All of you know that I have named all the dogs at my house the Graham Cracker 5 Bunch! Well this post is about Ms.Molly!
We've had Molly a year and a half already and its been wonderful.Well anyway some of Molly's past has come out this summer. When the mosquitos came out in June my Mom was swatting one in the kitchen and when Molly seen the fly swatter in my Moms hand she got really scared.Then the other day when my Mom bumped Blusky he let out a little yelp and again Molly got scared and this time retreated to my closet in a dark corner of the closet.When my Mom finally got her to come out Molly was shaking like a leaf.We figured that Molly was really abused by her previous owner!
Oh, that's so sad. Poor Molly. Kissies to the sweet grrrrrrl. Everyone loves you and you will never be hurt again.
Bonnie, too, is very skittish about sticks (mops and brooms and Penelope the purple ball vacuum cleaner). She absolutely goes into shake down mode when the oven is on and it's the slightest bit dirty. Poor baby. We think she must have been in a fire.
Rescues are the way to go but sometimes you wonder about some of the baggage they come with.
...and sometimes they are skittish for no real reason. There's nothing in Zora's past that would suggest anything less than a happy life from day 1, yet she gets extremely skittish when people move too fast, as if that person is going to hurt her. Zeke completely retreats to the farthest corner on the lowest level in the house anytime he hears a firecracker, or even thunder for that matter.
Well David a couple of ours is the same way as Zeke when it comes to firecrackers and thunder.Last year my brother in-laws Aunt suggested to us to get thunder coats,well we went to the Nebraska Humane Society and got 2 and boy was it worth the money.We need to get 2 more and we seen not to long ago that a Petsmart by where I live carries them.
Quote from: David C. on July 19, 2012, 08:57:25 PM...and sometimes they are skittish for no real reason. There's nothing in Zora's past that would suggest anything less than a happy life from day 1, yet she gets extremely skittish when people move too fast, as if that person is going to hurt her. Zeke completely retreats to the farthest corner on the lowest level in the house anytime he hears a firecracker, or even thunder for that matter.
Miss Aima is just the same way and she has been loved and adored from day 1 by Kathy, her breeder and by me. She's just skittish. Maybe they were beat up, so to speak, by an alpha puppy at feeding time or something like that. It's not necessarily prior abuse. Abused dogs very often overcome that and give and receive love. This is like some point of neurological development that got hay-wired in day six of life; like puppies that never see a black person, until they are older and freak out when they see one.
Keren
Sometimes it depends on how well they were socialized as a puppy in the critical socialization period depends on if they have seen the item or not. hitting the bug is still hitting something maybe that is what scared her or as you thought may have been hit when younger just hard to tell sometimes.