People love to advocate for their dog’s problematic behaviour by evoking often hypothetical trauma from their dog’s past life.
“I rescued her from a life on a chain, so now she hates the leash. Must be because it reminds her of the trauma.”
“She came from a place where husband was violent and abusive, so she hates all men now.”
“He shivers and hides every time I take out a broom, must be because someone beat him up with it in the past.”
“He hates his crate. Must be because he was locked up a lot in it when he was a puppy.”
“She has severe separation anxiety, must be because she was left alone a lot in her previous family.”
I am sure, you have heard these explanations and their variations, too, and maybe felt really bad for these dogs. However, what makes me personally feel particularly bad is the fact that the dogs who came (presumably or not) from bad situations are treated like they have an incurable disease, and therefore, they are never allowed to live a free, happy life.
See, the past doesn’t haunt dogs - not in the way it haunts humans. They do not spend sleepless nights thinking about that one time they did something stupid. Even though they absolutely can make negative associations with certain situations or people, their mind can be changed. It can be trained to think differently. Fancy term for it is behaviour modification, but I like to refer to it as good old dog training.
At a shelter I used to work at, we once had a dog who came into our care after being sprayed on with sulfuric acid. This dog’s burns were very bad, especially on her back and head. So bad that we weren’t sure she will survive. But she did. She recovered, although some spots on her body remained completely bald.
The story that we have been told had it that this dog was beaten, left hungry outside on numerous occasions. I have no clue how it got to the point that someone decided it was a fine idea to pour acid on her, but they did.
The first day I met her she was a shivering, fearful, timid dog who wanted nothing to do with any of us and was spooked by raised hands, loud noises, and spray bottles. By day five, we saw the first tail wag. In three weeks, she was the happiest, sweetest girl.
We worked with her quite a bit, of course, in order to get her to trust people again, but she eventually did. When she got adopted, she had no fear of raised hands, loud noises, or bottles with unknown liquids.
On another occasion, we got a sweet boy who carried his head in a weird way. A person who surrendered him later told us that this was their neighbour’s dog, and that this neighbour was an alcoholic who had anger issues. He was physical with the dog, and at some point he beat him up so bad that he broke his neck in several places and then let it heal on its own.
The break was bad, and it damaged the dog’s vocal cords. As a result, he could never make a sound again, and his head remained tilted to one side.
This dog was later adopted by my own grandmother, with whom I worked on not letting her pity for the dog to overwhelm the need to train it.
As a result, the little guy lived happily into his late teens, and passed away peacefully. He fully recovered from his psychological trauma and never exhibited fearful or shy behaviour.
What does this all mean?
Dogs are resilient, and dogs are very, very smart. If they show you a behaviour which you do not like (snapping at a stretched-out hand), but you let it go on because you feel bad for their past (the dog was beaten), then this behaviour will persist and the dog will keep their bad associations to themselves.
Stroking a dog who barks at other dogs, talking to them in a baby voice when they freeze to get them moving, picking up a dog who shuts down and starts having a tantrum are all powerful reinforcers of the very behaviours that you are trying to conquer.
Do not treat your dog as if they have some kind of incurable disease. They might have had bad experiences, but they do not anymore, and it makes no sense to not teach them to think differently in the today and how.
That is, show them how you want them to handle stressful situations and you will quickly see that their recovery is a very real, feasible thing.