and he'll stop it, dont give up just yet tho mate as you gotta put in some serious time and then you'll get the rewards, like everything it wont just fix itself over night.

Our dog sounds exactly the same as yours, full of energy 24/7 last night alone he chewed the fucking sky remote up to pieces.

But stick at it mate, it can only get better, I wont give any advise on training the dog but just be cool with it and it'll work out

lmao @ CJ

Cheers tam, im even thinking of taking him to local obedience classes, so we can bond together a bit more and he will see im safe to be around, cheap to! £1.50 a session every Wednesday, bargain!

Hi
What Tam says is true dude, you get out what you put in, the only difference is that becuase you were good enough to take rescue dog, you initually get out what previous owner put in.
Like Tam I have border collies and love them, I have 2 at the minute - the pup was hard work and chewed the crap out of my new kitchen- he is ok now though.
We used to have Annie (who sadly passed away a couple of years ago) she was a rescue collie and was such a good obedient dog and never put a foot wrong but if she saw u pick up a newspaper she would piss like a firemans hose and run for the hills, well you don't have to be sherlock holmes to work out the wanker who used to own her beat her bad with a rolled up newspaper.
Personally I would never tell somebody how to train their dogs but I would like to say most people comment on how well behaved my dogs are (that pup being the exception) and I never hit my dogs nor would I ever rub my dogs nose in its own pee/pooh.
Good luck with your rescue dog m8, remember if you were taken from your mum at a young age and never got the chance to properly bond with yournext family then u might be a bit confused too.
stick to it m8
LS

Lou_smorals: our dog sometimes gets a wee smack if he growls/bites at us, he's very very active and we're trying to calm him down but i guess with a bit of time we'll get there.

this week is a problem as i am working 4 dayshifts right now (12 hours) and i can only dive over to the house once to let him out for 20/30 mins.

How is it you like training your dog? We have a problem were he barks and jumps on my mum a lot which isn't good as shes 58 and cant handle him running around her neck which he does...and sometimes pees :P

Hi Tam,
Collies are my favourate dog, I always had at least one. I never had any issue before the latest one (now 18 months old). he got through the chewing phase and doesn't do that anymore.
Border collies are very active and live for a long time, they are much easier to train when you include a lot of exercise, I know you working long shifts so this may not be easy at the moment. I take my dogs up the recreation ground on my days off and let them run around for as long as I can. I prefer treats rather than punishment. Your dog wants nothing more than to please you, he lives for that - show him you really really happy with him when he is good, when he is bad ignore him, turn away, push him away until he is good, never ever stroke or reward him when he has been naughty. Remember you are the dominant one, the pack leader and he is there to obey - he needs this, he will actually enjoy this.
My dogs are happiest if I stick to a routine and get uncomfortable if I deviate from it. When the puppy was young we would make a fuss of him and praise him till he jumped up etc then he would be ignored and we would turn away from him till he started to behave. but if your dog is on his own, bored with nothing to do for many hours he will of course get very excited when the rest of his family "pack" return.
sorry to ramble!
thanks LS

thats exactly right mate, i can go home for lunch no worries and let him out the back door and play around etc for 30 mins or so as i'm only 5/10 mins drive away from work. i believe my sister is going over to my house now to let the dog out so i guess i can head over about 2 and then i'll be over at 7 so a can take him out for a walk tonight. and yes your right, really really active. and right now it cant be good for him being locked up in the kitchen for most part of the day and i come home a wee bit tired from doing a 12 hour shift. i also try and stay up as late as possible right now as i know i cant let him just sit in there all day/night..would be cruel

Hi Tam
Sorry to bring up this old thread again, just wondered how you got on with the pup, hoping you stuck with it and now got a best M8, for his life. he doesn't have a long one m8, maybe 16 yrs if you lucky but when he bonds with you (which I hope he has), he will devite his life to trying to make his master happy.
I hope you got your issues sorted m8.
LS