A couple of weeks ago, Little Stella was admitted to Happy Doggo Land with a horrible wound around her neck. (You can  see more about her story here.) Her wounds were horrific but actually the thing that worried us most about her was her mental state. She was terrified of humans, scared of other dogs and the whole world frightened her. She was a seriously traumatized dog.

It’s something we see often at Happy Doggo. Many of the dogs that come to us have been abused, been involved in accidents, had awful illnesses or have just had a traumatic start to life. These dogs are difficult to deal with as a rescue as while we can patch up wounds easily enough, healing them mentally is much more difficult.

Why treating traumatized dogs is complicated for rescues

While we will never send a dog who can’t fend for themselves back on the streets, no dog can stay with us forever. After all, if we continually keep dogs in our shelter, we end up full with no room to help dogs who really need our assistance. 

But if a dog isn’t suitable for rehoming because of behavioural or trauma issues and they can’t go back on the streets because they can’t fend for themselves, then there are very few options for them. That’s challenging as our aim is to get dogs better and find them a home or a situation where they can thrive.

That means a huge part of what we do is rehabilitating traumatized dogs whose psychological wounds can be much deeper than their physical ones… 

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Taking it slowly with traumatized dogs

With traumatized dogs, the key thing you need to keep in mind is not to rush them. Most of the dogs who come to us with trauma also have physical issues. We’ve had dogs come to us with nails in their bodies, having been hit with cars, with life-threatening diseases and much more. The first thing we do is treat those physical difficulties.

But that can be a challenge if a dog won’t let us touch them. At this point we just have to go as slowly as we can without traumatizing the dog - while still managing to treat them.  

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Working with Stella

With little Stella, the wound on her neck was genuinely horrific. A piece of string had been tied round her neck as a puppy and as she’d grown, it continually tightened. By the time we found her it was deeply embedded into her neck and she was in agony. Although the vet had managed to get it out, she still had an open wound that needed to be cleaned regularly. An open wound that was dangerously close to her teeth… 

The issue was that every time we got within a few feet of Stella, she'd snap at us and try to bite us. Trying to clean her wound was actually making her mental state worse. But we couldn’t stop or her wound would get infected. 

So, we knew we needed to spend a lot of time, taking things really slowly.

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Sitting with Stella

Over the course of her first weekend, Niall and Lana spent hours sitting with Stella, showing her that humans could be in her space without harming her. They played music, and slowly edged towards her, always being careful to pose no threat. 

It was a slow process, but by the end of the weekend, with a little help from Rusty - our resident therapy dog - Stella was accepting pats and even playing with the other dogs.

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One steps forward, two steps back

Life isn’t always straightforward though. After her initial breakthrough, we thought Stella might come on leaps and bounds. That wasn’t quite the case, sadly. While she’d still let us pat her and even allowed us to bath her, she could be skittish and if she was surprised, she’d try to bite us. 

So, we have to continue constantly showing Stella that humans are actually quite nice and reduce the amount of stressors that are put on her. Niall sat with her again this week, showing her that humans are in fact quite nice. He just stayed quietly with her in her play area feeding her some nice food and chatting quietly with her.

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We've been here before

Some of you will also remember the story of Lina and Sophie, the little puppies who were terrified of everything. When they first came to us, we couldn’t even approach them for weeks. We learned through dealing with them that time and patience is key and no matter how scared a dog is, if you can help them when they’re young, their chances of having a wonderful life are still great.

Right now, Stella doesn’t have a plan for the future. She’s obviously not ready to be rehomed and needs a lot more time with people. It might turn out that she’s better suited to the streets but again, we just don’t know until she’s fully healed physically and doing better mentally. 

For the moment, she’s safe at Happy Doggo land with people who will look after her and who have her best interests at heart. And her best friends Rusty and Libby to continue guiding her on how to be a puppy.

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Watch Niall's attempts to make friends with Stella

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Are you interested in adopting a dog like Stella? Check out our adoptions page