Is my dog ruined?
I sent my dog to board and train for almost 2 years. I pulled him out after witnessing some questionable things the trainer was doing.
For example, the trainer was trying to teach me a training technique to keep the dog behind me while I walk in tight spaces by kicking up my back feet and encouraging me to kick harder if the dog didn’t understand. This made me uncomfortable.
The trainer would slam the kennel doors in the dogs’ faces to teach them boundaries. I don’t mean lightly tapping, full on slams in the face. This made me uncomfortable.
This trainer excessively used AI for everything including her training techniques, daily life, and would even just talk to it for fun. This made me uncomfortable.
I witnessed this trainer throw metal dog bowls full force at dogs’ kennels when they were whining on multiple occasions. This made me uncomfortable.
I volunteered a lot and watched my dog and others in the facility sit in kennels for 10+ hours a day only to be let out to go potty or get water. This made me the most uncomfortable.
I could go on.
I took my dog back and immediately saw that he knew practically nothing. He could barely stay in his sit. The worst part about this is that he’s extremely nervous. We do conformation and he just melts to the ground every time. He’s great in conformation class, but if he doesn’t know you, he doesn’t want to be touched.
I have tried everything. Literally everything to fix his nervousness. It is not genetic, I have had multiple professional evaluations and am in contact with his littermates and know his lines well. This is learned behavior. I am so worried that he’s broken.
I need help, I need to know if he’s going to be like this forever or if I can do more to help him realize that the whole world isn’t going to eat him just because someone is approaching to touch him for 2 seconds in the ring.
I put him in a different program to see if that would help and it did a little bit, but today, we had a friend over that he had never met before. I set him up in a stack and asked the friend to approach and just like every time in the ring, he melts, won’t let him touch, etc.
Afterwards, I let him meet the friend and then he’s just fine. Set him up again, friend approached, absolutely no reaction. Stood for the friend nicely, let him examine.
I am at my wits end. How do I help my dog? Should we give up showing?