Scared Dog

[mbunta]

I found a 2 years old pit-bull,boxer mix male in the woods where I was hiking with my family. He was very bad injured(a shot wound on his paw) and he had multiple wounds on his face. It was very clear that the dog was abused, so we took him to a shelter and we waited the 10 days period for people to claim him. Well, nobody did so we adopted him. He is very sweet,very friendly and with many behavior problems.
He is very afraid to be left alone, he loves to be with people. The moment we leave him alone to go to work, he stars crying and barking and becomes very agitated. Even if I play with him outside and the moment I get in the house for a minute he drops the toy and stays by the door for hours if I would let him. I don't know what I need to do to make him feel safe. He is with us for more than 3 month's now and he is still very afraid of everything, loud noises scares him so much that he runs in the house and stays on his bed for hours and takes us a lot of time and energy to try to make him go outside again. Any suggestions would be appreciated.



Thank you,

Maria

[LetsPlay]

Hi there,

the best thing you can do is be the pack leader for him. That way he doesn't have to worry about anything as he will know that you take care of him.
Have you read the Alpha Dog book?

Always be calm and consistent. Practice exposing him to noises (quieter noise first, then louder noise), treat him if he stays calm. Be noisy when he is eating his dinner, so he connects noise with something positive.

Let us know how you get on
John