I have two dogs, both from the local SPCA. My first was a stray and came to us with full blown anxiety. She used to have separation anxiety from people she'd just met (literally a friend dropped in for 5 minutes just to see her and she spent 20 minutes panicked and crying when he left). However, she's the happiest dog anyone (and I'm really not exaggerating that) has ever seen.
My second dog was abandoned by his owner, completely neglected (skinny, no muscle mass whatsoever, he literally struggled jumping onto a couch, and the SPCA had to shave him almost bald to get rid of the mattes) but that has no effect on the fact that he was depressed and angry over it. When we started training him he became pissy, jumped up on our bed and took a giant shit on it and that's from a 4 year old dog that's never had an accident in our house.
However, the second dog has recently become the bodyguard for the first. We've only had him 3 months, but around other dogs that are overly aggressive in how they tell off another dog (she's barely 2 years old, so a lot of older dogs are very assertive in how they correct her) he has taken to blocking them. He doesn't become aggressive, but when she is nervous or panicked he seems to step in and block, and it's funny because you'll see him for 5 minutes just blocking a dog from getting to her. Even when he gets snarled or snapped at he carries on until the other dog backs off. It's when she submits (rolls on her back, occasionally pees) to other dogs that you see him become angry as he (normally a silent dog) will bark and growl at the other dog and guard her. This happens all the time with our trainers boarder collie (they don't like excitement and our first dog is a jack russell mix, so is basically excitement personified) and there'll be 5 minutes of them squaring off barking at each other and him keeping the trainers dog from our first.
Our first dog knows right from wrong and when she's done wrong. If she knows I've noticed something she's done wrong (like torn up a burger wrapper) she goes into full blown submission and often pees on herself (it's a girl dog way of stopping another dog from attacking her). Our second however either doesn't know or doesn't give a shit about right from wrong.
My second dog was abandoned by his owner, completely neglected (skinny, no muscle mass whatsoever, he literally struggled jumping onto a couch, and the SPCA had to shave him almost bald to get rid of the mattes) but that has no effect on the fact that he was depressed and angry over it. When we started training him he became pissy, jumped up on our bed and took a giant shit on it and that's from a 4 year old dog that's never had an accident in our house.
However, the second dog has recently become the bodyguard for the first. We've only had him 3 months, but around other dogs that are overly aggressive in how they tell off another dog (she's barely 2 years old, so a lot of older dogs are very assertive in how they correct her) he has taken to blocking them. He doesn't become aggressive, but when she is nervous or panicked he seems to step in and block, and it's funny because you'll see him for 5 minutes just blocking a dog from getting to her. Even when he gets snarled or snapped at he carries on until the other dog backs off. It's when she submits (rolls on her back, occasionally pees) to other dogs that you see him become angry as he (normally a silent dog) will bark and growl at the other dog and guard her. This happens all the time with our trainers boarder collie (they don't like excitement and our first dog is a jack russell mix, so is basically excitement personified) and there'll be 5 minutes of them squaring off barking at each other and him keeping the trainers dog from our first.
Our first dog knows right from wrong and when she's done wrong. If she knows I've noticed something she's done wrong (like torn up a burger wrapper) she goes into full blown submission and often pees on herself (it's a girl dog way of stopping another dog from attacking her). Our second however either doesn't know or doesn't give a shit about right from wrong.