Dog Book Review: Cautious Canine

Cautious Canine: How to Help Dogs Conquer Their Fears
Patricia McConnell
$6.95
www.dogwise.com

This short book is a great primer for owners of shy and fearful dogs. Basically, Dr. McConnell teaches the reader how to use desensitization and counterconditioning (D&C) to help fearful dogs get used to unfamiliar people and situations. This positive method approach is extremely effective – I have used it on numerous foster dogs with great success.

The key to D&C is to use very high value treats and to start at a distance from the feared object where the dog is not showing any fear. For some, this distance might be only a few feet. For others, the distance is a few hundred feet and then small steps are taken over a long period of time to bring the dog closer to the feared object.

Recommended for the library of anyone who fosters dogs.

Foster Dog #8: Shatzi

Shatzi means "sweetheart" in German. She is definitely has a sweet sheltie heart. A really big sheltie heart!

Shatzi is the biggest sheltie I have ever met. She isn't huge like a Great Dane, but she is big for a sheltie. And, she has a bark to match. Big and loud. Especially when she sees or even hears a car.

So, Shatzi needs some training and needs some vetting and then can go to her forever home.

Charlie

Charlie Bear, an Aussie/Golden Retriever mix, stayed with us for one week. He was turned over to the Bangor Humane Society because he was too shy and did not warm up to the men in the family fast enough.

In the week that he stayed with us, he was a very good boy. However, he needed to be in a foster home with bigger dogs - the ones here are just too small for him to play with.

So, he traveled to another home and there he will stay until he is adopted!

Sunshiney Spirit

Spirit,

a Pom mix, looking very cute.

Smelly, but cute. She likes to roll in smelly things. Like skunk. And, deer poop.

She loves to bark. Sounds like she has been a smoker - hoarse and deep! You should hear her howl! At night, she loves to cuddle with me and Robbie.

Outside, she runs and runs. She is very fast and such a tease!

This last one is Spirit and Ella wrestling. Can you tell which is which? And, yes, I was standing in the house and took the picture from my dining room window.

Compassion Fatigue

I have compassion fatigue. And, it is starting to affect how I feel about rescue. I feel tired a lot. Some days, it feels like all I do is work and take care of dogs. All I hear is barking. All I smell is dogs. Like there is no pleasure to watching the dogs eat their dinners. To playing ball outside with them. To having a cuddle on the couch. To training.

It is even harder to listen politely while people make stupid excuses for giving up their dogs. We are moving and can't take him/her. We don't have the time. We can't afford it. Blah blah blah. Every animal rescuer has heard all the excuses and we all know that most of them aren't true.

The hardest thing of all is when we ask for help from others and get no response.

So, since I feel myself getting bitter and tired, I am going to have to do something about this. The shelties rely on me. My own dogs rely on me. Holly and the other sheltie rescuers rely on me. I do not want to burn out and not be able to help!

Here is a good definition of compassion fatigue:

Compassion fatigue is what we feel when we've cared for others more than ourselves, when our sense of responsibility to others has become exaggerated or out of balance.

The Animals in Our Hearts website has some great articles and links for people who have compassion fatigue.