Woody has had quite the hard life. He was recently rescued after living in the woods for atleast several
Months. Once in care, it was discovered that a dog who looked identical to woody had gone missing 7 months ago. The owners were contacted and said they would be in to reclaim Woody, but they did not come in. Woody has been through a lot and needs someone willing to teach him to trust again. He is very frightened in the shelter, and is desperately seeking a rescue or experienced adopter who will give him the time and space he needs to decompress.
Behavioral notes:
1/4 per staff We got Woody out to see how he's doing. In kennel he was laying facing away from the door, and looked over his shoulder with hard eyes. I offered some treats but he just continued to hard stare. I opened the door a crack to try offering a different treat and he stood up and faced me, continuing to hard stare. He was easy to leash, and came right out. He pressed his face into my legs, but due to his size and hard staring, I tried to short arm him to keep a little distance. He continued to try and advance on me, and made me very uncomfortable. When we exited his row there was a large group of people standing in the way. Woody froze, with a tense body, tucked tail, and eyes very red and bloodshot. I decided to take him to the quiet hallway, but he was resistant to moving. We went super slow, and a group of ACAs watched from a few feet away, worried. They saw me attempting to keep him away from me, and offered to double leash him. I accepted the offer and we were able to double leash him without issue. We were able to walk him down the quiet hallway and into the eval room, but in the room Woody would barely move. We gave him full slack on the leash and offered some treats. He ate one treat off of the floor, and then refused to eat any others. He kept his body tight, tail tucked, and head low. We tried some toys and baby talk, but he ignored them all and just avoided eye contact or hard stared. He tolerated some petting, but just stared ahead, dissociating, with lip licks and blood shot eyes. His eyes were very bloodshot, and the skin around his eyes was getting redder and redder. I knew he was getting more and more stressed, so we tried to keep our interaction short. Rather than continue to stress him out, we decided to go back to kennel. Woody was VERY resistant to walking back to kennel. He thrashed and gator rolled, jumping up in the air at both handlers. We took several breaks, stopping and loosening our leashes as he was choking himself with his gator rolling. When we eventually got to his kennel he climbed right in, and we were able to remove our leashes without issue.
Woody was just incredibly scared and tense. I don't think any of his behavior was from a purely aggressive stance, just VERY intense fear. He likely also felt my fear and discomfort around him, which did not help him, but with his behavior I could not feel comfortable around him. Shelter life is not helping his behavior at all, and I fear he will decline rapidly. I have heard that he likes certain volunteers, and has taken treats and wagged and allowed pets from them, but his behavior with us did not show me any of that.
1/3 1/3 finder was at ACCT and visited woody, I asked how he was with her, she shared that he wagged his tail when he saw he through the kennel. She dropped a treat for him, and he ate it off the ground once she walked away a few steps
1/1 per volunteer 1/1/24 volunteer notes: When I approached the kennel, Woody was laying on his bed. I threw some hotdogs in the kennel but he wasn’t very interested. I used my slip lead to lasso him. Once on leash, he hopped right out of the kennel. Woodys kennel card said to use a harness so I put it on him with no issue. Woody got a bit nervous at the door ways but I was able to coax him out with some baby talk and slow movements. He did not pull at all on the leash but did frequently bump into me. In the yard, Woody stayed close to me. He accepted pets and a few hotdogs. We went back inside to the behavior room. He loves hotdogs and stays close to the handler. He takes treats very gently. He did some exploring and sniffing in the room. He was yawning and lip licking a bit showing he was still feeling unsure about being at the shelter. When we heard dogs barking outside the room, he did some whining and looked at me. Eventually he laid down. He walked back through the kennels okay and allowed me to remove the harness. He was hesitant to return to the kennel so I gave him a little lift in. He went in and ate the hotdogs I left for him before.
1/1 per staff Took Woody out for his eval today. In kennel, Woody was sitting at the front with soft eyes and a neutral body. He remained seated as I reached in with the leash and was easily secured. While walking to the eval room he remained neutral with a mid level tail and perked ears. In the room, Woody had mid level slow wags and would come up to me, soliciting for pets. He would on occasion look away and turn his back to me so I would let him be. He seemed a bit conflicted with touch so I didn't push it. I went to offer him a treat which he declined and he then hard stared at me so I slowly got up from my seat, got an air horn and pet corrector and took the treat with me. He huffed his lips at me and followed me to the barrier as I walked over it. I tried to find something more high value to get the leash back and offered it to him but he hyper fixated on me, refusing everything. He turned around for a second and I was able to secure the leash. I short armed him as I walked over the barrier and walked around with him so he wouldn't keep his tense body and hard stares towards me and would focus more on walking. We continued to move around the room as I called for another staff member to help me asses him/get him back to kennel (whatever Woody was willing to allow).
Additional notes from second handler: He was stiff, hard stare and not really moving, stress yawning and whale eyes off and on, very low posture, tail slightly tucked. I was able to take the leash to take Woody back to kennel, I kept him about arm's length away. "Woody" Hesitated and got even more stiff when trying to put back into the kennel.
Videos
Videos: Woody likes hotdogs: https://youtube.com/shorts/YbYg_DCXa38?feature=shared
Woody and Benedict: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVxL3dURwDc
Woody and Benedict: https://youtu.be/L8c772mXn0Q
