Kota, scared to leave house and pulls until she's choking on lead, plus scared of every thing outside

Question

I bought Kota, approx 2half, Northern Inuit bitch, not neutered only 8 days ago. She lives with my stud dog 5yr old Northern Inuit, Leo who is brilliant had him from puppy.
They are getting on well though Kota is needy and insecure, which I was expecting as she was from a rescue. She was with a lovely couple, but they were working all day and didn't have time for her. I do not know her history before that. I hate to see this beautiful young bitch so wound up and unhappy. She has a few people issues who come to house, but she's just scared and we are slowly doing OK with that its putting lead on. Leaving the house she's terrified and then dragging me. She's big and strong and going to be bigger and stronger and I can barely hold her; she can't wait to get home.
Leo loves his walks, but I can't walk them together which I want to do eventually and even some one walking Leo with her makes no difference. I've got the Halti lead and just need the head piece; the last people used a harness but I've read these are made for pulling and she does anyway so it's just normal collar and lead for next day until I can get head piece.

I hate pushing her out the door when its something she should be enjoying can you please help me and Kota

Answer 1

It sounds like this dog is very stressed. Personally, I would be inclined to give the walks a rest for a few days, not introduce any additional equipment, and just let her relax a bit. If you are having to force her out of the door and then can barely hold her, I'm concerned that introducing a headcollar could make the stress worse, particularly since she is not used to one.

It's likely that at the moment, she's pulling as a reaction to the stress, rather than because she can't walk on a loose lead (I have found my rescue foster dogs often pull like trains on the first couple of days, and this has even happened with severely arthritic dogs)

Dogs do not learn well when they are stressed, so introducing a headcollar will be a purely mechanical restriction, which could result in the stress coming out in some other way. That might be bad.

Do you have any space outdoors where she can just go to relieve herself without needing to be on lead at all?

I would give her perhaps as much as 3-4 days of just chilling time and see if that results in a calmer dog that is more confident about going out. You have the rest of her life to walk her, and if the stress levels are that high, she doesn't need stimulation, she needs time to get over the stress hormones in her system and get back to a more normal level of operation.

Answer 2

You need to hire a behaviorist.

I adopted a dog just like this, and almost a year and a half later I still can't take her for walks. She's afraid of strangers, noises, being outside, you name it, she's afraid of it. She was about 1.5 years old when I adopted her and I was told she came from a hoarding (possibly puppy mill) situation and was never properly socialized as a puppy.

She's a serious case, and I think most dogs adjust much quicker than mine, but fearfulness in dogs is a serious issue that needs to be dealt with with the help of a professional. You could make things worse by pushing her too far beyond her boundaries.

I attempted walking my dog with the help of a behaviorist and noticed it was making things worse. So I stopped. I felt just like you did, that this is something she should enjoy doing, but I felt it was in her best interest to stop pushing her.

As a couple of asides, please get her spayed. Tens of thousands of dogs are killed every year in US shelters. We don't need to add to that. Secondly, no reputable rescue would adopt out an unspayed/unneutered dog. It's a shame that this "rescue" did that. Lastly, it's not true that rescue dogs inherently come with issues and baggage. Your lovely girl has some issues and so does mine, but there are many more that are perfectly happy and adjusted dogs. Dogs bought from puppy mills tend to have just as many issues because they are ripped away from their mothers way too young and are not properly socialized.

Good luck!