Nervous Habits

Mom says if I tell the world that someone made me nervous I should explain what that means.  It is a little hard to explain, but I'll try.  I'm not sure I'll get it quite right.  First, I am a Pit Bull/Black Mouth Cur mix.  The main personality characteristics of both of these breeds include being extremely loyal to family and not necessarily interested in making other doggy or kitty friends.  I know I can't eat our family kitty or Rocky (although I am tempted at times), but other dogs and cats and even otters better watch out. 

When I was young, I was not treated very well.  I'm not going to go into the details now, but lets just say that my person wasn't always nice to me and I never really learned how to be social with other people.  Before that, I was with my mommy dog and she taught me things that all dogs learn from their mommies and from playing with their siblings.  How to hunt and fight are learned through playing.  One of the things we learn is that a quick way to take down an enemy is to bite their back legs at the ankles.  I only mention that because it has to do with what happens when I get nervous. 

I was in a foster family after my original person was mean to me.  They were very nice and taught me a lot of things.  I learned to trust them.  So when my forever mommy and daddy came to their house to meet me, I didn't get very nervous.  I was happy when they wanted to take me home, because my foster family loved me, but they had a lot of dogs to love and I wanted my own place. But even though my foster family trusted my new family, I had to learn to trust them too.  I was confused by everything, so every person I met made me nervous.

And when I get nervous I do what my mommy dog taught me.  I go for the back feet (I know people don't have back feet).  It is very confusing to me because I know I shouldn't hurt people, but I just want them to stop moving and I feel like I should protect my family.  So I bite at the only feet I can reach.  At first it was very scary for my mom and dad.  They didn't know what to do and I was nervous all the time, so everyone got their feet nibbled on.  They brought one lady over and tried to see what was going on by trying different things with me.  I had only been there a day or two, so I didn't know who to trust.  I got a little too scared and bit down too hard.  I know I did and I feel bad, but that lady still makes me a little nervous even though I see her a lot. 

Now hardly anybody makes me nervous for very long.  I confuse excitement with nervous sometimes.  I get especially excited when there is food in the kitchen.  So new people in the kitchen make me a little extra nervous.  But mom and dad aren't so nervous anymore and they can help me.  They know the signs of when I am nervous (my teeth chatter and my tail wags really fast for starters). They tell the person who is making me nervous what to do and they know what to do, so the worst I ever do is trip someone up or untie thier shoes.  I hope that someday I'll be comfortable with everyone, but I don't know for sure.  Mom says we are going back to obedience school soon so I can work on being around people and dogs without getting so upset.  We went before to a private class and that was ok.  I'll tell you about it later.  And we had a lady come to the house for awhile to work with me, but that didn't work out so well. 

Little babies don't move much, so they don't make me nervous. 

Anyway, I'm working on my nervous issues.  I have a ways to go.  Mom says I can't be trusted with children, ever and that is ok because I don't understand children.  Rocky really likes them, so he gets to be out when children are visiting, but I only get to be out after they have gone to bed or when the child can be watched really closely.  Maybe after awhile I will understand them, but I'm just as happy to stay away from them for now.