hello!
my fiancé (M) and i (F) got a dog, willie (german shepherd mix), in early july from a rescue. he was 6 months old at this point (now 10 months). he originally came from texas and was a transfer to the rescue from a shelter down in texas where they removed his left eye. we do not know what happened to it in order for it to be removed as no one at the rescue knew either.
we have another dog (zuri, 5 year old female, mutt with her top breeds being boxer and chesapeake bay retriever) as well.
when we got him, we lived in an apartment. he came already crate trained and uses his crate has his safe space. he adores zuri but zuri doesn’t always feel mutual. zuri corrects him when he becomes too much and he takes it well. she never does more than snap. sometimes, he will bite her on the leg or somewhere sensitive, she corrects, and he will yelp but be fine within a few seconds as zuri rarely makes actual contact. in the apartment, he would get walks at least twice a day, totaling in 1hr15min minimum, and go for potty breaks every few hours.
he showed significant signs of submissive peeing and would shut down for a while afterwards. for example, if he chewed up a toy and we cleaned up the stuffing in front of him, he would pee. we did not even acknowledge him when this would happen. at the beginning, we would pick it up and pet him. immediately, he would pee once he was touched. if we don’t touch him when he knows he did something he was not supposed to do, he shuts down and becomes a shell of a dog.
when my fiancé would come home or try to take him out of the kennel in the morning, willie would refuse to come out, tucking his ears and cowering. i sometimes have problems with him coming out when i get home but it’s nowhere as bad as how willie responds to my fiancé. we do not touch him when he’s like this and use a very soft or monotone voice. since we lived in an apartment, he needed his harness on to go outside. every morning, even when we did not say anything and moved slowly, he would cower at the door, tuck his ears, and pee. one of us would take them out and the other would clean up the pee to avoid him seeing us clean it up. during the day when we were home, we were able to get his harness on no problem and take him outside. when he started showing signs of shutting down, we would immediately take him outside to use it as a reset. this worked well for a while.
since he is so submissive, we do not physically correct him (nor do we with zuri because she has a history of abuse as well). the most we will ever do is say “no” but even then, he will shut down and go to his kennel for at least 10 minutes. we learned that if we make a BIG fuss of zuri, he comes out rather quickly and be a happy puppy.
about a month ago, we moved states and into a house. both zuri and willie love having a backyard. he was doing well for a while as i am home with him throughout the day as my fiancé goes to work. in the mornings, it takes me a very long time to get willie out of his kennel. i still try to take them on morning walks, but it is often only me and zuri. he comes out of his kennel maybe three to four times a week for these walks. about half that time, he will come out and shut down on the couch. i’ve tried taking zuri out front and closing the door. this sometimes gets him to come to the door and be excited to go on a walk. when it doesn’t, he goes back in his kennel and i leave him there until zuri and i return. when zuri and i come back, i open up his kennel door and the door to the backyard and zuri and i go in the backyard. it takes him up to 15 minutes to come outside. when he’s outside, he normally comes up to me, scared. i pet him and talk to him during this time. then, as if he decides he doesn’t want to be afraid anymore, he becomes a happy pup, plays with zuri, and goes potty. for the rest of the day, he is great and does not display any negative behaviors.
when my fiancé comes home, both dogs are VERY excited and everything is good. however, last week, as my fiancé was coming home, i was laying in bed. the dogs got excited and my fiancé came and laid down with me in bed. both dogs followed. willie has a habit of standing over my fiancé which seems to be a guarding behavior more than anything. but this time, willie stood over his head and started peeing (he was outside not even 20 minutes before this) my fiancé got up quickly which made willie think that he severely messed up(which he did) and has been shutting down and peeing a lot more like when we got him ever since this incident. now, willie is excited when my fiancé comes home (first 3ish minutes) and then shuts down for about 15-30 minutes after that. when my fiancé sits on the couch, it takes willie a while to warm up to him before willie is all over him, cuddling, and being a happy puppy.
to get him outside after both of us come home, we both sit outside. oftentimes, he will come up to my fiancé, tuck his ears and pee once my fiancé touches him. when this happens, my fiancé stops petting him.
my fiancé does not correct him nearly as much as me. i have always been harsher on his behaviors and tell him “no” a lot more frequently. but, he is not afraid of me and seems to understand that i am doing it to correct him rather than punish him. when he sees my fiancé, it’s like willie forgets who he is and just thinks he’s there to beat the living shit out of him. we are wondering if he has brain damage from whatever happened to his eye that made an everlasting impact because neither one of us can explain these behaviors and how easily he shuts down. i don’t know if he will grow out of this and moving states just set us back another 3 months when following the 3 day, 3 week, 3 month rule.
obviously willie has seen a substantial amount of abuse in his short life before us. he submissively peed at lot when we first got him. to rule out any underlying health issues, we got a urinalysis and it came back normal. so, his issues are definitely more behavioral. does anyone have any tips i could try to help him get over shutting down? he is not treat or toy motivated unless he’s in the mood for either and does not have a high drive.
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