Fear
Response
I recently scared off a potential client by inadvertently showing my dogs’ worst side first.
Oops.
Muirna and Zia are an interesting pair. They are bonded sisters. They truly cannot be separated. They are happy here and here they will stay. I love them dearly. The girls came to me terrified and shut down, worse than any case I have ever seen before, and I’ve seen quite a lot being a part of rescue for decades. Their “safe place” is the far side of my bed, the farthest they can get from the front of the house where strangers come. They still eat in there, five years later, and I cannot yet teach them a reliable recall, one reason being that if they think there is food involved, they run for the bedroom. But that’s a story for another day. Today’s story is about their fear response to strangers.
Imagine you are out in your yard and out of the blue there is a bear coming right towards you. You know the drill: Make yourself as big and ferocious as you can. Wave your arms. Yell. Show that bear you are meaner than he is. The bear lumbers off. Whew! What a relief. It worked. The next time you are out in the yard here comes another bear. What do you do? Well, it worked last time! Wave your arms! YELL! Be MEAN!!! And the bear lumbers off. Does this mean you going to turn around and be mean to someone else? Of course not! You are not a mean person. You just needed to pretend to be bigger and meaner than that bear to
SCARE HIM OFF!!
That is what Muirna and Zia do every time a stranger comes. They dash to the fence and they bark and growl and bark and charge the fence and that scary FedEx driver leaves! It worked! So of course, they do the same thing for every stranger that comes.
Does this make them mean dogs?
Of course not!
These are two VERY gentle dogs.
Let’s go back to the bear. What if the bear doesn’t stop? It’s getting closer and closer. Well, if it were me, my bravery threshold would be reached and I’d be high-tailing it into the house! Muirna and Zia are the same. As soon as they realize the stranger is coming in despite their efforts, they dash into the house and into the bedroom to their safe spot.
I do not know much about Muirna and Zia’s past, but I do know dog behavior and I know a dog that has been treated severely when I see one (or in this case, two.) These two had a tough time before coming here and they have the scars to show for it, bad enough to have a lifelong effect on them.
They will never be “brave” dogs but they will always be gentle dogs.
It is their nature.
So, how did I scare off my potential client? On my way to call the dogs into the house, I answered the phone and missed my window to get the dogs in the house before the car pulled in. By the time I got to the yard, the would-be client was out of the car and Muirna and Zia’s “go away” barking was over the top. They were too stressed to listen to me until I went back in for a leash. They know that means they have to go in and they went right in the house, but by then the would-be client was just too rattled and chose not to meet the dogs. I truly felt terrible that our first impression was such a bad one.
What should you expect when you arrive for your meet and greet?
Hopefully, I’m on the ball and the dogs are in the house. When you arrive, call or text me from your car if I don’t come right out. We will take time to talk and give your dog(s) time to explore the yard before I bring my girls out on leash. Everybody gets to meet, leashes come off and all’s well! You will get to see just how great these girls really are.
I look forward to our meet and greet and look forward to providing your dog(s) with a fun, enjoyable vacation with Muirna, Zia and Gibbie.