Feral Puppy...Any ideas??

I've got a big dilemma..

Yesterday I saw a puppy get hit by a car and stopped to pick it up. I took it to the vet, it is fine except for some bruising....The puppy was fine at the vets, but it was scared to death and just very depressed acting.

I've been interacting with it a little bit and he's seemed fine. I took him out to potty and as soon as I put him on the ground he started freaking out. He bolted and dragged me along with him (i was scared he was going to slip his collar) I finally got him cornered and he bit me several times in defense. He's scared out of his mind and obviously not used to humans at all. I didn't think he was that wild....He lulled me into a false sense of security being as calm as he was. Never attempted to bite at the vets.

I know if he goes to a shelter they will put him down....But I also know rescue groups are filled with dogs that are able to be adopted and this guy will take a lot of work...He's completely feral...He's not aggressive and will just try to get as far away as possible...But you can't handle him at all and he will bite in defense.

He's a big puppy...29 lbs at the vet, looks like a newfoundland. He still has nearly all of his baby teeth, so he's pretty young. I've been trying to locate a rescue group for him, but no luck so far. I don't know what to do...It kills me to think of taking him to a shelter...I want to save him...but I don't know how.

I've never worked with feral dogs before and don't know where to begin. I don't have anywhere to put him. We wrangled him into a crate after this mornings episode, but I don't have a fenced yard for him. Any ideas are appreciated. My gut is telling me to just take him to the shelter, but I'm having a hard time accepting that

where do you live?

I don't know if advice for taming feral cats is the same as for taming feral dogs, but I suggest just sitting in a room with him, don't wrangle him into his crate again as that needs to be his "safe" spot. let him see that you are giving him food and water. Just spend time with him and he'll get used to you.

He's going to take some time & intense work. I have a rescued street dog that I've had for about a year now, and we're still working some issues out. He's had to learn everything, from climbing up stairs, to social manners around people & animals, even how to jump up on the furniture (he's a small dog). And we've had to get rid of some bad behavoirs like food aggression, etc.

The fact that your puppy is so young is actually a good thing.

about how old is he? where are you located?

Thanks for the replies

I'm not sure of the age...The vet said he only had 2 adult teeth..The rest are all baby teeth.

I am located in Knoxville, TN.

A little more background...His mom and his siblings all used to run the road he got hit on. Animal control was called several times, but were never able to catch them.

I don't have a fenced yard for him. He is living in my room right now in my closet (doesn't have doors). He just lays in one spot and rarely moves. I think he's still in a lot of pain. He has refused food so far (even turkey and hotdogs...Just trying to get him to eat something!). He's taken like one sip of water. At first I was petting him a lot and talking to him....but I think that just stresses him out more. I've just been leaving him alone and talking softly to him whenever I walk by.

I've had one feral puppy and that situation did not turn out well at all. It was a chow pup that showed up at our house. We put ads out looking for the owner but no one came forward so we decided to keep him. He was like you're describing - scared to death of EVERYTHING. We worked with him for about 3 months, got him his vaccinations, put a collar on him etc. He never got to the point that he would come to us. We had to keep him strictly confined because he would not hesitate to run away if given the chance.

Well, one day he got his chance. When I was taking the trash out he slipped by me and was gone. We looked and looked for that dog, put an ad in the paper, signs up, etc. and never found any trace of him. About 8 months later a neighbor came over and told me that he had seen the dog a couple times and his collar was so badly imbedded and infected that he was dying, so the neighbor, unable to catch him, shot him. The whole situation was horrible. I couldn't really blame the neighbor for shooting him because otherwise we would have had to trap him and he most likely would have been PTS anyway. Shooting him was certainly not what I would have done, had I known the dog had been seen, but the end result was probably the same.

Makes me sick to think that poor pup was out there on his own all that time, scrounging for food and growing too big for his collar.

So, my point is....you probably have a hard road ahead of you if you decide to keep this little guy. I think it's great that you are trying but you may need to enlist the help of a behaviorist (I wish I had). and DON'T put a collar on him if there is ANY chance he could get away from you.

That's what I'm afraid of

It just seems so unfair that this puppy that doesn't want a home ended up in this situation, when there are thousands of dogs that would be more than happy to have an owner that cares about them.

I'm not going to try the collar again...I may get a harness for him for transport and such. May be a little easier to control him with it. He doesn't seem to have the personality of a dog that is going to ever trust....I've been around a lot of dogs in my life, and this one kinda seems hopeless right now. It's only been one day though, so I don't want to write him off just yet...And at least he is young.

Hopefully someone locally with more experience will be able to take him...I'm still looking around.

there is a guy in st. louis that specializes in stray & feral dogs, named randy grimm. pretty sure he has a couple books out. here is the website. they might be good people to contact for help/info. probably a good place to pick their brain. they have a myspace group as well.

Thank you for the info! I sent him an email asking for some advice on how to interact with the puppy and put a bulletin up on the myspace group.

Good idea. Good luck.

I hope it all works out. Keep us updated!

Good luck to you, whatever you decide to do. It is hard enough to train a friendly puppy, so I give you props for doing what you've already done. If you keep him it will be a very long and hard road ahead, but it will also be very rewarding if you are able to teach him how to trust. Please keep in mind that sometimes no matter how hard you try, these things do not work out, and it is NOTHING that you did wrong. Keep us posted, and never hesitate to come here to vent/ask advice/whatever!

I adopted a feral cat from a rescue group many years ago, to keep my cat company. It was 2 weeks before I could touch him; 5 years before any of my friends saw him; 6 years before he would come & get in my lap. Then he got so attached to being on me I couldn't get rid of him. LOL He eventually turned into the sweetest cat, even with visitors.

If he doesn't want you to touch him, I'd let him stay where he is and just put food & water where he can reach them without stressing. It's very possible he's still in pain and that's why he's freaking. My rescued dog has been very nasty when he's been sick or in pain, so I've just kind of "hovered" over him, doing what I can. He's just now getting to the point where he trusts me enough to come to me for comfort when something's wrong, and I've had him about a year.

It's also possible he's associating "outside" with getting hit by the car and it may take a bit to get him feeling safe out there again.

Thanks for all of the replies!

I haven't found anyone in the area willing to take him in. I am trying to get my mom to let me keep him. I just moved back in with her temporarily and am house shopping, but at the moment she's got 6 dogs at her house and isn't too happy..lol

The main problem is that he pretty much has to potty in the house. I'm not going to attempt a leash again until he's much more comfortable with me, so I don't see any other alternatives I think he'll be really easy to house train, but being able to safely interact with him is more important.

Anyway, He has shown a lot of progress since yesterday. Almost took a treat out of my hand today. He liked it and the withdrew a little bit...But he is eating with me in the room and is actually facing me now instead of hiding. I am feeling pretty optimistic at this point

You guys have been a lot of help! Thanks for all of your ideas and stories

There is a rescue here is Tucson that got a feral pit puppy, about 6 months old, that had been living with his mom and siblings in the desert his whole life. With a lot of patience and TLC, he turned completely around in 3 months so I know it is possible for a feral puppy to become pretty well adjusted.

He was also being fostered in a home with 7 other dogs, and that seemed to really help him build confidence because he was able to look to the other older dogs for cues when humans were around, and saw that good things came to those dogs from the humans.