My newest foster Gertrude...ha ha ha!

northernwitch wrote:You just have to make extra sure that they understand why she circles and what helps and what doesn't. I'm VERY careful with the puppy mill girls and make extra sure that the adopters understand the trauma and the significant loss of major developmental steps in mill dogs lives.

Most make remarkable progress with time, love and very gentle handling.

Yes I told Green Mountain to hold off on her for a while till I can see if I can get her better and see exactly her trigger points are. My worst fear is someone not being able to handle it and returning her.

Awww, she's really cute. And to chime in with everyone else, I'm betting the circling will get better once she settles in. I understand it's a common behavior with puppy mill dogs. I love her little tongue!

Interesting update on Gertrude. I have her at work with me today and thought she would be a basket case, not at all, she is barley circling. I've had to crate her for an odd hour here to there thru the day and not a peep out of her.
I just went downstairs and left her out of her crate, as I was coming up the stairs ( we have our offices and a large room in a mezzanine area) I could hear her circling so she was a bit anxious, but over all she has done so much better here than she has at home.
Gosh she is darn cute.

Donna wrote:Interesting update on Gertrude. I have her at work with me today and thought she would be a basket case, not at all, she is barley circling. I've had to crate her for an odd hour here to there thru the day and not a peep out of her.
I just went downstairs and left her out of her crate, as I was coming up the stairs ( we have our offices and a large room in a mezzanine area) I could hear her circling so she was a bit anxious, but over all she has done so much better here than she has at home.
Gosh she is darn cute.

That's interesting. I wonder if other pugs/dogs make her more nervous/anxious?

Saira wrote:

Donna wrote:.

That's interesting. I wonder if other pugs/dogs make her more nervous/anxious?

That is what I was thinking but she cuddled up to Rupert last night and was very content to do so. He tolerated it, Viv won't even look at her!

Donna wrote:

Saira wrote:

Donna wrote:.

That's interesting. I wonder if other pugs/dogs make her more nervous/anxious?

That is what I was thinking but she cuddled up to Rupert last night and was very content to do so. He tolerated it, Viv won't even look at her!

Wasn't it Viv that liked the other foster and Rupert didn't? Hopefully as she is exposed to more and more socialization that the circling will get less frequent. She is adorable!

How is she doing?

I have a very high anxiety pug who circles as an outlet for the anxiety/energy. She circles and screams while doing so. Her triggers are things like doorbells, opening doors, picking up keys, putting on shoes, loud noises/yelling, trimming her nails, etc (she doesn't have seperation anxiety at all though). Our other issue with her is that in her spurts of anxiety/energy, she'll attck Reggie. Sometimes she wakes from a deep sleep and just gets this look in her eyes and goes after him. We're lucky that we have only had a few serious fights, and they mostly were over food and not this. Reggie is a big teddy bear and very patient.

Our other issue with Bella was that she was not able to focus to be trained to do anything past sitting on command. It was horrible. She started spinning if anything touched her tail or if she was picked up. We tried walking her to the point of exhaustion, working on training, and whatever we could do, but it wasn't working. Now she is on a daily low dosage of a Xanax. I don't know if you remember or know Wonka and Nilla's mom, but I talked to her a lot about Nilla before I made this choice for Bella. She still spins but does so much better. She knows how to sit, stay, lay down, give paw, leave it, and others. Before I felt like she literally couldn't hear us during what would be high stress events and when she started spinning.

Not at all saying your foster girl needs to be medicated, just giving my experience on the topic. Your little girl may just need to settle in. It'd be great if her triggers are more controllable and avoidable.

Oh, and I've found that Bella virtually never spins if she is out of the house. I'll ask her pet sitters (they have two different families) and she has never spun at either of their houses. She also never spins at the vet's.

thminis wrote:How is she doing?.. .

It's been two weeks now and she is doing just great. She still circles but nothing like she did before. I think having her in a two pug household is so much better for her than her other foster home that had five.
She seems to circle when her environment changes, like when I let her outside to go potty, or after she is let out of her crate at night, but it's not as neurotic as it was before and very controllable.

She has started to play with toys, she had a ball with my fuzzy ugg slippers this morning. When she gets outside after she has a few circles under her belt, she will do huge runs around like she is just having fun.
She has learned the pugtonas quite well!

I think in the right home, where there are just a few pugs and not a lot of activity going on, no kids etc she will do just great.
Lucky for her, my worst fear is that she could not get her circling under control and would have a hard time being adopted.