Gryffin the superstar!

We have been working on building up his resilience to excited humans,  unexpected noises, household noises and external noises etc that he may encounter in a home.

Dogs often appear to be hyperactive when they are worried about something but really they are just trying to cope with the stress it makes them feel. Homes can be extremely noisy, not just with humans talking but with household appliances too. 

Dogs hear 4 times the distance of a human with normal hearing.  Dogs can hear higher pitched sounds and can detect a frequency range of 67-45,000 Hz, compared to a human range of 64-23,000 Hz. Even a washing machine can be really loud to a dogs hearing.

Today, we added to the television sounds, which he pretty much ignores now and introduced things like a hairdryer, music and sounds of a vacuum cleaner all at the same time!

Gryffin pretty much ignored it all including the cannon sounds in the music!

We also threw in some grooming with a very soft brush. Gryffin used to struggle with being brushed or handled too much but by setting him up to succeed and gradual desensitisation he can cope well now.  We waited until he had interacted with all the enrichment toys for a while, loaded them up with a few more treats and did some short bursts of brushing. We began this by giving some affection and maintaining contact with his body, slowly swapping the hand for the soft brush.

When he moved away, we stopped. It is important to give dogs a choice - we didn't call him over, just simply waited until he was ready.

When we truly "listen" to what dogs are telling us, it promotes confidence and trust, building their resilience.

Because Gryffin has come on so well, we no longer need the harness and indoor lead as back up. By the end of the session he was ready for a snooze. Too tired to really chew on his bone.

Little Gryffin is really making so much progress. Sadly he is still waiting for the right home/foster to come along but there will be plenty of support to continue working with him. 

Terrier SOS are looking for a Terrier experienced family that has time and patience to continue working with him. He is currently in the Norfolk area so priority will be given to homes in the south east so he can continue to receive back up support. He is a clever little dog, a fast learner and is beginning to enjoy affection and snuggling up to people. He has come such a long way- he just needs the right foster/new home to help him finish his journey.