SociaBulls: Finding a Safe Place and Building Confidence

I'm always intrigued by the different reasons people join SociaBulls, and the varying things each of the dogs gets from the group. One smiling face you've probably seen in many of our photos (her devoted dad has taken her nearly every week since she has joined!), is little Sophie. I'm so accustomed to sweet Sophie hamming it up for the camera, I've always forgotten she has fear issues; fear so bad the trainer told her owner 'he was a good guy for keeping her, as most people wouldn't'. 

Sophie is a 3 ½ year old chocolate lab mix (her dad was said to be a vizsla and she seems to have pitbull too)  adopted as a pup from a small town in Missouri.

 

 As a young pup, she wasn't bothered by the noise and excitement of the city. She loved meeting new people and dogs, and even joined her owner at work. Though as she neared one year, things began to change. Here is her story (and photos from our latest walk!):

At about a year old she started randomly growling at people.  It was sporadic and random at first, and there didn’t seem to be a specific trigger.  It was escalated with men and got much worse in any kind of confined area.  It soon escalated to her actually lunging and snapping at anyone she didn’t know who approached her.  I had no idea what to do so at the advice of a lot of people I had met at the park, I called a reputable trainer who has a lot of experience with dogs with behavioral problems.  He came to my place to meet her, and things didn’t go as I had hoped.  She first lunged at him and then ran around growling and snarling.  He said, “This isn’t good.  You’re a good guy for keeping her – most people wouldn’t.”  That kind of stunned me because the thought of not keeping her hadn’t even entered my mind.  I told him the most confusing and frustrating thing to me was trying to understand how she had gone from being so sweet and friendly to being completely scared of strangers.  He explained that dogs who have traumatic experiences as puppies sometimes suppress those memories only to have them return as they get a little older when they manifest themselves in the form of fear aggression.  We came up with a plan to keep her confined using a gate when anyone new comes into my apartment, and he explained ways to have strangers approach her in a way that she won’t perceive as aggressive (no leaning in towards her, avoid making direct eye contact, etc…)

 I realized that it was now really important to keep her out of situations that could trigger any aggression.  This meant no more dog park, no more dog at work, and definitely no dog at places with crowds of people (street festivals, parades, etc…).  This was really sad because I lost all of the human socialization that can come with being a dog owner, and was relegated to lots of long walks with just the two of us.  Most of the interaction I had with people we met on the street consisted of me saying, “she’s not friendly” which is really heartbreaking.

When I first saw the Sociabulls walks on Two Pitties in the City I was intrigued. I thought this might actually be something we could do.  Sophie doesn’t have any problems with leash reactivity and since the dogs and people keep a safe distance before, during and after the walk, I probably wouldn’t have to worry about her feeling frightened by anyone.  Still I had some trepidations because I would be mortified if my dog was the source of some kind of negative incident on walk.  After volunteering to be a guest walker for Levi and then Ms. M, I was confident enough to give it a try.

Not only did we not have any problems, but she actually did really great.  She was excited to see all the other dogs, and it was nice to walk in a new location instead of just around our neighborhood.  The dogless walkers in the group do a great job of warning the pack of impending obstacles (joggers, cyclists, off leash dogs) so everyone can walk confidently.  It’s really amazing to see dogs with so many different issues walk confidently together once the pack starts moving and it has been really wonderful  meeting  so many conscientious owners who are working to make their dog’s lives a little better.    Like fellow Sociabull Lola who has issues similar to Sophie, I also try to have her meet and take treats from friends we’ve met on the walks.  I definitely have seen Sophie become more confident and less fearful of people we meet while we’re walking, and while I still warn strangers that she is afraid of people, I’ve now been able to allow certain people we meet to pet her once she’s taken a few seconds to sniff them out and determine that they’re not threatening.  

 While I’d love to have a friendly dog that can be an ambassador for bully breeds, I’ve accepted that my role is to do my best to put Sophie good situations and keep her out of  positions where she might behave in a way that promotes negative stereotypes.  I feel really lucky to have the weekly Sociabulls walks that allow us to do this while we explore new areas of the city and meet a bunch of fantastic new people and dogs.  We’re also lucky to have great friends that she loves (who we met in the early days before the  aggression) who help me take care of her and we found an amazing day care facility where they’re happy to take care of her and even work patiently with her when they have new employees so she can make new human friends.   

If anyone reading this has a dog with fear issues, I’d love to hear about things you do to manage them.

 

You can also read about more SociaBulls Members: Torre (From Learning about Pitbulls to Developing an Ambassadog),  Estelle (Waiting to Be Noticed), Franklin (A Small Dog in a Big Dog Group), Gordon (Learning to Be Social and Have Dog Friends),  Nabi (A Shy Dog Making Sense of a "People World") Sprocket (Teaching a Dog When it's not Time to Play), Lola (Living in the City with a Dog who Fears Strangers),  Zoe (The Dog who "Loves Too Hard"),  Izzy (Being a good pitbull ambassador while working with an energetic dog) and Maize (Being social with an unsocial pup).
Plus, join our Chicago SociaBulls  Facebook page for more photos and information about group walks. And check out the Hikabulls page where we first learned about the benefits of group walking and  this link from the DINOs (Dogs in Need of Space) group to read the discussion and see if there is a group in your area.  

Please Note: As the weather has warmed up, bikers, runners, dogs, and kids have come out in full force in many of the areas that we walk. While we had previously been introducing new members a few at a time to each walk, we've decided that in order to continue to keep our group safe and make our walks a positive experience for everyone, we are putting new members "on hold" for the summer. You can still submit an application, and it will go on our wait list in the order it is received. Once things quiet down a bit more in the fall, we will resume introducing new members a few at a time to each walk, and will be contacting people on the wait list in a first-come, first-served manner.