Dog with ptsd

[Gamera3000]

Also, Collies have a strong instinct to herd (as you said yourself), and they tend to see kids as sheep to herd. Should your dog ever go into herding mode, commanding her to stop is unlikely to help, as she will be acting on instinct, and will likely be oblivious of any obedience training she may have had. It will help greatly to teach your child not to respond to herding attempts by running away, but rather standing still.

NEVER would have thought of this standing still thing. THANK YOU for this and the rest of your reply, which was very helpful. I'm going to institute the standing still rule right away. She mainly herds the cats in our house, but she also tries to herd one of the two other dogs (both pit bulls). The dog does obey her, but the cats don't. I think it contributes to her stress that the cats are walking around in an unpredictable way and she can't control that.

 

[The Albatross]

I've had a house full of rescues/feral/strays/abandoned. I have yet to see, but I imagine I've been pretty fortunate about an animal that has been so damaged it had to be destroyed. Even bait dogs for pits... as I had an acquaintance who made it her mission to troll/rescue or adopt those in FL, AL, MS, GA, LA.

But I could be entirely wrong. Damage? Surely? Out of the realm of possibility for an animal to suffer a brain injury for traumas outside and away from their hardwiring? Nope. However, canine existence, and human existence is not exactly the same without training I think.

Like I said could be wrong entirely though. But I have yet to undo the damage from an abused animal, and can't say the same for a person/people/me.

 

[Deleted member 41765]

Dogs, like humans, are mammals with a limbic system. I agree with @Dead

Oops, trying to post this on my phone! I agree with @Deadman it is a thing. I see symptoms in my rescue pit bull who spent the first year and a half in the shelter. Training has helped, but not alleviated his reactiveness or fears.

 

[Renestel]

I can say that in Colorado (where its dog country) PTSD in dogs is recognized to a degree. The complicated part is as the all familiar Cesar Milan says, the dog is going to take on your behavior- essentially your problems can become their problems, but as others have spoken they can absolutely have their own baggage/backgrounds as well. Ive worked in dog daycare, then training and now dog rescue. I have seen a lot. Both of my dogs are rescues, one absolutely has PTSD. She grew up on the streets of New Mexico where she may have been farrel? But definitely got beaten by a man or men. Had a broken tail when we got her at 6 weeks. If a male leans over and lifts an arm to pet her she just LOSES it. She was very low confidence, noise sensitivity, panic attacks and she would obsessively lick when stressed to the point of self harm. We talked to a few doctors while training and one said to try Prozac low level, and oh my gosh that combined with my working with her has made her a completely new dog. She enjoys life now, panic and self harm are gone, not as stressed when people come over. Its been amazing.

 

[Milo's papa]

I have a rescued black German Shepherd mix that if you look at her face a certain way looks like a wolf.

We know a little about her life prior to being rescued as the people that rescued her have rescued others from the same place.


We know that she was shot at. So now any time she hears a vehicle back fire, thunder, fireworks, ever someone pounding in a nail she totally freaks out. She just shakes uncomfortably and tries to crawl inside my wife or I.

Our vet says she's definitely got PTSD and put her on tranquilizers. There's no other way she could make it through the 4th of July without them.