regression, advancement, regression, advancement...

Snow Bunny Beckett

As you can see by the pic, Beckett is finding his love of snow almost instantly. This is the 'other side' to his personality.

Tonight I posted a note on the WIN chat group to see what others may have done in similar instances with their rescued dog.

Beckett is NOT about to go willingly into a crate and in all honesty, until he wants to, he is fine sleeping on his blanket... wherever we may put it.

Beckett's problem is that when he is in the house and we come home to take him for a walk, he gets excessively nervous and it's as if he has never seen us before and he goes through his mode of growling, trying to get away from us and sometimes losing control of his functions before we can get him outside. We do have one of those corral cages and it does have the ability to keep him away from the carpet but I think it's only causing him to be more nervous.

I'll try that reward for going outside thing with the bell but I have already started the 'cheese' trick of giving him the reward as we clip on. It works sometimes and not at others. We just wonder if this is normal for him being 2 1/2 weeks with us? He is asleep on the sofa about 2 feet away from me now but when I get his leash he will go into his evasive and scared mode and may even wet on the sofa (we act quickly to clean up any mess before it goes through the blankets. Although I've been next to him for several hours, he will still act like I've just hurt him. The poor guy... I wish I knew how to work that aspect out more quickly than just letting time take it over.

Right now I understand the bonding process is slow and in some ways he has learned to enjoy us such as when we're on walks. He shows a whole new personality. LOL... if he were a husky we'd let him stay out longer but without a lot of his backside fur, he has limited time before we bring him back in. I don't want him to develop hip issues so I'll keep a watch on him until he builds up his hind end muscle mass. I am sure the lack of exercise over his puppy mill days is the reason since he does love to play. It will happen and over time.

So, if someone has gone through this and has that secret method for a mill dog of about 2 years, i'm all ears!