profusely panting and shaking

Dear Fellow forum members, I would like to let you know about something i found out today in regards to my new staffy.
I was given Bexie from her owner who is a friend after she could no longer look after her as her and her partner split up.

We have only had bexie for about a month now and as days are going by little things we say and do are causing her to react.

for example:

splish splash which means the bath or shower and when u say it she starts shaking really badly and ends up weeing in the home.

say kicking or punch: she lifts her head straight up and looks at me and my partner then starts to shake and sits beside my wife right under neath her legs and starts panting.

previous to us having her she was with her owner who had a stepson of 20 and there were times when the owner wud say hes just hit her etc. we have reason to believe if he hits her wether it be a slap or whatever that there may have been more to it than just a slap.

Do you believe that she may have been abused including kicks and punches for her to react in the way she is?

what do you believe is the best cause of action to help the dog overcome the anxiety she is feeling?

Your advice would be much appreciated

Thanks

Hi Jake , I am not sure if I am understanding you correctly, appologies if I am reading this wrongly. Are you telling me you have discovered that when you say certain words your dog reacts to them badly? How did you discover this fact,('splish splash' is not a thing I would think of saying to a dog). If this is the case why would you continue to use the words and to cause your dog additional distress...

Dogs are able to associate sight/sound/smell with past events both good and bad .This helps greatly with training, a dog can learn to associates a certain action with word and a treat/ praise and can be taught to repeat the action on command to receive a reward, but it can also associate any of the things mentioned above with punishment/fear/pain and react accordingly .

You can certainly help her by not repeating words which cause her distress.

no, unfortunately you have not read my article correctly, the previous owner has used theses words, however, i never knew that this would make her react how she had, in this case, when the former owner left and told me about one word splish splash then she would get distressed, however, on a normal conversation about the word kick to another fellow human, is when i noticed the behavior of the dog in regards to kick or punch or when raise voices occur in conversations with humans, please read the notice correctly.

Hi,
You didn't actually say it was the previous owner who used the words Splish Splash, so Minihaha (and I) automatically assumed it was you.

Anyway, whoever it was/is it should now stop immediately, including punch/kick.

Sounds like your poor staffie may have been abused in the past.

Give her the love she deserves now....

ETA: If I were to kick or punch a dog, I wouldn't say the word, would you? Most odd.

It doesn't necessarily follow that the Staffy has been abused though, mine gets all slinky and acts scared sh**less at times because he doesn't want to do what I'm telling him. He slinks down and will also roll over onto his back in submission but it's all a ploy to be left out in the garden or in the kitchen or wherever, he's a craftly little sod. Also sudden movements will make him slink off in very wary manner, as will raised voices. Yet he's not been abused in any way and is bold and friendly etc. no doubt if he was ever rehomed they would assume he had a dodgy past rather than the life of rilley he enjoys.

Whatever has happened to the dog in the past, it`s the life he has now that is important. If you train with rewards, you are making loads of good associations to replace the bad ones. We`ll probably never know the truth of what happened in our rescue dogs` past, but we can ensure a fear-free future.

Hi, DPS, sorry for the confusion, I thought I had read your post correctly, you said in your opening post ..
''little things we say and do are causing her to react.
for example:
splish splash which means the bath or shower and when u say it she starts shaking really badly and ends up weeing in the home.
say kicking or punch: she lifts her head straight up and looks at me and my partner then starts to shake and sits beside my wife right under neath her legs and starts panting.''

... saying we rather gives the impression you were using the words which causes the dog distress.
As I understand it the previous owner of this dog Bexie was your sister and you 'adopted' her when your previous dog, a very young rescue Staff cross was returned to the kennels after two weeks and 'passed away'.

Didn't your sister tell you at the time you took this little dog on that it had 'issues', she must have noticed. I think it might help if you have a frank discussion with your sister and find out exactly what did happen to this little dog. If she has been abused she will need lots of patient handling and understanding.

I would try not to use any words in Bexies presence which you know will cause a reaction, if she does react to any word ignore the reaction no word or eye contact leave her alone to settle down,
..give her lots of praise at every opportunity to boost her self esteem,
..if she does something you don't want her to do never shout or become angry but distract/ignore or teach her what you do want her to do.
In time with the right care Bexie should improve.

I also took it to mean, when you used trigger words?

The best solution is not to use any of these trigger words, that you have found to be upsetting for her.

It may be that she has been abused , it may be she is just a very nervous dog, so the best solution is to take a step back, and treat her with extreme gentleness, allow her to settle in, find her feet,

if she had been kicked or punched in the past, it will take her time to trust you all... small steps at a time.

From what you say about your dog's past I suspect the trigger words, especially if she responds to raised voices, are words she has heard in arguements at her previous home, She need not have been kicked or punched but if the atmosphere in her previous home was bad & she heard these words yelled at the time, she may asociate them with rows ehere she had a hard time. Just give her time & I expect she'll loose this link.

I don't use trigger words, my wife posted the original up for me so some words may of been misinperated.

Triggers words have not been used, the words have been heard from my sister who said splish splash to her in her own home with her ex wife and step son, only previously when talking about a situation when a word was mentioned did i find it odd that the dog was rapidly shaking. Since the step son did not get on with his mother and there was arguments with my sister and her ex wife i suspect that would be a reason to why she is how she is, for example sister may of said to wife your going to get a kicking with a raise voice or maybe the step son may of said it to the dog, either way, there is a reason for that.

Obviously the dog has seen experiences which i already know about with the sister n her wife, however i weren't aware the dog was abused, and my sister wundt abuse the dog however the step son was known to punch the dogs.

Just to claify, the dog is a not a rescue dog, it was brought up by sister with other people around her.