Annie is 5 yo, golden retriever. we adopted her about 18 months ago. her history is that she was abused by her first owners. the second owners paid for her to rescue her from the first, she was bred twice by the first owner, kept outside on concrete to have her puppies in the winter. she is blind in one eye. the second owners were going to breed her too, but decided to give her up to a home where she would just be a pet. we are that home. we had her spayed right away.
she is a good dog, but nervous as heck. the nervousness is a vicious cycle. she does very annoying things such as walking right into your pathway, being exactly where you don't need a dog to be, causing you to have to tell her to move all the time; pooping on carpets. (we had our downstairs carpet completely taken out. which was a good thing, we had our existing oak floor refinished and it's awesome. she hasn't pooped there since. but the one section of the house that still has carpet, she continues to "hit" occasionally.) lately she has begun digging in the gardens again. this time it's happening right outside our front door. i've been letting her out and then waiting awhile to let her back in (we're in a semi rural area and she has shown that she does not run away). she will sneak food off the table if given half a chance. she will pick the garbage if there is something she thinks is tasty. she pushes her way out of doors. when i open the baby gate at the top of the steep stairs in the morning, she always has to be the first one through it.
overall, she's a pretty good dog. she is completely trustworthy around the kids. everybody who knows her seems to like her.
last year i took her to dog training class (positive reinforcement class, non punitive), she was fairly successful. her biggest issue was her anxiety. it was apparent to all of the instructors. they said that she has "a lot of skeletons in her closet." they said this is why she is pushing out the door -- an open door was her "escape route" probably in the past. the instructors said don't bother trying to teach her to wait until people go through the gate first -- just train all the people to let the dog go first.
if you have any experience with this type of dog situation, what do you think? is there any hope for taming some of her bad habits (chiefly pooping on carpets, and digging in gardens), or are these nervous habits unsolvable just like the baby gate at the top of the stairs?
do we need to give it more time for her to settle down? she is ours to keep, we won't be getting rid of her or anything. i'm just looking for ideas to improve our situation here. any help is greatly appreciated!!!
she is a good dog, but nervous as heck. the nervousness is a vicious cycle. she does very annoying things such as walking right into your pathway, being exactly where you don't need a dog to be, causing you to have to tell her to move all the time; pooping on carpets. (we had our downstairs carpet completely taken out. which was a good thing, we had our existing oak floor refinished and it's awesome. she hasn't pooped there since. but the one section of the house that still has carpet, she continues to "hit" occasionally.) lately she has begun digging in the gardens again. this time it's happening right outside our front door. i've been letting her out and then waiting awhile to let her back in (we're in a semi rural area and she has shown that she does not run away). she will sneak food off the table if given half a chance. she will pick the garbage if there is something she thinks is tasty. she pushes her way out of doors. when i open the baby gate at the top of the steep stairs in the morning, she always has to be the first one through it.
overall, she's a pretty good dog. she is completely trustworthy around the kids. everybody who knows her seems to like her.
last year i took her to dog training class (positive reinforcement class, non punitive), she was fairly successful. her biggest issue was her anxiety. it was apparent to all of the instructors. they said that she has "a lot of skeletons in her closet." they said this is why she is pushing out the door -- an open door was her "escape route" probably in the past. the instructors said don't bother trying to teach her to wait until people go through the gate first -- just train all the people to let the dog go first.
if you have any experience with this type of dog situation, what do you think? is there any hope for taming some of her bad habits (chiefly pooping on carpets, and digging in gardens), or are these nervous habits unsolvable just like the baby gate at the top of the stairs?
do we need to give it more time for her to settle down? she is ours to keep, we won't be getting rid of her or anything. i'm just looking for ideas to improve our situation here. any help is greatly appreciated!!!
