Rehabilitating the Rescue or Fearful Dog!. A lesson in reactivity and 'Speaking Dog'!

Over the YEARS, either in K9Dreamers Dog School Training classes or 1:1 Behaviour consultations, I have worked with hundreds of dogs of all kinds, different breeds, different temperaments, all shapes and sizes. What a time! 
What has amazed and pleased me is the commitment of owners who get in touch, wanting to understand and help their Dog, either with Training and / or Behaviour Management. 
Most rewarding is seeing dogs who have been rescued from a life of pain, neglect, abuse, injury or cruelty, gradually come to a place of calmness, and able to live relatively peacefully in their new home and environment. 
Whilst most rescue dogs, never 100% get over their trauma, they can certainly make positive steps towards recovery.
This is only achieved with a huge amounts of love, patience, time, through understanding the needs and emotions of the individual dog and working with that. 
Can you Visualise a Ladder, where all perceived triggers, good or bad affect the dog.. (That's another Blog) either putting the lead on, walking out the front door, see another dog, people, noise, children, traffic etc, ALL raise your dog higher up the 'Ladder' to Hyperarousal and the 'NOT 'Thinking Dog'. When the accumulated arousals reach the top of the Ladder, then the dog reaches 'Hyperarousal Threshold' in his emotions, and will start to 'react', barking, lunging, backing away, freezing... all emotion driven, due to the Adrenalin causing the Fight, Flight, Freeze, or Fool around activity we see in stressed anxious dogs.
Fight - no dog actually wants to fight... just self protect.
Flight - if the dog is on lead, he is not in control, you are and he cannot do flight.
Freeze - next best option is to freeze, clenched jaw, static pose... hoping the trigger will go away.
Fool around - at hyperarousal some dogs have zoomies, or chase their tail. 
On lead Reactivity  Especially on lead, whilst the dog knows THEY are not in control YOU are, if this dog communication is not listened to with early 'self-calming signals' (lip licking, yawning, turning head away or sitting down) they escalate the communication to us on the other end of the lead...with a bark, lunge, or worse, saying ..."woof...growl... snarl.. I am uncomfortable here... please help me". !!
We need to read our dogs, understand what they are feeling and so help them.
BE YOUR DOG'S SUPER HERO...! Learn to speak DOG..! They will love you for it!
Good arousals can be putting a lead and collar on, for a rescue dog... this can trigger hyperarousal.. the walk outside of the front door is a fearful event.
Socialisation and habituation (helping the dog to be comfortable in their new home and environment) is a slow, gentle process, at puppy stage, but can take weeks and months for a rescued dog, who generally is living halfway up the arousal Ladder all the time, they have learnt to do so for self protection.
Personally, this is my favourite subject, helping dogs who struggle in their environment, understanding their emotions and subsequent behaviours which are all emotion driven, educating the owner to go really, really slowly with rehabilitation, and to BE MORE DOG.
​