How to Help a Fearful Dog

On January 29, 2006, I went to a run-down home in Fairfield, Connecticut, to pick up the puppy I'd adopted over email, "sight-unseen." I'd been dreaming about this moment for years, a dog of my own to go running with on the beach, sleep at my feet, play ball all afternoon in the backyard.

But Isabel was not what I'd expected. A feces-covered woman dumped her in my arms, this filthy, terrified, shaking, lifeless blob of a puppy with a nasty case of pink eye. She'd just come off a 17-hour truck ride from Virginia, where she'd been born into a puppy mill. She was so distraught that she refused to even walk when I put her on the ground. In the months to come, she would hide in her cage, shaking and shrinking away when my husband or I approached, afraid of anything and everything around her - her food and water bowls, music, the cat, and literally her own shadow. We could not get her to come near us.

Disappointed but determined (and occasionally asking myself what the hell I'd been thinking), I spent ridiculous amounts of money on dog psychologists, read endless books on pet behavior, and tried laughably strange techniques to calm her nerves. People thought I'd gone off the deep end.

But something worked. Seven months on, Isabel is affectionate and playful. She'll always be a little shy, but the difference in her personality is unbelievable. She's mischievous. She chews anything of value that we own. She follows us around the house. She shakes -- but only as we arrive home at the end of the day, when she's so excited she's about to implode.

I can't say exactly what changed her; it was probably time, and the understanding that we are her family, as much as anything. But for anyone frustrated with a shy, nervous, or fearful dog, here are the resources I found most helpful.