u/Fableville

I may be fishing for encouragement but also I’d like to fine tune how I work with new rescue, because everyday I learn that I know less than k thought I did. I will try (and probably fail) to keep this short.

Some background on us… I am a 28f living with my parents, I grew up with a dog that wasn’t the most friendly. She calmed down in her golden years but she was dangerous when she was young. We kept her regardless and she broke our hearts in 2024 when we had to say goodbye. That’s my dog experience. I got my own dog this year, she’s almost 2 now and an ACD “mix”. Embark says she’s 100%. She came from acreage, was surrendered for a lack time and was pregnant, though the shelter spayed her ASAP and I adopted her maybe 4 days after her intake.

I did all the planning, I looked at my finances, my time, I tried to imagine my life if I can move out. I was ready for my own dog! Days after I brought meadow home all that confidence collapsed. The puppy blues hit me like a freight train and the moment she showed me she was reactive it got even worse. Still, I’ve put a lot of work into this dog.

She LOVES me, she hid from me in the shelter but 20 minutes after I got home she started following me everywhere. She was sick the first couple of days, and then I was sick so it was kind of a rough start for her. Now, her problems… EVERYTHING! She was scared of literally everything, from sprinklers to dumpsters, lunged at passing cars, would hang herself pulling at dogs, and start barking like a maniac at people, bikes, strollers, all of it. And she’s mean about it, too, hackles up, snarly bark. I know she’s just scared and it’s a breed thing - I didn’t know cattle dogs weren’t naturally friendly, but I’m learning. She also would fence fight any time the neighbors were out in their own yards.

We’ve had big ups and downs. The worst is she nipped a friend of mine while reacting to another dog. I understand it was redirection but I was mortified. She cannot settle down when I have guests in the house. It took her all weekend to roll over for belly rubs when my sister was visiting. Literally I’m the driveway when we were saying goodbye… BUT Meadow didn’t know anything except how to pee outside. I have a balanced trainer friend who’s given me some pointers, and this is what we’ve accomplished in 6 months.

Meadow can sit, down, stay (sort of), come (through she walks right passed me), spin left and right, touch (like a fist bump ☺️), I taught her to fetch AND put her balls in a basket or in my hand) and she can heel (for maybe 45 seconds). We’ve basically stopped all reactivity to wheels, she only panics if a kid scooters too close to her, and she’s not scared of stationary objects anymore. She mostly ignores our neighbors these days, can walk past strangers and dogs for the most part, she’s still not 100% on that. She discovered she can swim and has recently started joining me on my paddleboard. I won’t say she likes it, but she tolerates me.

Things really started changing after I started using a prong collar and my friend showed me how to set her up for more rewards and recondition some of her fear.