Angee first came to Aberdeen Rescue with a host of issues. The physical problems were easily diagnosed and cared for; she was spayed and her teeth cleaned and a trial of allergy medication begun. Her behavioral issues seemed more difficult to sort out.
Initially, Angee was so amped up and over-stimulated all we really noticed was her behavior of not focusing on anything for more than a second or two. It was as if everything had her attention, and nothing had her attention. She wasn't too different from other dogs brought to our rescue organization. Even after several weeks of adjusting to her new circumstances she just seemed to never rest. It was pretty clear I would need to figure out some way to get her attention if we were going to work on other problems.
And the other problems were definitely present. She was leash aggressive, she wouldn't respond to being called and she would make every effort to leap out an open door (house door or car door) at the slightest opportunity. When she did get loose (several times) she would put her nose to the ground and just keep on running, never looking back.
Eventually I saw some of the things we needed to work on. Her leash aggression stood out clearly. Any dog would send Angie into a rage so bad you didn't dare get close to her without risking a bite. Walking her with other dogs was out of the question. In fact, walking her at all was quite a chore. She tended to try to drag me down the street on any walk, constantly darting left and right, a problem that made worse the leash aggression when we met other dogs. Any change in these behaviors would be based on getting Angee's attention while we walked. As it was, calling her name got no response, almost to the point I wondered if she was deaf. Turns out, she has very good hearing but just wasn't responding to me.
