Oh yeah? Well, Arlo was rescued by Broad Shoulders before Broad Shoulders even existed.

I thought for my first post I'd tell you a little about my boy, Arlo.

Arlo is a two and a half year old teddy bear. He likes to cuddle at night and gets excited when I ask for a hug or a kiss. He knows when I'm upset and he'll come "rescue me" when I'm being tickled by blocking me with his body (or giving kisses!) He remembers people he knows and loves them all - but he isn't quite so good with strangers. He is terrified of people and though he has made impressive progress he can still sometimes show his fear in a scary way.

His story starts before Broad Shoulders Animal Rescue was formed. Minku and Emelda heard noises one morning and thought that their neighbor was assaulting his girlfriend. It turned out he was beating his puppy. With a chain. Confronting the man put Emelda in the hospital with whiplash, but Emelda and Minku managed to take the puppy, who'd later become my Arlo, away.

He was taken to the vet and I took him home to foster that day. He was scared and put his head on my chest for the whole ride home. He was malnourished, had worms & diarrhea and was so bruised from the abuse that was inflicted on him that the vet was worried he might have a blood clotting disorder. He spent his first week with me sick. It rained for the first three days I had him, but we were outside every 1h 45m because that's how long he could go without pooping on the floor. My friend put it well, "his belly doesn't know what to do with enough food." He'd also have terrible nightmares where he yelped in his sleep. Despite all this he managed to put on 10 pounds in the first week.

Those first days he was loving to everyone, and he still loves the people he met at that time. I lived in a co-op (with a dozen housemates) at the time and at first he seemed happy there. Within a few days the first hints of reactivity began to show. He'd start barking at people across the street - or even a block away. This developed over the next few weeks to the point where he lunged at everyone he saw outside. His yelping nightmares progressed to barking and growling in his sleep (a change that I found somewhat positive - it meant he didn't feel quite so helpless). Not long after he began to react to anyone who came near him at all.

I was in over my head. Needless to say I had to move out of the co-op. Though Arlo came to me weighing 48 lbs, he was growing quickly. A 50 pound dog was one thing - but when he hit 80 pounds he'd knock me right over when he lunged. (He has since reached his adult weight of 100 lbs.) What's more, no one (not even the first trainer I'd found) seemed to know what to do with his fear reactivity. I'm grateful that my friend pointed me to a wonderful trainer, Laura Monaco Torelli , and she immediately brought a vet behaviorist, Dr. Ciribassi , into the program. They taught me how to work with Arlo while he was calm in order to help him stay calm longer.

I learned that dog training isn't as easy as I thought and that popular dog psychology is dangerously flawed. Arlo's reactivity had nothing to do with "dominance" and though I had to learn to remain calm, his reactivity wasn't about me. I learned that he had a condition directly analogous to human PTSD, and that his brain was physically and chemically altered from the trauma he'd experienced. There was no quick fix, trainers who claimed to treat this instantly (by intimidating the dog) would make the problem worse in the long run. Laura worked with me to come up with an ever-evolving training plan and Dr. Ciribassi helped us to manage the medical side of Arlo's treatment. I have a lot to say about the path to healing Arlo so far, but I'll save that for another post.

I will leave you with a few references for now:

• Calming Signals are important to learn, and are indispensable when it comes to understanding dogs.
  
  
• Fearful dogs booklist from a website that is well worth exploring!
  
  
• Boogie's blog is a blog written by a Lili Chin who is an illustrator working with another excellent trainer to heal her fear-reactive dog. The posts labelled "training" and "BAT" are especially helpful.
  
  
• PDF on BAT - the training method Arlo and I are working with now.