*Barks
As a dog person, having a dog is surely one of the most beautiful thing that ever happened in your life. Dog not only acted as your pet but she also acted as your loyal companion. Now we would like to ask you how did you adopted your dog?. Did you buy her from someone else? From a pet store? Or even found her on the street and simply brought her home and take care of them?. Well regardless how did you adopted, your dog might has a story yet not to be untold. A story that could cause her trauma and pain hidden away from you. A story that make her lose confidence to a particular event or particular person. This hidden story might be is a sign that your dog has been abused in the past. If your dog has been abused in the past then you must look into this 7 warning signs that your dog has been abused in the past.
What We Must Know
Remember dog is an animal that has similar psychological structure like human. A dog always express anything that she felt of. Dog could express her happiness by wagging her tail and bark happily towards you or she could express her sadness by isolating herself and whimpering all day. Not only that, simply just like us, dog could hide her emotions, hide it and it feels like there’s nothing wrong, it feels everything is okay but in truth it is not okay until something or someone triggers the trauma.
Which is why it might be quite difficult for you regardless you have adopted your dog recently or before, your dog may hide it inside herself, she simply does not want you to know about it. She always avoid everything that might triggers her about the abusement.
Abusement could affect dog emotions, physic, and psychology. It make her stressed out, afraid, lose confidence, even become aggressive. So before adopting a dog from someone else or from the store it is way better to ask the owner or the clerk about the dog past, if they answered reluctantly then the dog might have an abusement before. I f you adopted from the street then you are on your own.
The 7 Signs
There are at least 7 signs that your dog has been abused in the past. These signs could be easy to find or very difficult to find.
- Lost Appetite
Your dog would happily see you filling out her bowl by barking happily and wagging her tail. If you suddenly find out your dog does not become excited about it and reluctantly eat her food then she might already lost her appetite. Losing appetite could be a sign of your dog has been abused recently. So better you find out who abused her quickly.
- Physical Scars
Your dog might look healthy and always bark happily even greet you after you come home. But this does not means that your dog is okay physically. Your dog may hide her pain from the scars. She can hide the pain in from of you but sometimes she just whimpers in the middle of the night. The scars might easy to find but what if the scars is hidden among her fur?. You may need to search your dog body for the scars, however this might be quite difficult because sometimes your dog does not allow you to search particular parts of her body. She might become aggressive if you touch her near the scars, don’t worry simply pat her and feed her thus check out the scars. If you already know what it is then quickly tend the scars. It would help her to ease the excruciating pain from the scars.
- Avoidance
Dog is an active animal who is so confidence about doing anything. However if you find your dog become nerveous around something, another animals, or some particular person, then it is a sign of your dog probably has been abused in the past. Avoidance it’s a simple sign that your dog might have a violance issue with another animals or someone. If such thing occured then you must help her and heal her emotions.
- Submissive
Sometimes when you want to train your dog to sit or doing something in particular, then you need a submission method to forcely persuade her to obey your command and wish. However when you find out during your training your dog can’t even follow your orders, whimpering a lot, urinates and drop everywhere, then she might have been abused in the past. Don’t force your dog or you will make her worse, she could become aggressive and bite you off. Just let her relax and try to heal her from her trauma that was caused by abusement.
- Aggression
Well dog has a like-guard behavior which make her oftenly aggresive. This is like when you collared your dog in your fron yard and she sees some strangers or another animals she might bark aggressively towards them just for guarding purpose as they believe those strangers and animals might be a threat towards you. However if you find there is something wrong, like the aggression was triggered by a particular person or animal then might be your dog has been abused before by that person or she might have been in a fight with that animal before. For example, my friends has a dog and her dog has been hit by the local kid around neighbourhood, when she takes her dog for a walk and suddenly sees the kid, thus suddenly her dog aggressively approach the kid and bark to the kid or even worse trying to bite the kid.
- General Anxiety
You may found your dog runs and barks happily all day in your house even asked you to play with her all day. However, if you suddenly find your dog shown an anxiety behavior and hide herself then whimpering a lot without any clear explanation, then it is indeed a sign of your dog has been abused in the past.
- Obsessive Behaviour
Remember dog is like us human, she has many ways to express her emotions. If you find your dog oftenly licking herself and it is indeed very often, then she might have been abused in the past. Especially when you find her licking her scars.
Remember
If these sign has been shown by your dog you must quickly heal her, help her to ease her pain, and help her to move one thus restoring her confidence. Be patient, be passiona, and help her frequently. Don’t give up on your dog, help her and good luck!.
*Barks away