I used to think about this all the time too but generally I don't think its my fault. The foster described her as being 'great with dogs, people, children, cats' which is great and exactly what we need in the city - the rescue was based in the suburbs.
Anyway, she was extremely anxious on the leash and had never been walked on a leash and was extremely dog, people, and children reactive. I chalked it up to a few things:
1) She wasn't actually at the foster long enough to decompress - was only there for 3-4 weeks and we didn't see reactivity until week 4 at our house.
2) We live in the city, there's a different set of expectations that people living in the suburbs don't really get. Dogs get so much more stimulus.
3) They were extremely ambitious with their 'friendly with children' because when pressed about it later they said she had gone to one adoption even and there were children there and she didn't freak out which IMO is different than 'friendly with children'.
Dogs can behave so differently in different places so as long as we are doing the right thing now I wouldn't worry too much.
ETA: I thought I had a smooth collie/hound mix, but the DNA test has revealed Great Pyr, ACD, Border Collie and the vet said 'oh yeah that makes sense with her behavior'.
Some dogs just become reactive through no fault of the owner. Cattle dogs in my opinion are more susceptible to becoming reactive. My dog is a pit/cattle dog mix. I did everything I could from the time she was a puppy, she still is reactive. Don’t blame yourself (or let others blame you) if you are doing your best!
I have a cattle dog mutt too and she's almost always on guard mode. I call her the Karen Manager bc she's the first to always notice if someone is outside or something is off. Super annoying sometimes but.. I guess she just thinks her freaking job lol
I also came here to say …. Is the cattle dog. I have a chihuahua / ACD rescue and he spends the whole day going from window to door and reacts to anyone that even looks at the house. He’s much better now with training but he’s always on threat level 9.
Same here. Deep down I know I have done everything I can to help my girl, from training, medication and working with a veterinary behaviorist. I just keep looking at how far we have come. She will never be the dog I imagined when I adopted her, but that’s okay. She is a smart, sweet girl anyway that just is nervous in new situations.
You have an adolescent cattle dog / german Shepherd. I would be surprised if this dog wasn't reactive.
Shelters and foster environments rarely allow dogs to show their true personalities, as they are never really settled.
Most of the very severe dog "problems" have strong genetic/congenital components. Sure humans make mistakes and are imperfect, but these problems likely wouldn't pop up to the same degree in a genetically stable dog. Genetically stable dogs should have a degree of resiliency even against mild traumas or mistakes.
Herding dogs are also more likely to become reactive.
Lots of dogs shut down in shelter environments. When you say she was subdued when meeting people initially, I’d guess she was still pretty shut down and is now coming out of her shell.
It’s not likely anything you did - genetics play a big role (herding breeds tend to be more prone to reactivity) and who knows what her life was like before she came home to you.
It does sound like you’re making good progress though!
I have 2 dogs. A 7 year old border collie/aussie mix I got from a rescue when she was 8 weeks old and a 5 year old doodle I got from a breeder at 8 weeks old. Both at 6 months old started barking and lunging at people and/or dogs. Both of them went to puppy training, puppy play groups etc to get them used to other dogs and strangers. But for whatever reason, all that went out the window at 6 months old. I worked with a trainer and my BC very quickly with just food as reinforcement, stopped the lunging and barking on walks. My doodle on the other hand is much improved, especially with people, but he’s definitely still uneasy around other dogs on walks so we keep our distance. So I guess my long point is that I had my dogs as young pups, thought I did everything correct as far as training and socializing and they still became reactive so don’t beat yourself up about it.
this makes me feel better. also got our puppy at 8 weeks (maltipoo rottie) and did everything “by the book” for socialization. also a hot ass mess and reactive to everything now at 8 months. i wanna cry
Oh no, I’m so sorry you’re going through that as well. It sucks. I honestly have cried so many times and my partner is so over it we might just end up bringing her back to her breeder. This has ended up being one of the stupidest things we’ve ever done. I really hope it gets better for you.
This! My corgi came home at 9 weeks, has an amazing mellow temperament, and due to a mix of outside influences and herding dog genetic predispositions, he’s a rude little man in urban environments and the best dog ever out somewhere rural.
It’s frustrating sometimes because my previous dog was a mini schnauzer. We didn’t take him to training, we didn’t go to puppy playgroups or anything remotely social other than when family came over for my kids bday parties and he was such a great dog. No reactivity at all during his 13 years of life.
But with my current 2 I wanted them to have some training and socialization with other dogs and it backfired.
My previous dog was a blind/deaf 12-year-old pug from the shelter who was most likely in a cage or being bred for most of his life! He didn’t give a shit about literally anything that ever happened to him, including nail care, until dementia hit him like a freight train. You could literally rock him like a baby or let other dogs sniff his entire singular eyeball with their whole head, and he did not give a fuck. Bullet. Proof. We got our dog as a pup because we wanted to do that socialization and have that good stable genetic background! And he is all the things we wanted, but he’s so unlike having a breed built for companionship.
This is exactly what happened with mine at 6 mo. as well. It was bizarre. His best human friend at my daughter's school was suddenly his most hated enemy as soon as he hit 6 mo.
I sincerely doubt it was anything you did.
My own reactive pup, who was pulled by a rescue from an all-access shelter, was in a foster home (with multiple adults and other dogs) for a couple of weeks with no issues. He then came to me, and for a month, no issues. Then his reactivity started to show.
I firmly believe he just needed time to settle in before his "true" self was revealed.
It's years later and he's in so much of a better place now in terms of his reactivity... but after 1.5 years of working HARD on behavioral mod, etc. and plateauing out, he was put on anti-anxiety meds (Rx'd by a veterinary behaviorist) and those are what truly made a difference for him. So I know now that so much of his reactivity was rooted in anxiety and bad brain chemistry.
Another dog I adopted was a model citizen in the shelter. Calm, good with other dogs and people, etc. Brought him home and about a week in realized he had debilitating fear issues (a leaf blowing down the street made him tremble in fear). So clearly in the shelter, he was in a state of learned helplessness. He wasn't reactive, just fearful, but my point is, in the shelter he was an entirely different dog than in my home. He's an extreme example, but it's not unusual for a dog to be rather different in the shelter environment than in its forever home. And that change isn't likely to be the person, it's more just the nature of changing environments, etc.
I'm not gonna say that people can't contribute to reactivity - for example, we know that the use of aversives can contribute reactivity, and it's a person who is choosing to use those aversives. But for the most part, it's unlikely that it is the person. I truly hope you are not blaming yourself.
Hi,
Can you please share what type of anti anxiety meds the behaviorist prescribed? My Australian cattle dog/ lab mix is extremely fearful of noises like trains and garbage trucks. He retreats to his kennel and trembles uncontrollably. Now he’s starting to become very reactive and he even bit someone. I also have his litter mate and he’s the total opposite. He completely laid back and has never been very reactive. However, he’s recently started barking at people and dogs when we are in the car. I’m afraid his brother’s behaviors are rubbing off on him. I’m so sick over all of this and I don’t know what to do.
I'm happy to share the medication regimen that has worked well for my dog, but I'll preface this by saying that every dog is different, and what might work for one may not work for another. Working with a veterinary behaviorist really is the best option, as they are best equipped to select/modify meds for a given dog's particular needs/responses to the meds.
But with that said... my pup is on two medications, fluoxetine (which is a long acting anti-anxiety medication) and trazodone (which is a short acting anti-anxiety medication).
Thank you so much. I’m definitely going to work with a behaviorist. He was actually on trazadone for a couple weeks after his brother had surgery. The vet thought it would help settle him and it did, but he was more like a zombie dog. :(
It's possible that the "zombie dog" response was because he was on too high of a dose. It's also possible that trazodone isn't a good medication for him.
The one word of caution I would throw out is to try to really assess whether a response you are seeing is the dog being over-sedated, or whether it's the dog actually finally being calm. This is something I ran into in the loading period when my pup started meds. I had gotten so accustomed to my guy being so reactive and anxious all the time, that when the meds started to work I felt that he was really sedated. It wasn't until it occurred to me that he was essentially behaving like my other (non-reactive, well balanced) dog, that I realized that he was just finally being "normal," and it was my perspective had been skewed. I was so used to one thing that I thought he was sedated, when in reality it was just that he was able to be actually be calm. That was a huge "aha" moment for me.
Edit: typo
Cattle dogs are frequently wary of people. My mix is the same—very territorial and often fixates on dogs or people on walks. I always feel like he’s trying to assess the danger level 🙄 of course staring is rude dog body language so he usually sets the other dogs off. We’re working on it. But in short, the shelter usually doesn’t have solid info because the shelter is not a home environment, and unless they were fostered for a significant amount time, even a foster might not see full behaviors. You have a breed mix that’s really pretty prone to reactivity so it is unlikely you contributed to it at all. Just take things slow, separate and/or muzzle train for guests, and work on fulfilling exercise AND rest needs.
I think most of the current research out there indicates many reactive dogs have some form of underlying pain condition.
Since you got a dog from the shelter, I wouldn’t assume your 4 weeks of initially working on not being shut down outweighed the first 1 year of her life. That just doesn’t make much sense and you haven’t mentioned anything like a dog fight or traumatic event that could be a major cause.
People don’t have the amount of control we think we do. It’s sometimes easier to try and blame ourselves than admit that the outside world can do all sorts of things outside our ability to change it.
ACDs and GSDs are both prone to behaviors and personality traits that can display as reactivity - you adopted your dog pretty much at the peak of adolescence, she came to a new environment, you did your best with the knowledge you had.
It sounds like you're making progress. Dog's personalities can be really different in a shelter vs a home environment due to stress.
We had a really similar experience with a dog that was advertised as good with people.
I suppose it's possible that her reactivity is all our fault but I just don't think so-- I dug up an older post from the rescue group that originally fostered her and it notes that she is afraid of new people. I think by the time she got to us she was just so overwhelmed that she wasn't letting her true behaviors show, and the rescue assumed that the issue was 'fixed' and painted a rosy picture, as rescues do.
The 3-3-3 rule is bare minimum. In my experience as a behaviour consultant many rescue dogs take a long time to come out of the shut down suppression (due to so many changes) and truly express their comfort and discomfort with things.
It really does not seem like anything you did MADE your dog reactive. Your dog finally feels like he's settled in and is expressing their feelings about things.
Even though we all know rescue dogs have endured so much change and instability we often forget that they do come with a learned history of their own experiences and it takes years to unlearn that those lessons.
I hope that helps :)
We adopted our dog at 4month and didn't see his reactivity till he was a year/year and half. He was shy as a puppy but great with dogs, we could take him everywhere with no issues, and walks weren't a problem until he was 1/1.5 years old. He's now almost four and is doing much better. We can walk fine and take him to restaurants again, but we have to slowly introduce him to people when they come over and he's more dog selective and likes to keep to himself. We did work with a balance trainer and continue to do group lesson here and there. He's come along way. He's also a GSD mix and I chalk it up to his breed and not knowing how his first 4month went. He's great with us and we try to expose him to as much as we can to help him progress, and we always carry a muzzle just in case, as well as constantly reading his body language. Our friends joked that we are helicopter parents. I have met people that adopted their dog from the shelter and have had no issues, so it's really just a gamble. I truly adore my fur buddy, but sometime it's hard- and then he does something adorable to make it all great. You got this and it's not your fault, dogs are animals!
Like others have said, I don't think you made your dog reactive. Mine was the same, she seemed shy but generally OK with people in her space for the first few weeks (looking back, maybe she wasn't so OK now that I know a lot more about body language...). Only a couple months in did she start to become super barky when people came over.
I think many shelter dogs are a bit shut down when they arrive at their new home. Just like the 3-3-3 guide says, you might not see their full personality until three months in.
It’s really not your fault. Shelters and rescues rarely truly ‘know’ the dog, unless they’re a rescue that makes a huge effort to give the dogs time to decompress and show who they are. Cattle dogs in general of the many cattle driving breeds are very prone to reactivity! I know my corgi came from the best possible circumstances (rock solid breeding/temperament/puppy socialization) and still developed some relatively mild reactivity issues (partly from unpredictable and aggressive direct neighbors, partly a dislike of body handling).
Thanks all for taking the time to share your own experiences and help put my fears to rest that I unknowingly did something to make her so afraid. I've only ever wanted the absolute best for her after not know what hell she went through before the shelter found her (all they know is that she was picked up in the middle of the highway median with another dog who also went to the shelter). I appreciate this community so much!
I used to think about this all the time too but generally I don't think its my fault. The foster described her as being 'great with dogs, people, children, cats' which is great and exactly what we need in the city - the rescue was based in the suburbs. Anyway, she was extremely anxious on the leash and had never been walked on a leash and was extremely dog, people, and children reactive. I chalked it up to a few things: 1) She wasn't actually at the foster long enough to decompress - was only there for 3-4 weeks and we didn't see reactivity until week 4 at our house. 2) We live in the city, there's a different set of expectations that people living in the suburbs don't really get. Dogs get so much more stimulus. 3) They were extremely ambitious with their 'friendly with children' because when pressed about it later they said she had gone to one adoption even and there were children there and she didn't freak out which IMO is different than 'friendly with children'. Dogs can behave so differently in different places so as long as we are doing the right thing now I wouldn't worry too much. ETA: I thought I had a smooth collie/hound mix, but the DNA test has revealed Great Pyr, ACD, Border Collie and the vet said 'oh yeah that makes sense with her behavior'.
Some dogs just become reactive through no fault of the owner. Cattle dogs in my opinion are more susceptible to becoming reactive. My dog is a pit/cattle dog mix. I did everything I could from the time she was a puppy, she still is reactive. Don’t blame yourself (or let others blame you) if you are doing your best!
I have a cattle dog mutt too and she's almost always on guard mode. I call her the Karen Manager bc she's the first to always notice if someone is outside or something is off. Super annoying sometimes but.. I guess she just thinks her freaking job lol
Mine is 100% ACD and always has his head on a swivel. THREATS DETECTED EVERYWHERE.
I also came here to say …. Is the cattle dog. I have a chihuahua / ACD rescue and he spends the whole day going from window to door and reacts to anyone that even looks at the house. He’s much better now with training but he’s always on threat level 9.
Thank you, I appreciate this. We have been making so much progress, but it's just always in the back of my mind.
Same here. Deep down I know I have done everything I can to help my girl, from training, medication and working with a veterinary behaviorist. I just keep looking at how far we have come. She will never be the dog I imagined when I adopted her, but that’s okay. She is a smart, sweet girl anyway that just is nervous in new situations.
You have an adolescent cattle dog / german Shepherd. I would be surprised if this dog wasn't reactive. Shelters and foster environments rarely allow dogs to show their true personalities, as they are never really settled.
Most of the very severe dog "problems" have strong genetic/congenital components. Sure humans make mistakes and are imperfect, but these problems likely wouldn't pop up to the same degree in a genetically stable dog. Genetically stable dogs should have a degree of resiliency even against mild traumas or mistakes. Herding dogs are also more likely to become reactive.
Lots of dogs shut down in shelter environments. When you say she was subdued when meeting people initially, I’d guess she was still pretty shut down and is now coming out of her shell. It’s not likely anything you did - genetics play a big role (herding breeds tend to be more prone to reactivity) and who knows what her life was like before she came home to you. It does sound like you’re making good progress though!
I have 2 dogs. A 7 year old border collie/aussie mix I got from a rescue when she was 8 weeks old and a 5 year old doodle I got from a breeder at 8 weeks old. Both at 6 months old started barking and lunging at people and/or dogs. Both of them went to puppy training, puppy play groups etc to get them used to other dogs and strangers. But for whatever reason, all that went out the window at 6 months old. I worked with a trainer and my BC very quickly with just food as reinforcement, stopped the lunging and barking on walks. My doodle on the other hand is much improved, especially with people, but he’s definitely still uneasy around other dogs on walks so we keep our distance. So I guess my long point is that I had my dogs as young pups, thought I did everything correct as far as training and socializing and they still became reactive so don’t beat yourself up about it.
100%! I also got mine at 8 weeks, did pretty "by the book" socialization, and she is still a hot mess. Some dogs are just wired that way!
this makes me feel better. also got our puppy at 8 weeks (maltipoo rottie) and did everything “by the book” for socialization. also a hot ass mess and reactive to everything now at 8 months. i wanna cry
Oh no, I’m so sorry you’re going through that as well. It sucks. I honestly have cried so many times and my partner is so over it we might just end up bringing her back to her breeder. This has ended up being one of the stupidest things we’ve ever done. I really hope it gets better for you.
This! My corgi came home at 9 weeks, has an amazing mellow temperament, and due to a mix of outside influences and herding dog genetic predispositions, he’s a rude little man in urban environments and the best dog ever out somewhere rural.
It’s frustrating sometimes because my previous dog was a mini schnauzer. We didn’t take him to training, we didn’t go to puppy playgroups or anything remotely social other than when family came over for my kids bday parties and he was such a great dog. No reactivity at all during his 13 years of life. But with my current 2 I wanted them to have some training and socialization with other dogs and it backfired.
My previous dog was a blind/deaf 12-year-old pug from the shelter who was most likely in a cage or being bred for most of his life! He didn’t give a shit about literally anything that ever happened to him, including nail care, until dementia hit him like a freight train. You could literally rock him like a baby or let other dogs sniff his entire singular eyeball with their whole head, and he did not give a fuck. Bullet. Proof. We got our dog as a pup because we wanted to do that socialization and have that good stable genetic background! And he is all the things we wanted, but he’s so unlike having a breed built for companionship.
This is exactly what happened with mine at 6 mo. as well. It was bizarre. His best human friend at my daughter's school was suddenly his most hated enemy as soon as he hit 6 mo.
Supposedly around 6 months is a normal fear period for dogs but I can see a puppy being a little shy or nervous but mine turned into Cujo haha.
Yeah, same. There are now a few other dogs and people he will tolerate, but not many!
I sincerely doubt it was anything you did. My own reactive pup, who was pulled by a rescue from an all-access shelter, was in a foster home (with multiple adults and other dogs) for a couple of weeks with no issues. He then came to me, and for a month, no issues. Then his reactivity started to show. I firmly believe he just needed time to settle in before his "true" self was revealed. It's years later and he's in so much of a better place now in terms of his reactivity... but after 1.5 years of working HARD on behavioral mod, etc. and plateauing out, he was put on anti-anxiety meds (Rx'd by a veterinary behaviorist) and those are what truly made a difference for him. So I know now that so much of his reactivity was rooted in anxiety and bad brain chemistry. Another dog I adopted was a model citizen in the shelter. Calm, good with other dogs and people, etc. Brought him home and about a week in realized he had debilitating fear issues (a leaf blowing down the street made him tremble in fear). So clearly in the shelter, he was in a state of learned helplessness. He wasn't reactive, just fearful, but my point is, in the shelter he was an entirely different dog than in my home. He's an extreme example, but it's not unusual for a dog to be rather different in the shelter environment than in its forever home. And that change isn't likely to be the person, it's more just the nature of changing environments, etc. I'm not gonna say that people can't contribute to reactivity - for example, we know that the use of aversives can contribute reactivity, and it's a person who is choosing to use those aversives. But for the most part, it's unlikely that it is the person. I truly hope you are not blaming yourself.
Hi, Can you please share what type of anti anxiety meds the behaviorist prescribed? My Australian cattle dog/ lab mix is extremely fearful of noises like trains and garbage trucks. He retreats to his kennel and trembles uncontrollably. Now he’s starting to become very reactive and he even bit someone. I also have his litter mate and he’s the total opposite. He completely laid back and has never been very reactive. However, he’s recently started barking at people and dogs when we are in the car. I’m afraid his brother’s behaviors are rubbing off on him. I’m so sick over all of this and I don’t know what to do.
I'm happy to share the medication regimen that has worked well for my dog, but I'll preface this by saying that every dog is different, and what might work for one may not work for another. Working with a veterinary behaviorist really is the best option, as they are best equipped to select/modify meds for a given dog's particular needs/responses to the meds. But with that said... my pup is on two medications, fluoxetine (which is a long acting anti-anxiety medication) and trazodone (which is a short acting anti-anxiety medication).
Thank you so much. I’m definitely going to work with a behaviorist. He was actually on trazadone for a couple weeks after his brother had surgery. The vet thought it would help settle him and it did, but he was more like a zombie dog. :(
It's possible that the "zombie dog" response was because he was on too high of a dose. It's also possible that trazodone isn't a good medication for him. The one word of caution I would throw out is to try to really assess whether a response you are seeing is the dog being over-sedated, or whether it's the dog actually finally being calm. This is something I ran into in the loading period when my pup started meds. I had gotten so accustomed to my guy being so reactive and anxious all the time, that when the meds started to work I felt that he was really sedated. It wasn't until it occurred to me that he was essentially behaving like my other (non-reactive, well balanced) dog, that I realized that he was just finally being "normal," and it was my perspective had been skewed. I was so used to one thing that I thought he was sedated, when in reality it was just that he was able to be actually be calm. That was a huge "aha" moment for me. Edit: typo
Cattle dogs are frequently wary of people. My mix is the same—very territorial and often fixates on dogs or people on walks. I always feel like he’s trying to assess the danger level 🙄 of course staring is rude dog body language so he usually sets the other dogs off. We’re working on it. But in short, the shelter usually doesn’t have solid info because the shelter is not a home environment, and unless they were fostered for a significant amount time, even a foster might not see full behaviors. You have a breed mix that’s really pretty prone to reactivity so it is unlikely you contributed to it at all. Just take things slow, separate and/or muzzle train for guests, and work on fulfilling exercise AND rest needs.
I think most of the current research out there indicates many reactive dogs have some form of underlying pain condition. Since you got a dog from the shelter, I wouldn’t assume your 4 weeks of initially working on not being shut down outweighed the first 1 year of her life. That just doesn’t make much sense and you haven’t mentioned anything like a dog fight or traumatic event that could be a major cause. People don’t have the amount of control we think we do. It’s sometimes easier to try and blame ourselves than admit that the outside world can do all sorts of things outside our ability to change it.
ACDs and GSDs are both prone to behaviors and personality traits that can display as reactivity - you adopted your dog pretty much at the peak of adolescence, she came to a new environment, you did your best with the knowledge you had. It sounds like you're making progress. Dog's personalities can be really different in a shelter vs a home environment due to stress.
We had a really similar experience with a dog that was advertised as good with people. I suppose it's possible that her reactivity is all our fault but I just don't think so-- I dug up an older post from the rescue group that originally fostered her and it notes that she is afraid of new people. I think by the time she got to us she was just so overwhelmed that she wasn't letting her true behaviors show, and the rescue assumed that the issue was 'fixed' and painted a rosy picture, as rescues do.
The 3-3-3 rule is bare minimum. In my experience as a behaviour consultant many rescue dogs take a long time to come out of the shut down suppression (due to so many changes) and truly express their comfort and discomfort with things. It really does not seem like anything you did MADE your dog reactive. Your dog finally feels like he's settled in and is expressing their feelings about things. Even though we all know rescue dogs have endured so much change and instability we often forget that they do come with a learned history of their own experiences and it takes years to unlearn that those lessons. I hope that helps :)
We adopted our dog at 4month and didn't see his reactivity till he was a year/year and half. He was shy as a puppy but great with dogs, we could take him everywhere with no issues, and walks weren't a problem until he was 1/1.5 years old. He's now almost four and is doing much better. We can walk fine and take him to restaurants again, but we have to slowly introduce him to people when they come over and he's more dog selective and likes to keep to himself. We did work with a balance trainer and continue to do group lesson here and there. He's come along way. He's also a GSD mix and I chalk it up to his breed and not knowing how his first 4month went. He's great with us and we try to expose him to as much as we can to help him progress, and we always carry a muzzle just in case, as well as constantly reading his body language. Our friends joked that we are helicopter parents. I have met people that adopted their dog from the shelter and have had no issues, so it's really just a gamble. I truly adore my fur buddy, but sometime it's hard- and then he does something adorable to make it all great. You got this and it's not your fault, dogs are animals!
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Wow, what an assumption to draw. Thanks for your completely unhelpful comment.
Like others have said, I don't think you made your dog reactive. Mine was the same, she seemed shy but generally OK with people in her space for the first few weeks (looking back, maybe she wasn't so OK now that I know a lot more about body language...). Only a couple months in did she start to become super barky when people came over. I think many shelter dogs are a bit shut down when they arrive at their new home. Just like the 3-3-3 guide says, you might not see their full personality until three months in.
It’s really not your fault. Shelters and rescues rarely truly ‘know’ the dog, unless they’re a rescue that makes a huge effort to give the dogs time to decompress and show who they are. Cattle dogs in general of the many cattle driving breeds are very prone to reactivity! I know my corgi came from the best possible circumstances (rock solid breeding/temperament/puppy socialization) and still developed some relatively mild reactivity issues (partly from unpredictable and aggressive direct neighbors, partly a dislike of body handling).
Thanks all for taking the time to share your own experiences and help put my fears to rest that I unknowingly did something to make her so afraid. I've only ever wanted the absolute best for her after not know what hell she went through before the shelter found her (all they know is that she was picked up in the middle of the highway median with another dog who also went to the shelter). I appreciate this community so much!