More about Ty.. I was going to start with the good stuff, the things I really love about Ty, all of his awesome qualities- but I've decided instead to tell you about his worst habit, the one that concerns me most. You see, Ty gets scared, really scared sometimes. I can best describe his fear reaction is that Ty is protective of his personal space. It's funny I've had so many fearful dogs here, and their fear is mostly about meeting strangers- Ty isn't like that. He greets just about everyone with a great deal of affection and a friendly demeanor. Sure, once in a while a stranger will startle him, lean in and pat him before he's ready and Ty will bark like crazy, but that's pretty rare.

What happens with Ty is that at times, when he's home, if he's startled or his space is invaded he will bark and growl like crazy- there's been times here when I knew that, at a particular moment when Ty is in a fear based place, if I bent down to touch him he would bite. It happens more often when the light is dim than in the daylight, and it happens when he's in his crate. He goes in his crate quite willingly and will often go in for a nap with the door wide open- but his crate is his safe place, and I respect that by not invading it. I've also seen him get afraid and do the bark-and-growl routine when I touch him unexpectedly, or when a stranger comes over. It dissipates pretty quickly with visitors, though- my dogs greet people with happiness and excitement, and when Ty sees their reaction he relaxes pretty quickly.

He has bitten me once- and I know exactly what I did to trigger it. We were making LOTS of progress with his protective behavior of his crate, and I was sitting outside his crate with him, patting him and giving him love. I turned him around and gave him a gentle push into his crate- he gave me a warning growl, but I persisted- and he turned and nipped my hand.

Ye, it was a nip- but a nip is a bite and I don't want to minimize it! I guess my point is that Ty's boundaries need to be respected, and, although he's made a ton of progress, he may react if pushed too far outside his comfort zone. I do believe that Ty was disciplined with physical violence and using his teeth became a protective survival technique.

But Ty has in fact made so much progress! I'm not a big believer in "correcting" fear based barking and growling- there are alot of "trainers" around lately who have watched way too many episodes of the Dog Whisperer and believe in "asserting their dominance" with every type of undesirable behavior, and plenty of "trainers" who will put a prong collar on a dog and cause physical discomfort whenever a dog isn't perfect. I don't buy it, and think it's dangerous. I believe that it's actually a strength for a dog to communicate fear by barking or growling to express their stress, and that correcting their vocalization may silence them, but does nothing to address their fear. The last thing I want is a "bite first, ask questions later" dog who is quiet because they've learned to be silent when stressed, but bites without warning! To me, Ty is easy to read- and I love that about him. My preference is training that is reward based, and builds tolerance to stressful situations.

The other things that make Ty an easy dog for me are that he's VERY food motivated- and loves, loves, loves his treats! When he's stressed, I will get a treat and show him- and hold the treat, while I sit with him. At the point when he relaxes, sits, stops barking and relaxes, he gets the treat. And he loves other dogs, watching carefully his buddies here- when he sees my dogs show me or my husband affection, he sees that it's safe for him to do the same.

My point in telling you so much about this is to make it clear that Ty needs an adopter with a calm and confident demeanor, who will recognize and respect Ty's boundaries- who will show him that the world is not the scary, scary place it has been for him in the past. An adopter who will see, like I do, what a survivor he is! I don't even like to imagine what it was like for him to be trapped in a small apartment with two bodies for 6 or more days....I know he's been through ALOT and it will take time for him to fully heal.