How do we rehabilitate an abused dog?
November 11th, 2009 | 
Author: My aunt, who is not a dog person but thought she’d give it a try for the kids, bought a dog for Christmas from the pound. Having a dog was too much for her, so now we have it.
The dog must have been abused before it got to the pound. He flinches and cowers at anything…the tv turning on and off, standing up too fast, my other dog’s sneezes, the toilet flushing…seriously, everything makes this dog flinch.
How should we help him become a happy, more confident dog? How do we train him if he’s scared of everything (can’t take him to obedience school because there isn’t one near me)? Right now, I’m really only concerned with getting him to respond to his name, come, and sit.
He’s a four-year old, male (fixed) bassett hound/beagle mix.
Posted in Dog Obedience Training Review | 
Tags: bassett hound, christmas, obedience school, toilet flushing
First, a lot of patience, he has to learn to trust you first and that’s going to take time. It also sounds like he was never socialized at all - was he even an indoor dog?
He’ll get used to the every day sounds that bother him - just going to take time.
As for obedience, that’s a really good idea because dogs gain confidence from success. And you don’t need to take him to classes, in fact, it wouldn’t be good for this dog right now anyway. Just train him yourself, keep the lessons short and very fun, use lots of praise and treats. Be very patient and I think he’ll slowly start to come around.
Beagles are very bright dogs and learn incredibly quickly, but both bassetts and beagles are a bit independent and if they’re on a scent, they just plain don’t hear you, so you need to take his basic temperament into account.
First, let him settle into your house a bit until he feels safe, then slowly work on getting him to respond to training.