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Un-Socialized Dog

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The Un-Socialized Dog

Fear,
as defined by Merriam-Webster,
is an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger.

Meet Tank.

This is how he looked when we met him for the first time: crouched in a corner with his tail tucked firmly between his legs, hidden between his dog house and some scrap wood to get as far away from us as his chain would allow. He was shaking with fear and when we got close enough to ever so lightly touch him, he urinated uncontrollably.

Tank is a seven month old American Pit Bull Terrier. Contrary to popular belief,
the only vicious beings here were the ones holding the camera.

Tank's owner ended up with a litter of unwanted pit bulls quite by "accident", or more accurate - negligence. He thought the garage was an appropriate place to raise the pups; they had little to no human interaction during the early months of their lives, integral for socialization. Seven months later, the remaining puppy, which had been upgraded from the garage to the dog house and chain, was becoming too much of an inconvenience so his owner called the local dog shelter. When they told him that the pup would be euthanized immediately because of his breed, the owner threatened to shoot him in the head; apparently, he felt that to be the more humane solution. When we found out about this, we went to pick up Tank, hoping to be able to rehabilitate him and give him the life he had been deprived of, but was so very deserving of.

Tank was a sweet and very intelligent pup. He was absolutely beautiful and loved the other dogs. He could play an incredible game of tug with them. He was so frightened of everything; most times it took much coaxing just to get him to come into the house. He went to a training class to help work on his socialization. While he learned the commands wonderfully, he remained terribly frightened of everything and everybody. At home, he exhibited severe separation anxiety from the one person that he had grown to trust. Upon meeting new people, he wanted to run away or would sometimes growl at them. In any case, his eyes would be frantically scanning the area looking for a way to escape those which caused him fear, a way to get as far away from the scary people as he could.

All people but one remained scary to him. Think of the one thing you fear most in the world and what life would be like if you had to spend every waking moment with that thing, but all you wanted to do was to be as far away from it as possible. Giant spiders, scorpions, snakes no matter how nice they are, no matter that they have never harmed you would still cause intense feelings of fear and discomfort and no one could convince you otherwise.
Fear is an emotion, a feeling which cannot be changed through teaching or training.

Months went by, but Tank's fear only grew worse. His fear began to manifest itself as aggression with unpredictable growling and lounging. He eventually nipped his foster dad. He was like keeping a wild animal hostage in an environment he could never feel safe in. He enjoyed the company of his foster mom, but could not relax and feel safe with anyone else.

Tried as we did, the damage his former owner had inflicted to his psyche by isolating him from humans was irreversible. Tank's foster Mom spent quiet time with him, petting him, loving him and telling him he was a good boy. He slept in bed with her and woke her with kisses each morning. He had toys, good food, a warm place to sleep, humans who loved him and humans who mourned and still mourn for him.

We hope he felt loved.

Tank does not have to live in fear anymore.