True Colors

[melonie]

After having Diesel in our shelter for 2 months, I can almost say we know him well.
He tosses in a few surprises every now and then.
He loves people, loves the attention he gets. But, he is not clingy. He does not act needy, whiny. In fact, he's happy to leave the human behind and go sniff what ever smells good, stop by for a couple minutes of scratching or re-assurance, then he is off again.
He has fears. Men are at the top of it. But confidant men, those that don't show fear of Diesel, fare much better and he trusts them faster. He is afraid of small children. He is afraid of cars, parked as well moving. Sudden, unexpected things startle him badly. (like tree/bush branches in the wind, rabbits, frogs, etc).
If he is on a tie-out, he will bark "viciously" at anyone. However, you can walk up to him, say No! and he stops. He does this in his kennel as well.
He likes *some* dogs. But not the same dogs every day, aside from Kobe. He hates Kobe very much.
Some days he likes Oliver, other days we can't kennel them side by side.
He is always tolerant of Rhett. Never gets snarky with him.
He is a very happy beast. But he is a hard beast to understand.

The small children thing really scared me. A friend of mine had her 3 yr old daughter out at the shelter checking out a dog they want to adopt. This was meet and greet day. Diesel was being a mr. barkeybutt and I took him off his tie out and was going to put him in his side yard. The little girl went zooming by out of no where. Diesel lunged at her. It freaked me out. Scared the crap out of the kid, and scared Diesel very badly as well. I had instantly pulled him back and scolded a NO. I walked/dragged him from the area.. he wasn't barking, he was more like shutting down. I got down on his level and he crawled into my lap, he was acting like he was trying to crawl right through me. Once he calmed down, I stuck him in his yard and he was fine. Later when it was time to put the dogs away, the child was still there, but not in line of where we would have to walk. But he saw her, and refused to walk anywhere near her direction. I had to have her mom move her out of his line of site before he would proceed.

I think this was a combination of things. Being startled. A small fast moving 'object', and likely the first time he'd ever seen a human that small.
I'm not inclined to test him on any other small child, but I do know he is fine with children 10+

At this point, we're settled with the idea that Diesel is another forever dog for the shelter. (we have one other, Sookie, she's the boss lady)
Maybe someday we'll find a stinking' dog trainer out here that knows what they are doing.... If, maybe, we get really lucky, an experienced bully breed person will find us and fall in love with him, we might consider re-homing him with someone like that.

Until that happens...
We will continue to work on his fears. He has come a long way since we first got him. So of course there is hope. There is always hope!
But unlike Zeke, Rhett, Ollie, it doesn't make me feel like he is missing out on a wonderful life by staying with us. Those dogs are so receptive, intelligent and people pleasing goof balls, that you just know they would shine in forever homes.
They have so much potential to fill. But I have never felt that with Diesel. Don't get me wrong, I adore this dog, and want him to over come all his issues and shine like the others. But if he never gets that chance in a forever home, I won't feel like he has been cheated. Because he is a pretty happy dog living the way he does now. He spends his days in the shade, his nights in a kennel with food, a bed and toys. He gets lots of attention, and he gets to go on jaunts through the pasture. More than he ever had before I'm sure!

If any of the experts have ideas on how I can help this guy overcome some of his fears... I'm all eyes!

Here is a video of Diesel... Zeke makes an appearance, so does Winston and Rhett.

[RealPitBull]

Diesel is the boy in the main run doing his "Check me out, I'm so manly!" hind-leg kicking?

I like how he postured up a little on the other dogs but then left them alone and came over and gave soft-eyes to the person holding the cam.

The lunging incident with the child is very concerning. It is difficult to come up with a truly safe way to work with a dog like this, IMO. Because what they need is controlled exposure to children but obviously this is not safe. You might try working him inside the fenced in area, with a child moving slowly around outside back and forth (coming into view, moving past, then out of view), and doing some desensitization and counter conditioning - have Diesel at the far end of the fenced area, on leash. Start simple - have a child just casually walk past the run and praise the heck out of Diesel while chucking cheese or chicken all over the ground. That would be very basic step one. You know you have got it right when the child can walk past and Diesel immediately looks for the food. At that point, take a step close to the edge of the fencing and repeat the process.

**DISCLAIMER** Please don't do ANY work with him with children if there is no barrier between him and the child and he is on leash. But the above could at least perhaps help take some edge off of his behavior.

It is also very difficult to socialize a fearful dog when the dog is kept in the confines of a shelter setting. Fearful dogs need to be in a home, taken out and socialized on a regular basis.

Definitely avoid scolding, yelling, or leash popping a dog like this. Those are about the worst things you can do to a fearful/reactive dog.