Fearful to Fearless
Everyone this is Evie.
Evie is not my new dog I’m just looking after her for her owner, Jan who is currently recovering from a major back operation.
A bit about Evie.
Evie is a rescue from Many Tears. We are told that she was taken from a family where their son beat her!
I can remember the first time I saw Evie with her new owner, Jan. She was that scared I don’t even think I got to stroke her or even give her a treat. She was very scared of new people in a different place. Evie had only been with Jan a week but totally depended on her. Everything was so frightening. In the couple of months that Jan had her before her op she managed to get Evie positively rewarded around people and let her see that nobody was going to hit her anymore. Jan was her protection, her rock.
Evie is now living with me for a couple of months until Jan is fully recovered, we’re unsure how long that will be but that doesn’t matter because she is such a character and loves the other dogs, she fits in with our gang just fine. I hope Jan makes a good speedy recovery but it will take as long as it takes. Evie has already come a very long way. It’s easy to forget when you compare her to others, you just have to remember her as an individual, which people forget. She is so much more confident around new people when she trusts the person with her. She is experiencing new things she has probably never seen before in her life and going to lots of different places.
However things are still scary now and again and she fears things, most when they move. Although, she may have seen it in a stationary position and not batted an eyelid at it. It’s MEGGA SCARY when it moves! The positive way I look at this is Evie fearing is not a problem it’s the way in which she fears the object, is it fight or flight!?!
Evie runs away from the object and doesn’t stand snapping or trying to fight with it, She gets as far away from as it as she can and then continues to bark at it. She wants to get away a.s.a.p!
Here is a video of Evie with an Exercise Ball. She has seen this exercise ball for about 2 weeks, in a stationary position. When it moves it becomes scary. You can see her behaviour change. The video also shows how WE worked together to take her from fearful to fearless unbelievably in less then 5 minutes!
Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results. – Winnie Nelson.
