From Ferel to friendly
I rescued a feral dog this weekend, Autumn is a 20 month old female dog, who it greatly lacking in human socialization, her first 10 months of life are a little unknown other than she is from TN and most likely had minimal human contact, her dog/dog skills are wonderful. She is a true pack animal, though lacking a human pack leader. Her next 10 months living with a dog trainer/rescue did not get the results that would get her to a place that would get her to be adopted.
Autumn has no obedience commands or dog/human social skills, imagine a wild dog traveling in a pack with other dogs, but never coming in contact with humans. If you have seen any National Geographic shows on wild dogs of Africa, this is Autumn.
I drove to NJ to pick her up over the weekend and I will do my best to document her progress both in picture, video and video commentary.
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pick up in NJ went well
This was at a rest stop on the Merritt Parkway,
Autum had a bodyharness and a flat buckle collar on her with 2 leashes so if she got out of one the other would be the back up, she is an incredible flight risk, the first thing I did was take of the harness and put a small gauge prong collar on her. this way I can communicate with her in a way that she understands. For the folks that have been told that prong collars are mean and/or abusive that they make dogs aggressive, scared or nervous. It is the farthest thing from the truth, they unleash the true spirit in a dog, they are a great communication tool and I use them with all of my dogs…
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Romy who is 4, is one of my dog trainers, she has the incredible abiltiy to work with 100lb dogs and run them through commands. Her energy is incredible
Clover starts working Autumn as soon as she gets on the property, Clover is 6 and has been training dogs for 3 years. Notice her hand postion and boy posture with the leash and dog, she will not allow to Autumn to fail, no pulling, no lagging behind, she is not allowing Autumn to decide what to do. She is insisting that Autumn follow her commands.ย For all you assholes that feel the need to write me as to tell me how stressed the dog looks, go fuck yourself, go to your local animal shelter, save a dog from death, train it and give it away, then do it again and again and again, do it for no money, do it to save a dogs life, then you wont have the time to criticize me.
Clover giving Autumn a tour of the property, again, Autumn is not allowed to go in any direction that Clover guides her to.
Autmn has to head towards me (she has been heading away from people for the last 20 months) when she learns to swim.
Autumn getting on the treadmill, yes, I am taking a very fearful antisocial dog and putting it into a situation that will make it even more nervous..guess what…she walked for 10 minutes her first time on the treadmill and other than the first 30 stressful seconds, had a blast
notice my left leg up on the treadmill, it is there to recreate the heeling position that we do outside on our walks, this way her confidence is built up
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After the treadmill she did a nice 30 minute downstay next to my desk
The great thing about swimming is that it is hard for dogs to run from us or bite us, they look to us for so much guidance as you can see how Autumn is nice and close to me. The feeling of swimming unleashes so much stress and anxiety from a dog, it is like floating on a cloud and is theraputic for dogs
Autumn’s temp home in our rescue home until we get more kennels delivered this week
Our stunning Autumn our little wild child in action
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