Originally Posted by
A Life Aloft
It's sometimes rough when you adopt a dog, because you never know their background, who the owner was or what was done to them physically or emotionally by that person. It can take a while for them to become the animal they were mean't to be or used to be. It's lots of love, affection, patience and attention often to get them to trust again and get over their traumas. I had a black lab many years ago that I adopted who had a terrible fear of abandonment, because he had been left so often for days chained up and alone by his former owner. He was very neglected. It took a year to help him. I had two dog behavioral people helping me. I almost was on the verge of giving up. He got so anxious and terrified when he was left alone for any reason or any amount of time (I mean even going to the mail box) and became very destructive trying to escape to find us and he howled and cried. But we persisted and eventually, very slowly he came around and realized that when we left, we always came back and he would never be chained or abandoned again.