How to Bring a Dog Back to Life: Part 1

There are dead dogs walking among us. It’s an unfortunate truth of our society that not everyone values dogs in the same way, and stories of animal abuse are common enough that all of us can probably repeat one or two from recent memory.

If you have ever encountered a dog who has survived or lives with this kind of abuse, you have seen a dog who looks dead behind their eyes – their spirit is gone and their joy in living has been extinguished. They are dead to the world.

A Rescue Story

I’d like to share a story about one such dog and the determined woman who resurrected him, bringing him back to life in a most amazing way.

The story begins in a rural town of Lind in southeastern Washington State where local authorities were called to a residence that housed over 111 miniature Australian Shepherds living in the most deplorable conditions imaginable. The facility was apparently a “puppy mill”, a breeding facility to produce pups for sale as commodities. But clearly things had gotten beyond the owners control to manage in a humane way.

What authorities found when they were called to the residence was shocking and deplorable. Of the 115 dogs found on the property, only 111 were alive. After authorities had brought in trainers and veterinarians to assess the health of the dogs, only 86 dogs survived to be re-homed. All of the surviving dogs would struggle with psychological and behavioral issues.

When Gillian picked up her rescue dog Scruffy on December 31, 2008 at the airport, this small black and brown and white refugee from the horrors of that puppy mill was almost totally non-responsive. He lay curled at the back of his small plastic kennel, would not move, and would not look directly at anyone.

Fortunately, Gillian had already raised a young miniature Australian Shepherd using Clicker Training and the tools available from modern behavioural science. Her task was to apply all that she had learned about behaviour and training to bring this severely disturbed dog back to a place where he could feel comfortable, confident, and safe in a world that had been so cruel to him to this point. Scruffy was six years old when he arrived and had never had what most of us would consider a “normal” life for a dog. He had never run free, had enough food, played on grass, or felt secure in his environment.

First Steps into the Light

In that first week with Scruffy, Gillian struggled with her own emotions. She knew that it was critical to keep Scruffy’s experiences positive. However, it was also necessary for the first few days, at least, to literally pull him from his kennel in order to take him out to take care of bodily functions.

In those first days, Scruffy would not eat with anyone else in the room. It was a challenge for Gillian to even be in the room with Scruffy. He would curl up at the back of his crate and silently tolerate her presence.

In order to reach Scruffy, there had to be a basis of communication between Gillian and this damaged dog. So she spent their first days lying prone on the floor, keeping her eyes carefully turned away, and offering bits of food to Scruffy. Eventually he cautiously and courageously approached her outstretched hand. Gillian was careful to never push the situation beyond Scruffy’s ability to tolerate it. The choice was always his to make to try for the food.

Gillian was using behavioural techniques called desensitization and counter-conditioning. The key to these techniques is never going beyond the dogs ability to tolerate the stress and anxiety of the situation. To keep them below their comfort threshold.  Gillian’s patience paid off quickly and her short sessions provided a measure of security for Scruffy – enough so that he would willingly come to the door of the kennel and take food from her hand.

Creating Communication

Having established Scruffy’s willingness to take food from her, it was time to create that communication link. Clicker Training uses a “clicker”, a noise maker, to mark the correct behaviour. But Scruffy was, predictably, terrified of strange or new sounds. Gillian chose the quietest Clicker she could find and used it in a way that would be the least frightening to Scruffy.

Sitting on the floor next to Scruffy’s crate, Gillian began to teach Scruffy to touch his nose to her hand in return for yummy treats. In the beginning, Scruffy would remain in his crate and Gillian had to put her hand so close to his nose that Scruffy would barely do the touch, mostly by accident.

With careful steps, Gillian slowly moved her hand further from Scruffy’s nose until he was reaching for it, trying to get her to make the “click” and give him the treat. With each training session, Scruffy was learning to trust that “click” and that it would always be followed by a treat.

Gillian wasn’t simply a teaching Scruffy a behaviour. She was teaching this dog that he could affect his world, that his actions in the world could have positive results for him. She was showing him that there could be a way for his actions to bring something other than pain and adversity into his life.  And with this new learning came something else – something important. Trust.  Scruffy found he could trust the consistency that Gillian gave him with that simple click and treat in reward for his cooperation.

Venturing Out with Cautious Confidence

In a matter of days after the training started, Scruffy was venturing out of his crate on his own. He managed to master the two steps up from his small basement room to the door outside.

During this introductory period, Gillian’s other two dogs, Rocco and Quincy seemed to sense the distress in Scruffy and would lay quietly, not making any sudden moves to frighten him. Gillian carefully structured Scruffy’s days to keep anything that might stress him to a minimum.

Now that Scruffy was moving about and exploring a bit on his own, Gillian placed gates up to keep her other dogs from becoming too curious and potentially stressing Scruffy. But Gillian continued working with Scruffy, teaching him new behaviours and taking him into new environments. And always there were rewards.

After her initial week of making Scruffy comfortable with her and the clicker, and providing him the security of knowing when he was right and rewarding him, it was time to introduce Scruffy to other things in his world. Still careful to keep him below his anxiety threshold, Gillian helped Scruffy to master climbing stairs (which he had never seen in his six years) and explore her home.

While Scruffy was demonstrating tremendous progress, evidence of his psychological problems remained. Gillian could not look him directly in the eye. To do so would shut Scruffy down immediately. And at this point Scruffy would not tolerate the presence of anyone other than Gillian.

Gillian created a regular schedule for Scruffy. She worked on easy to learn behaviours in four or five short training sessions of two to three minutes each day.  She was careful never to frustrate Scruffy and to make success easy and highly rewarded. This training not only taught Scruffy simple and useful behaviours, it also created a bond of trust between Scruffy and Gillian. These simple behaviours and Gillian’s patient rewards would become the security Scruffy would need to begin to venture into the world.

Becoming a Dog Again

It is remarkable how dogs can sense the emotional state of other dogs. Gillian’s other two dogs demonstrated remarkable patience and empathy with Scruffy, remaining calm and keeping a gentle demeanor around him in those early days. In their second month together, Scruffy began going out with the other dogs into the yard. While he did not interact or play with the other dogs, he becoming comfortable with their presence and used Gillian as security when anxiety would creep in.

As the days went by, Scruffy’s confidence grew. Gillian began taking Scruffy to the park with the other dogs but he would only stand at her feet and stare into the distance while the other dogs played. Sometimes her cousin Petra would come with her and bring her dogs. Gillian gradually introduced Scruffy to Petra while the rest of the dogs played and in a few weeks of carefully managed interaction, Scruffy began to tolerate Petra and even take food from her.

Weeks went by and Gillian stuck to her carefully structured routine. The consistency of Scruffy’s existence was a marked contrast to the cruel uncertainties of his former life. Scruffy began to relax and to engage in normal dog activities. After being with Gillian for five months, Scruffy finally began to interact with dog toys and to chew on bones to relieve his own stress.

One day Gillian gave Scruffy his own real bone to chew. With wide eyes, Scruffy excitedly took the bone and ran to his kennel to enjoy his prize. He was starting to act like a dog at last.

Click here for part 2 of Eric Brad’s story about Scruffy.

Credits

“The Horrors of Puppy Mills” courtesy of KIMA-TV

YouTube video from KXLY News

“Scruffy”

Recent Eric Brad CPDT-KA Articles:

• The Dog That Changed My Life
• Keeping Your Dog Informed
• Teaching Your Dog to Not-Behave
• The Simple Complexity of Dog Training
• What The Dog Wants