Need help please: feral puppy

Let me tell you the saga of the puppies. First, in December, we found Olive, who gave birth 3 days later to four puppies (web album to awww over). They were sweet and not much trouble and adopted quickly, no problem. (We do still have Olive, who I like a lot, plus our two dogs and two cats.)

The rescue organization I sometimes foster for had another mama dog who gave birth when Olive’s pups were about 5 weeks old. Nine puppies. The foster parent for that dog is a friend of mine, and I agreed to watch them all when she went on vacation for two weeks. That was not very much fun, because the mama dog pooped all over my house, and nine puppies is just insane. They left a week ago, thank god. I was about to loose my mind. Here are a few of that brood.

A few days after I got mama and the nine, we found a litter of feral puppies in a cave nearby. I couldn’t catch any except one, who was too weak to run away from me because she was infested with maggots. Oh my god! Ewww! Ewww! Went to the vet, is fine now. Another friend of mine agreed to foster them, and we caught them all except one. This was about 10 days ago. I finally caught the last puppy today. He’s totally freaked out. I think he’s probably 8-9 weeks old. He’s covered with fleas and very thin.

So: feral puppies.

My friend with the other 4 is out of town right now (for another 10 days, I think), and her husband works long hours. Those puppies are doing pretty well, and he would probably take this one if I asked, which I might.

But would that be the best thing? Should I keep him here, where he can be with me and my dogs 90% of the time and really be immersed in the people culture, or should I send him to be with his siblings? Or should I get one or of the other puppies and bring it here as a companion?

Also, just in general–what’s the best way to do this? Should I put him in the room with me and let him come to me, or should I basically keep him in my lap as much as possible to desensitize him?

I know this is borderline too old to socialize, but hopefully we can make this work. Googling feral puppies has not produced a ton of information. Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks in advance,

Crazy Dog Lady

I wish I knew what to tell you, but I don’t. I just wanted to say that you’re incredibly nice to do what you’ve done. SO many people let animals fend for themselves. You’re a good person.

If he was older, I’d say wait for him but 8 weeks is young enough that I think he could adapt. I’d keep him with me all the time and include him in everything. I’d let him sleep with the other dogs (since family sleeps together) and always give him the last bite of your food (since family shares its food). I’d say enroll him in puppy class and treat him with the same expectations you have of other 8 week olds and expect him to adjust to his new life. He’s still young enough that he will look to you and the older dogs to learn how to be a dog so it’s important to give him lots of good examples (and yummy treats and belly rubs!) and also lots of patience. If you hang back now, that’s what he’ll learn instead.

At least that’s how I’d do it. It’s easy for me to give advice since I’m not the one doing the work.

I’d keep him with you, since you have more time to spend with him. He’d normally be weaned at this age and separated from his family anyway. He can still be turned around! Make sure you have him vetted before you throw him in with your other dogs. Good for you for taking on such a worthwhile task.

StG

We foster dogs for a rescue organization as well, and often we get dogs that have little or only negative contact with people and are very scared and hungry.

When I first get them I let them eat and drink water (then outside to pee right away!) and I leave them alone for an hour or so to get their bearings. Then I bring them in to the living room and I sit on the floor. I don’t try to hold them or make them come to me, I just wait for them to come to me, and they usually do after a few minutes. I spend at least an hour with them, petting and talking softly.

With dogs like that, if I’m going out and they are still really shy, I start to kennel train right away. I make it dark, give them water and a couple of toys, and a blanket. They’re usually fine for a few hours. I never leave them with my two dogs alone in this situation, because dogs are still dogs, and they’d probably hurt the sick puppy (plus, worms and all that).

I don’t know if this helps, but good luck! Lots of good human contact will bring the little dude around.

Also, one trick we use if they are really food motivated (gobble food so fast they throw up or almost choke), which most are, we put the kibble on a cookie sheet and spread it out so they have to take more time to eat. Works like a charm.

In February 2007, our nephew found a completely wild, starving American Pit Bull Terrier puppy, about six months old, in the streets of a rural town. At first he took the little dog to his grandmother, my wife’s mom, but she wasn’t able to keep up with the pup, and she was due in the hospital for cancer surgery (she’s currently okay after treatment, fingers crossed!). The vet informed her that the law requires stray dogs to be turned over to the animal control people in case they’re claimed, so the disoriented pup, who did not know how to interact with people or other dogs, was turned over to the shelter for the required six days.

Nationwide, the odds of a pit bull being adopted from a county shelter are 1 in 600, I read; that includes the completely perfect ones. Certainly the odds were even worse for this ragged, staring little foundling with poor bite inhibition.

We had no significant experience with pit bulls. The pup would need to be trained and exercised with a dedication we had not yet had to exert for any of our other animals: she wasn’t housetrained at all, she expressed herself with her increasingly powerful teeth, she didn’t recognize any dominance or submission cues in other dogs, she didn’t respond to human touch, she didn’t respond to treats, and wasn’t particularly interested in food or toys. I think she’d been raised in isolation.

In short, she would be a ton of work with uncertain results. We knew almost nothing about “pit bulls” except what we read in the news. I did not especially find the idea of a pit bull attractive, and we had certainly not planned on another dog in our small condo…and our resident dog was dog-aggressive. Every rational indication was against going back to the shelter and claiming her. My wife said to me, “Can we do this without totally changing our lifestyle?” and the answer was NO, without a doubt.

But there was no one else. No one was going to step up for this little thing.

To make it seem possible at all, I told myself we would be temporary foster parents.

We brought her home, and named her Simone, because it seemed like a sophisticated name for a little uneducated rural pit bull.

Simone barely interacted with people – mostly she chewed things (including me!) and stared wide-eyed at everything. The vet thinks she was six months old, and her behavior seemed (to my admittedly out-of-practice eye) to be behind the curve, as if she was neglected and was only starting to learn things other puppies learned months ago. For example, puppies learn bite inhibition from their littermates.

We kept her in the kitchen behind a baby gate, and (when we weren’t home) in a crate, while trying to housetrain her.

One secret to taming a feral animal is just to be present. Sitting in the kitchen with her, passively keeping her company for long stretches of time, seemed to calm her…but I got sore, I got tired, I got bored. Boredom is a powerful tool for taming animals, however – eventually she started taking an interest in me; at first falling asleep in my lap, then hanging out near me while doing her own thing, and finally staring at me with the eternal question, “What now? What should I do?” and, once I had her attention, it became possible to start teaching her.

I wasn’t by any means an expert on how to housetrain. But I was (and remain) committed to positive reinforcement training, so I had to come up with something. My homemade solution was that when she peed in the house, I’d dip a paper towel in it, and take her and the towel outside and put the towel in the grass, make sure she sniffed it (no nose-rubbing or scolding), then praise her. And of course take her out early and often, every two hours at minimum.

It worked really well! She learned quickly, and hasn’t had an accident since she was sick in early May.

Simone had puppy energy to burn. Going out frequently is one key to housetraining, too – so “up and out with the dog” became the force that drove me. She wanted to run up and down the sidewalk in the frigid spring weather we had, even in snow and ice, so I ran up and down the slick sidewalk at all hours of the evening and night, trying not to fall. I struggled to keep up, losing 18 pounds that spring.

I made it a priority to work on her bite inhibition – she wasn’t malicious, but she was getting stronger, and seemed unaware that grinding away on Daddy could hurt him. And, of course, a biting adult dog is intolerable. Because my instinct is to be positive, not punitive, I looked on the Internet for positive bite inhibition training methods. I let her bite my hand and then I’d yelp like a puppy and turn away and stop playing. Biting ends the social interaction! By that point she hated being ignored, and my turning away riveted her attention on what she could do to get my attention back. We worked on bite inhibition over and over, and to my mild surprise it started to work pretty quickly. All I had to do was willingly get munched on by the pit bull who didn’t know her own bite strength. :slight_smile: The things we do for love, eh?

All this extra effort seemed less of a burden because we thought we’d wind up rehoming her – it felt more like a temporary displacement I was willing to endure to give her a better chance at being adoptable. And she was a huge disruption in our lives. We even got so far as dropping her off for a weekend trial visit with someone we thought would adopt her! He seemed to really like her, and seemed like a nice guy. When he called the next day and said she was too wild, and asked us to come get her, I was frustrated – but secretly, my heart leaped in my chest.

Some time later my wife gently asked me if she should stop listing Simone on adoption websites. Somewhat crossly, I asked her why. “You look like you want to keep her,” she said. ”Does it show?” I foolishly asked.

And here we are.

Simone’s training has been very successful. I found a great positive trainer who works with the natural behaviors of the dogs, and really loves pit bulls – she volunteers time at a pit rescue. I also found something that motivates Simone – the humble, unsalted, roasted peanut, of all things. Simone has completed two six-week classes so far, and had one private session. Simone responded very well to clicker training. She’s still a bit willful when she wants to walk one way and I want to walk the other, but she knows a lot of behaviors and she was the star of the class at the “here!” and “leave it!” commands.

So far, Simone’s shown no dog aggression at all – she’s eager to greet other dogs, and plays with them quite happily. She’s been knocked down by another dog, while running with him, repeatedly, and just bounces back up for more, or turns away and walks off. Other dogs can take a toy or food from her without her doing anything other than stare after them, as if to say, “why’d you do that?”

Of course she’s become a daddy’s girl. She follows me everywhere. Even though I don’t always feel like it, and have lots of other pets who need time, I give Simone as much time as I can, because I’m all she has. Ahem…and because I’m in love.

I think (someone correct me if I’m wrong) that 8-10 weeks is the “fear” period for most pups. This is the best time to socialize him, and it may not be too late.

What a great story Sailboat.

All the training methods you mention in your story are my experiences as well. The amount of time you need to spend with a dog is something I think most people aren’t prepared for, and an exercised dog is a happy and obedient dog!

I do the bite inhibition thing with new fosters too, and it works every time.

Renee, you are a sweetheart. From one crazy dog lady to another, thanks for all the kindness you’ve shown.

(Sorry, no advice, just thanks)

Aww, that picture breaks my heart. Poor little sweet! I’m sure you’ll find a way to bring him around. He’s a cutie, even if he doesn’t know it, poor baby.

I don’t have any experience in this area, but the advice to just keep him nearby and let him come to you sounds good. Provide food, treats, and what affection he’ll accept until he understands that you’re good people.

Thanks for the advice, everyone, and the inspirational story, Sailboat. It’s amazing that you were able to rehabilitate a six month old dog–great work there. I bet she’s gorgeous.

He spent the first night in the bathroom. We tried to leave him in a crate in the living room with Olive (who prefers to sleep on the couch, instead of in our bedroom with the other dogs), but he howled and barked, and my husband had to get up early, so we couldn’t just wait it out (we can’t hear him in the bathroom).

This morning, he got his first bath and looks much better. It was a little traumatic for the guy, but I want him to start sleeping with us and generally being in my lap as much as possible, and that wasn’t going to happen in his original state of filth. So he’s reasonably clean now, and still pretty freaked out, but I think we’re already making progress.

I’ll keep you all posted on how he’s doing. Any other advice is welcome.

Form your own opinion – I can take a hint. :slight_smile:

Good luck, and may you be thrice-blessed for rescuing!

Here he is post-bath, recovering on the bed.

If you can borrow another puppy and can handle two, it might be a good idea. A friend’s family fosters feral kittens, and when they get a singleton, they try to get a kitten of approximately the same age for it to interact with. This worked wonders on scared little Blake, who nearly died and was kept apart from the rest of his litter so long that he didn’t see them again before they were all adopted - he learned to act like his buddy, and now is very loving most of the time.

Awww…she is beautiful! Looks like a fine pair of dogs you’ve got yourself there. :slight_smile:

Sailboat: excellent story and excellent effort. I’m glad that you have found it rewarding, and glad that Simone has as well. Pit Bulls are great dogs when treated and trained well. I hope you two have a long happy time together.

Renee: you rock. And that puppy is great looking. I’m sure that you will find your efforts similarly rewarded.

Renee and Sailboat, you guys rock :slight_smile: I volunteer at the humane society now, trying to familiarize myself with animals, and I hope to eventually adopt one (soonish!). Stories like yours are horrifically aww-inducing and make me that much more eager. Damn you!

I would keep him with you, pay as much attention to him as you can, without being too obtrusive… I know it sounds weird, its a dog, but still…

My boyfriends uncle has a dog, they have a had her a while, she was rescued I believe, and she is still scared to death of people, it is the saddest thing. She will only really attach herself to one person, and the person changes, its usually only when there is just one person home, she will attach herself to that person and stay by their side, but the second other people arrive, she is essentially as far away as she could possibly be…

Thats why I say keep him with you, give him plenty of attention, he looks like he could use it.

Ha! This oneis totally, “Whatchoo talkin’ 'bout, Willis?”

Beadalin - That’s exactly what I thought when I saw that pic!

StG