You should be so proud of yourselves for persevering with her!

Your doing a great job with her . I’ve had my Romanian collie cross 4 years now and he started developing extreme fearful anxious behaviour in the last couple of years . My biggest help was to have lots of patience and encouragement and praise when his in a scary environment . 🥰

Hi Ruth, I've just watched 3 of these videos about you and Susu and it's great to see how happy she looks. You're doing a grand job so keep doing what you're doing. I have 2 Romanian rescues asleep next to me (Eclipse & Molly) and I couldn't be without them. They're all so unique with such big personalities. If i can give you a bit of very friendly advice - please stop worrying so much, try to relax, be proud of how far you've all come and just give it time. You're doing great and 8 months really isn't very long. It's a very slow process when they're that nervous and she may always be a bit that way but when she's running and playing her joy is practically beaming through the screen haha. I got Clips just over a year ago and she was really timid and scared of everybody for a very long time. She'll still flinch if i move too quickly but she's a different dog now and seeing the journey she's on is great to watch. Unusually she's fine with fireworks, vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers but she won't go near a roadworks sign and if she sees a fly it has to die. Yes it can be 3 steps forward and 2 steps back but nobody wants a boring dog and it's all part of the rescue roulette fun ;-) I've only had Molly for 2 weeks. She's a little firecracker. She's not timid at all and into everything. I think I'm going to have my hands full but as long as they're both smiling, I will be too. Keep up the good work you 3.

Hi Ruth, thanks for sharing this video. There are more videos here from dog trainers than actual dog owners sharing ups and downs following adoption of a dog. So we have to learn from one another. I got my fearful dog 2 months ago and relate to many of your struggles. What worked for my dog: 1. Anxiety medication as soon as he got to our house (this helped our safety and eased learning new routine). Medication was gradually removed within a few weeks; 2. Four walks or runs per day, each 15 to 40 min max. You guys take the dog to long walks on nice places but it can help to always walk the dog in the neighbourhood and avoid the car until the dog is less stressed; 3. My dog feared the crate and still does ... at least he gets to use it because there's no rugs in the house except there and the crate door is always open. I recommend trying to put ater bowl and a black blanket covering the crate to give it a safe cave feeling. When the stress level of the dog is lower maybe crate training can resume. 4. As someone commented, perhaps your dog gets nauseous in the back of the car... my dog panicks in the back but luckily he rests nicely in the seat next to me and there are safety belts for dogs. 5. Hire a trainer who is knowledgeable with fear, stress and anxiety in dogs and who is willing to equip you with the knowledge that you need. I was fortunate to find one and it is contributing to slow but steady improvement.

Thank you so much for the update - she looks to be doing amazing, well done on all your hard work! Fluoxetine has been a game changer for our girl and I do not care at all what anyone thinks about it. It took 8 weeks to see the effects, but she has improved so so much. We mainly had to get that because she had surgery and had severe separation anxiety, so couldn't be pacing/running/jumping around due to the surgery. She also never took to the crate and I agree it's probably due to the journey. I don't have any tips re: the cooking unfortunately, it sounds like you do lots of counter conditioning, which sometimes works but not always! I have found that sometimes just pushing ours out of her comfort zone (like you did with the car) is actually really helpful and has not tended to lead to any regressions or flooding and does tend to help her confidence, but she's a smaller dog so it's a lot easier and every dog is different. We did the same with the car - she hated it at first and would shake and pant and hide, but now she's fab and just gets in on her own. We've just realised she gets car sick after about an hour in the car, so I can't imagine how the journey was for her. it's no wonder she was so traumatised really. Good luck with Susu, it's so nice to hear people's success and the struggles too as sometimes you feel so alone with it!

HI! Thanks for your video. I have had a rescue dog for 6 weeks and am finding it really hard to find content that goes beyond the first day / night or week. Really nice to see that things get better because I am having a lot of challenges.

I really support you! The charities say ‘give them time give them time’ which i of course understand however I feel sometimes the need that little push. We had a really nervous dog like Susu! And we had to give her that little push, she’s absolutely fine now but if we hasn’t of pushed her that little bit she would be the same now. The is coming from a kennel volunteer at Pawprints to freedom! 😅

Our Romanian rescue is just over a year! We got him in November. I completely get your frustration. Mine is fine in the car but won't walk down any roads at all (even quiet residential roads!), we have tried a behaviourist etc to no avail. So frustrating 😞

I've been following along for a while and I am so happy to hear of your progress with Susu. We got our girl, Anca, at the same time (November '20) when she was maybe 5/6 months old. A couple things I wondered about... You said Susu is easily influenced by other dogs. Do you think that, if there was a car parked right next to yours (also with the boot open), that if you got your parents to walk their dog into the car over and over, that Susu might give it a go? Almost as if, if she sees the other dog doing it and being fine, she might feel better about doing it. Also, with regards to your partner in the kitchen, counter conditioning could be a good shout. Each time he enters the kitchen, she gets a treat. Then work it up to, every time he gets to the cooker, she gets a treat. Up to the point that he can cook a full meal. Despite what you're saying, she looks so happy. You and your partner should be so proud of yourselves for the hard work you've done and saving the life of a pupper that would otherwise have lived on the streets, shown no love or worse, have died.

Our Peggy is so like Susu. She came to live with us last January having spent 4 months with a foster family after travelling from Romania. Until recently, she’d been sick every time she went in the car, but we were desperate to take her to the beach (like you, we just had a feeling she’d love it). We’d booked a week in Northumberland for last May that got postponed to this year, so we asked the vet how we’d be able to get her there without her getting stressed and she prescribed a mild sedative and it worked like a dream! Even better, it seems to have broken Peg’s car anxiety cycle and we took her to my parents last weekend (an hour away) without meds and she was fine. I think when you move, a little prescription would be a great help. Let me know if you want me to share exactly what they were. xx

I watched all your dog videos and I just want to say thank you. We got a romainian rescue recently. I know it hasn't been long but it's so nice to hear of people's honest struggles with it. People don't like talking about negatives but they are so useful. I managed to choose an extremely smart dog and I know it's going to be tough. Especially for my partner as he's (the doggo) definitely bonded to me more and much faster. Hope you're doing well, got a new sub from me. I don't think you're very far from me either :) Thanks again!

Just come across your story. I was going to ask how she was with other dogs. I guess it's hard to learn what humans want. Lovely to see her as a water baby. Dunno if you ever tried cbd or cbg for dogs, for anxiety. I feed stray cats, I can only trick 'em once. Best of luck to you.

im loving you little videos hunny if you near the south west england way and you want to walk with me and inka your most welcome to join us xx my girls obcessed with the car and i believe she thinks shes a cat she respects them xx she adores our cat but if we are out and a cat runs she thinks its a game xx our biggest challage we had with inka which took the longest as i did not want to flood her she is very car protective especially with my daughters in the car and shes hayes men i thonk its the way she was trapped in romaina if inka sees one of my daughters cuddle her boyfriend and shes starts giggling inka thinks somethings wrong and barks ive found when we have male friends that inka dont know visits i just tell them to sit down and let her come to then so shes not flooded or wants to get away and when shes happy she gives her paw like your girl and pulls you hand to tickle her tummy xx the last year ive seen a huge change on her xx she hand on heart is the best dog ove ever owned xx