Rescue dog so anxious - how to help ease this?

[Septemberintherain]

We rescued our lovely dog, 8 weeks ago today so obviously he hasn’t been with us for long.
He is almost 2 and was purchased as a 7 week old puppy and then put into a crate for 12+ hours a day, no walks and the owner didn’t have a garden so the poor might was unaware there was even an outside world.
I believe the owner surrendered him to the rescue centre when he was about a year old.
They worked so hard introducing him to the outside world. He was petrified of his harness and lead, didn’t know how to go for a walk, hated cars, was absolutely petrified of the vets etc.
They rehomed him earlier this year, the family had him for about 3 months but sadly returned him. I don’t know the full details but it’s something to do with him ingesting something (he eats anything he can get hold of), needing to go to the vets to have it removed and then reverting to his previous ways which they just couldn’t handle.
So he went back to the rescue, they worked with him more and then we adopted him early September.
He isn’t too bad considering what he’s been through but there are a few issues we need to help him with.
I have spoken to the trainer the rescue used but some of her suggestions haven’t worked. I can’t afford to pay for a behavioural expert atm so will need to sort this out ourselves.
One of the issues is his anxiety and stress.
When he is at home during the day with just me or one other member of the family (dd has been on half term this week and he’s been fine), he is calm and quiet. However, as soon as the evening/weekend comes and the whole family are home, he becomes very agitated and hyper. He will bark continuously, tear up his bedding, our cushions and throws etc, basically anything he can get his teeth into (I put away as much as I can but obviously can not live in a complete minimalist house!).
He gets much worse during the weekend when we are all home.
We are a quiet family, not loud and don’t have many visitors.
He is not at all aggressive, never shown any aggression and has a lovely personality but the poor mite is just so very anxious and so many things seem to trigger his stress levels.
We also have issues with cars. He has this over excitement/anxious behaviour regarding cars and so we’ve not yet been able to travel far with him. I have tried opening all the car doors and not putting the engine on and just letting him explore the car but he jumps in over excited, jumps from seat to seat, yelling and trying to bite into them!
He also bites doors and door frames as we are going out (weirdly, never as we are coming back in). He has stopped doing this in our home but when I’ve tried to take him to my mum and dads who live nearby, he gets so agitated and bites into their doors (front and back, not internal doors). I’ve obviously stopped taking him there for the time being.
When he’s very anxious, like this morning, he barks constantly, which is not great as we are semi detached.
I really am not sure how to help calm him. Like I say, we are a quiet family, I try to keep his walks and his routine consistent and haven’t changed things around but he is so very up and down with this agitated behaviour.
I know it’s because the poor love has been shut away from the world as a pup and he needs slowly introducing to everything. He probably thinks all cars and new people are coming to take him away, again!
I have started him on some herbal anti anxiety tablets (valerian and scullcap) but not sure if they will help? I can’t take him to the vet because of the currently car issue!
Other than a consistent and quiet routine, I’m not sure what else to do.
Any suggestions?

Thank you Ivedonethisthreetimesalready I have found a few therapists on the APBC and will contact them when we have the funds.
Cavviesarethebest we have the pet rescue plug in
moonypadfootprongs thank you, I’ve just a couple of groups on there.

So, today has been much calmer.
He hasn’t had a walk today, we have just played in the garden and kept everything as quiet as possible.
We have purchased a crate, popped in a corner of the kitchen with his bed in, covered it with a blanket and left the door wide open.
I have contacted the rescue and will be talking to their behaviourist on Wednesday.
Hopefully, with various plans of action in place, we can help him eventually come to a place of calm.

Yucalm has been really effective for our anxious and stressed border collie. We think he has the start of doggy dementia and yucalm has been the only thing this past year that has enabled him to sleep through the night.
It isn't that expensive as the tablets are given by body weight and your boy doesn't look that big.
Good luck and l hope that your boy is soon feeling less anxious.

Thanks Bordercolliesarebest1 you are the second person to recommend the YuCalm. I will look into getting some.

For those who have used the calming tablets, is it YuMove calming or YuCalm?

Oh gosh he's so lovely! I see terrier in there. He's adorable.

Have you heard of Southend Dog Training. I can't recommend the MM highly enough. Not expensive as you can join online community etc.

It's yumove calming care. Finn is on 3 a day but he is 30kg. There are 120 tablets in a box . It took about 7 days to start working so don't worry if you don't see a difference straight away.
These have worked so much better than any thing prescribed by the vet.

Make sure you order 120 tablets as it works out much cheaper.

We used YuCalm but as they are the same manufacturer I imagine either would be useful. Best of luck with your lovely looking pup.

I don't have much advice but wanted to offer some hope. We rescued a stray with no real history, but she was anxious about everything, cars, being left, going in the car, the vet. She barked constantly, she chewed everything!

We have now had her about 5 months and the difference is huge. We have had 1-2-1 training sessions with a trainer who specialises in rescues, and whilst expensive it was worth its weight in gold. We started with a 4 class training with the dogs trust, specifically designed for rescues so small classes (just us and a couple of other dogs) and then went 1-2-1.

She's stopped barking except to let us know she wants to go out, or her water is empty. She uses an indoor bark to tell us of things happening outside (never taught her it, she just started woofing softly). We provide lots of chew toys (and rotate them every few days) and removed everything we didn't want her to chew, also used an anti chew spray. Now she only chews what she's meant to. She has a variety of chews from soft toys, to rough textures, to rubber and hard chews. When we go out she gets a kong filled with doggy peanut butter, this helps her relax.

Basically we haven't rushed her, have encouraged the behave we want and not punished at all, she's learnt to trust us, and it's making a difference. Calm patience I think is key.

I used a collar and a plug in for my old girl on vets advice. Always a nervous dog but got worse when she was (very) elderly. The plug in did help.

You've got to give him credit for his marketing!

Southend Dog Training uses aversive methods and has no qualifications at all.

if you are happy to use prong collars on a highly traumatised dog then go for it........the fall out will be massive

tonystarksrighthand the rescue says he’s a Yorkshire terrier/Jack Russell cross? I follow Southend dog training on SM. I have thought of contacting him as he’s not too far away.
Thank you Bordercolliesarebest1 and 214 I will order some.
Thatngives me lots of hope ginsparkles thank you. I will take a look on the Dogs Trust site. Does the anti-chew spray work?

It depends on the dog, it does for ours but didn't for others. Patch test it first and see what happens. Good luck

OP your dog does NOT need a trainer. He needs a behaviourist. If you want him to become calm, happy and confident, judging from all I have read on this site about Southend Dog Training, that is the very last thing you should try. He will get much worse.

Thanks mrsjoyfulprizeforraffiawork I am going to talk with the rescues behavioural expert again on Wednesday and go from there.

Hi!

lots of people have already posted helpful advice! But I thought it may be useful to hear our ‘story’

Our little rescue was 1 when we got her. She wasn’t house trained, she was so matted we couldn’t see her eyes or tail (looked a bit like a mop head running around!). And she was scared of the world, and terrified of other dogs. She spent her first year of life getting attacked my another dog! She had her very own case handler at Dogs Trust.

Now, nearly two years on she is brilliant! People who don’t know her comment on how confident she is with other big dogs, she’s helped socialise countless puppies, and she’s a key member of a pack of dogs (organised dog walks). She’s house trained (finally!), and she rarely barks. She still hates busses though.

What we learned was that it’s all about really really tiny baby steps. E.g. she was terrified of the car (gave it a wide birth while it was sat turned off on the drive, thought I was crazy asking her to go in it! - she has a ‘look’ she gives us, we call it her ‘fluff off’ look). To get over this took months of daily training; I ended up sat in our car on a daily basis with all the doors open and engine off feeding her a delicious Kong for about 3 weeks at one point (in December! Nearly froze!), I was building the time up so the post kong time became longer and she relaxed.

Your little doggo sounds overwhelmed, it’ll take quite a lot of time to learn to relax (ours was similar but she likes going to the pub now)…. You’ll get there, just take your time. We couldn’t walk ours for the first month because it was too much for her (now she’s better than a regular dog in every way… not that I’m biased!)

Ps. We didn’t use any calming ‘drugs’…. Just hot dog sausage (for dogs) and broccoli.. and time.

Thank you Dippydonky that is really helpful, glad you lovely dog is much better now. This is why I rescued, to give a dog the life they deserve.

I think the Doghouse on MN is a useful resource for reading about other people's experiences. However, I definitely would not take the advice of anyone on this thread when it comes to actually working with your dog. I'm sure the advice is well meant and some of it may be useful. But no one here has seen your dog or interacted with him, no one here can truly interpret his behaviour third hand, long distance, and via internet.

I agree with some PPs that consulting a qualified behaviourist is the best approach, though I appreciate it is expensive. But not all behaviourists are created equal. Some are much better than others.

Good luck with your lovely little dog.

Just read all of this then realised its a year old!😆
How are things now??

Time heals so much. Our rescue is a different dog 3 years on and we still see changes every month xxx