# Nervous Romanian Rescue



## Sarah Gill (Sep 29, 2018)

First time posting but I've spent many hours on these forums over the last couple of weeks looking for tales similar to mine. My partner and I have just adopted a beautiful 1-year-old Romanian mix breed (we think lab x collie x lurcher). He had been in a UK shelter for around 4 weeks before we picked him up, and has previous to that been born and lived in a shelter in Romanian his entire life. 

We had a bumpy first few days – he snapped at me and my partner on the second night, but we haven't had any incidents of aggression since, and to be honest, it was 100% our fault for overwhelming him and not being attuned to him stress signals. Since then he's really come out of his shell, and comes over to me for cuddles and kisses. 

The main issue we're having with him is he isn't trained at all and isn't keen on walking on his lead. We've managed to get him up and down our street when it's quiet, but some days he won't budge from the garden fence. We have a few dogs in the neighborhood, and hearing them bark can really put him off. 

It's still very early days (had him just shy of 2 weeks), but just wondering if anyone has any advice or success stories of a shy pup that with time, love and patience, became a little less scared of the world. It's so tiring at the moment and it'd be nice to know there may be light at the end of the tunnel as we persevere. He's worth every second mind, he's such an affectionate dog once you gain his trust!


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## simplysardonic (Sep 1, 2009)

Like you say, it's still very early days & he's never lived in a home so will have zero training of any sort.

He doesn't know what walking is yet & consequently won't miss being walked while he gets settled into his new home & learns to trust you.

Lots & lots of time, love & patience, accepting that sometimes things will go backwards, but it does pay off, it really does.


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## magpie (Jan 3, 2009)

I don't have any advice, though I do have a foreign rescue dog (from Spain) he has always been a confident little thing! As a dog walker however I do walk a couple of Romanian rescues, one in particular was extremely timid when I first started walking him as his owners had only had him for a few weeks. He was very quiet and wary of the other dogs, would try and bolt when he got scared (sometimes for no obvious reason) so was always on lead for a long time, and small set backs (such as a big dog running up to us) seemed to set him back quite a long way and it took a long time to get back to where we were. 

But now he is like a different dog, he squeaks with excitement when I come to pick him up and wriggles and bounces all over the place! He also loves the other dogs and runs and plays with them, he has so much more confidence now. 

So it can take an awful lot of time and patience, but small steps and you will get there


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## Lurcherlad (Jan 5, 2013)

I’d say give him more time to settle and learn to trust you before venturing too far.


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## Sarah Gill (Sep 29, 2018)

Thanks for all your stories and words of support! He seems to be making little steps forward in his confidence every day (he stood outside with dogs barking today and didn't immediately bolt inside!). I'm just letting him take everything at his own pace – I do worry about him not getting enough exercise without walks – though I do try to play with him and his toys as much as possible – but I guess you're right when you say if he's never had walks so he won't miss them for the moment.


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## auspiciousmind (Sep 2, 2012)

Sarah Gill said:


> Thanks for all your stories and words of support! He seems to be making little steps forward in his confidence every day (he stood outside with dogs barking today and didn't immediately bolt inside!). I'm just letting him take everything at his own pace - I do worry about him not getting enough exercise without walks - though I do try to play with him and his toys as much as possible - but I guess you're right when you say if he's never had walks so he won't miss them for the moment.


Hi, I'm a little late to the party lol but just wanted to say I've had a Rommie since early January. It took over 8hrs to get him out of the crate and around 2ish months to get him to go on a "normal" walk.
The first week I didn't even attempt to take him out of the house.. because he was scared of everything and was still getting used to us. I put a harness on him which he wasn't impressed with in the slightest lol for short bursts a few times a day, once he was used to that I clipped a lead on and led him around the house for short bursts a few times a day. Then we moved on to standing by the open front door (with lead and harness) again for short bursts a few times a day and then walked to the end of the driveway with some food encouragement. Then moved on to walking to the end of the street with lots of boiled chicken treats and praise... Then near main roads.. and gradually made it longer and further. He absolutely adores walks now. He toilet trained almost immediately when he realised going out was fun. We've had two accidents since (directly after neutering so I don't blame him!).

Ted was 4/5 months old when he came to the UK he was found dumped with his mum in some sort of woodland area. Then he was in a shelter for months until coming to the UK. He adores other dogs but is very nervous of new human and has separation anxiety. But otherwise he's like a normal pain in the arse dog who loves to play and get into mischief. He does like to chew soft things but since removing soft toys this has *almost* stopped.

I've found Ted is fairly inactive during the day and I'm in contact with all of his siblings new adopters still and they have found that they don't need s great deal of exercise. so don't worry too much while you're still getting him used to going outside. Plenty of playtime will help as well as a stuffed Kong (frozen to make it last longer) I also found a snuffle mat, lickimat and basic training helped to tire him out when we weren't able to walk him.

Hope this helps ☺


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