Welcome to the Soul Touched by Dogs Podcast, the show for dog lovers who
see dogs not as toys or tools, but wise souls worth our respect and care.
I'm an Herrmann, and I'm your host.
I talk to poor some humans, people who do great work for dogs and their people.
So come and join us for today's conversation.
Anke: Hello and welcome.
Inez: Hello, how are you?
Hello and
Anke: welcome.
I'm so excited to have you back.
You're the first person who comes back a second time and
for very, very good reason.
So, for people who don't know you yet, give us the two
minute bird's eye overview.
Where are you based?
You know, what does Inez do all day?
What are we going to do all day?
How long have you got?
Inez: Okay, so I'm based in Alarino Grande, which is
in Inland Malaga in Spain.
And I have some small businesses, but I also have a dog rescue,
a very small dog rescue.
It's just, it's just basically me and a few dogs.
Anke: So if you haven't seen the first episode, like she
makes some fabulous harnesses.
So I'm going to, we're going to pop the link there, but today we're
going to talk about something else.
Well, somebody else, a dog called Zuri, you know, and I have been following that
journey from what you're posting online, like literally from the first day.
And that was like 18 months ago now, isn't it?
Inez: Yeah, it was, it was mid June.
Um, last year, uh, when she came to my attention and, and it was
a Spanish rescuer had, um, posted about this dog looking for a home.
And I got tagged as I did because, because I, because she's
a Belgian Shepherd Malinois.
And what I saw was absolutely horrific.
I, I mean, I just didn't want to take another dog on, you know, saying it every,
every time, you know, no more, no more.
Um, but what I saw was a four month old.
absolutely petrified dog.
She was being kept, um, by the people between, on a window ledge, between the
wrecker bars and the window, but it was so small she couldn't sit up properly
and put her head up, so she was hunched over and she couldn't lay down either.
So she was kept in there and there was a picture there.
And a picture of her in a courtyard next to a bowl with this most
petrified face on her, you know, really curled up and tail underneath her.
And the other one was a video and she was back on the window
ledge and she was soaking wet.
And I realized that they had hosed her down in that place.
Now, the people, apparently they'd only had her for five weeks.
Um, mention I'm thinking, how can you, what's going on with this four months old?
So I immediately said, I'll take her.
And my thinking behind it was, if she got much older, her, her, the trajectory of
her life probably would have been, she'd have gone to somebody who couldn't cope.
She'd have gone to somebody else, gone to somebody else, she'd have ended up
in a pound, frightened in the back of the, in the back of the pound, fearful
to the point of snapping at people and she'd have been put to sleep.
That was likely to be what would happen to her.
Um, so I thought, well, worst thing I can do is at least try.
So I said I'd take her.
The Spanish people arranged the um, uh, the, the transport down.
She was, she was in Cordoba transport down for her.
Um, and I met them in just the other side of Malaga.
And they, when , because my Spanish isn't fantastic, , they were texting
me and I get this text saying that, uh, dah, dah, dah, that, uh, um,
that, uh, uh, she was a bit near that, near that, right near the means.
Well, that's what I thought it was.
So I'm like, it's no problem.
I'll give her a bath when she goes home.
No, not me, Eda.
The scared one, the scared, very scared, not very full of poo.
Okay.
So I was laughing to myself being an idiot.
And thankfully I had a travel box and the woman got her out of the car and just, I
mean, she, Zuri was just frozen into fear.
Into the box, drove home.
And I thought, I can't put her in the kennels.
She was going to go to the kennels.
I know where I can put her in kennels.
Bought her home here, um, and uh, when my poor, long suffering
husband was like, what's this then?
I explained, put her in, we have a hallway which is completely closed off, and I
can put a baby gate across for our dogs.
Put her in the hallway.
She wouldn't come out the box.
Couldn't get her out the box.
Had to take it all apart.
She hopped out.
She wouldn't touch food or anything.
Let one of the dogs down there who were very gentle with her, um, and
she was just so scared, so scared.
Kept her in for two days, um, and she messed in the house with nothing
you can do about it, because I thought by that time would be some
kind of bonding, a little bit of something, but there was nothing.
So in my mind, I'm sort of putting my, trying to put myself into her
paws, and all she's ever known is being cramped and enclosed.
She needs space.
So it was a complete gut feeling.
I opened the door and let her out and I started posting
right from the very beginning.
And I do it not so much for any other reason than so people can get the
experience themselves because sometimes people will also take up a challenge
and take a dog in or do something and they will help because they see somebody
doing what's the bits behind the scenes.
Anyway, so I let her out and that was it.
I mean, she wasn't coming back in.
I had to feed her outside.
But it was to the point, put the food down, walk away, shut the door.
She wouldn't eat it.
Otherwise, she wouldn't come anywhere near.
She was frightened of the, um, uh, the reflection, of her reflection on
the bottom of the dog bowl, so she suddenly, she'd be eating and suddenly
jumping away, which was sort of funny but also sad at the same time.
Um, and then it was a very, very long, slow process to gain her trust, because
all I could do was gain her trust.
And I don't believe in forcing a dog to do something, and there are times
when you have to, obviously, you've got to grab them up the street if a
car's coming, or, it's a bit like young kids, you can't let them have complete
freedom, but they, they have to have autonomy, and they have to understand,
and they have to learn, it's how they learn, not just by watching what you
do, by, but by being able to make those connections and choices for themselves.
You have the added part to this, is the Belgian Shepherd Malinois
is a very particular type of breed.
They're extremely high intelligence and they're very analytical.
They will work things out and mentally they work things out.
So I couldn't just force her into something because All it would have done
would have been made her fearful of me.
So then why would she come anywhere near me.
She may as well just run off somewhere because what's the point,
Anke: you know, starting like below zero right you know if you have, if
you come up across a dog that like you meet for the first time is when you
start that process of building trust but with her that is when you Trust
was so badly broken that you started at like a minus minus 100, right?
Yeah,
Inez: yeah, yeah, completely.
I mean, thankfully, I'm with the other dogs, it sort of helped.
And I thought it, I thought the whole process would have been a lot faster.
I have to admit, because they, it was amazing how they were coming up to
me like really extra close to me and rubbing themselves against my legs, very
obviously showing her that I was alright.
Yeah, that was, you know, This one's all right.
You should go really nice treats.
Don't miss out on this lot, you know, it was incredible to watch the whole process
with all the pack as well, to watch, you know, cause we've got another six dogs and
to watch how they were handling her and how they were trying to help her to become
part of the family and become integrated.
Um, So did they,
Anke: did, did she relate?
To them, like, what was she like with the other dogs?
Like, did she, because, you know, I'm imagining this puppy sort of really
young, put in this situation, like, did she even know how to relate to
Inez: other dogs?
Yeah, I mean, dogs do, dogs all do.
And it's quite amazing how I've seen our pack respond, because if
they, if they know there's a dog that's really fearful, even if the
dog's snapping at them, they'll turn their heads away and not fight back.
Even ones that would fight back, normally if you went oi to them, they'd be, you
know, bite your finger off type thing.
Um, they just turn their head away because they understand that the dog
is doing it out of fear and they're not doing it out of aggression.
Completely different.
So, uh, Pickle, who's very maternal, she would be sort of going up and,
you know, sort of being close to her.
And, uh, Zuri sort of bonded very well with Luna, one of the young girls there.
The youngest female that we've got.
And they would be sort of over there, you know, playing and stuff like that.
And she was starting to play and start, which was getting the exercise out of her.
It was starting to bring her energy levels down, the cortisol levels,
everything was starting to sort of drop.
You could see her starting to relax and everything, but
she still wouldn't come in.
So, um, I thought that I don't see a choice here and what was
happening, because I was, you know, well, you don't want to go, I'd say
goodnight, shut the door, go to bed.
One of these days, and then after about, I think it was 10 days, she
sussed out where I was and she would be outside the window yipping at me
Anke: like that, you know,
Inez: which is, you say, ah, I
Anke: say irritating because you want to, you know, I need my sleep.
It's not that funny, right?
No, it's not
Inez: that funny.
Three o'clock in the afternoon.
Oh, it's sweet.
One o'clock in the morning when you're absolutely dog tired
and you want to get to sleep.
No, and of course it disturbed my husband and the other dogs, and it was like,
oh crikey, now what am I going to do?
So I thought, well, I guess I'll just have to sleep on the sofa
and I'll leave the door open.
So she, she then has the choice to come in or not.
And that brought another bunch of challenges because my dogs, if
they hear a fly go past, they're out there barking their heads off.
And we have no neighbours, that's okay, but it's irritating for us.
And, you know, obviously I don't want to disturb my husband.
So I had to teach mine not to run out.
And so they weren't, you know, the door's wide open, they're
not allowed to come out, but they're all sleeping on the floor.
And, um, so I get a good few hours sleep and thankfully the old sofa that we have
is a really comfortable, big, deep sofa.
And then she started to start to come in, um, early hours, like three,
four in the morning, she would sort of, sort of come in, because I'd
be aware of, nuances of movement.
And, um, she sort of settled just inside the door.
And if I sort of even breathed too heavily, she was
shoot back out, but slowly.
So it was, it was like this.
Um, and it was horrible seeing her a couple of thunderstorms.
She was outside running around and she was barking.
She was actually frightened of the wind and she's barking away and she's hiding.
She's going under trees, try and get some shade.
And I did think about putting, maybe putting a dog.
Kindle or something up there.
And I thought, no, because if I do that, she's going to maybe choose that.
Anke: She'll just be comfortable there.
Yeah.
That's where she's going to stay,
Inez: right?
Yeah, exactly.
There's various places there are shade, but it's not specifically made for.
So I thought, if you're going to choose that bed, then you've chosen that bed.
I'm not going to facilitate it.
So over the course of five, six months, finally, she started to come in and
I used to wake up in the morning and I'd be on my right hand side
and she would be cuddled into me.
She would be spooning me, cuddled into me, her head on my arm and everything
that was, it was really sweet.
It was the only time then we'd start to wake up and she'd be off out again.
And so it would be sort of this back and forth and back and forth
and back and forth type of thing.
I mean
Anke: the progress, like I've been watching it sort of online
from the other side, you know.
Like the process seemed steady with obviously, you know, like a little bit
forwards and backwards, I mean, but I mean, overall it was steady progress.
It was just probably slower than most people would expect,
including you, perhaps, right?
So it's, it's just, you know, did you ever have a moment where you go, Oh
Jesus, this is just too much or, or.
Inez: Absolutely, absolutely.
You know, there are times where you don't get much sleep
and this, that and the other.
And, you know, so I mean, this isn't just what I do.
I've got work, I've got involved, I've got a house to try and keep clean.
You know, there's other stuff going on.
I've got grandchildren, I've got family, you know, so
there's other things going on.
And yeah, it overwhelmed me at times.
Um, but then I thought, what's the option?
What is the option?
Anke: Yeah.
I mean, the alternative is like, I'm going to like throw her out again and chuck
her in some new environment and start from scratch and probably like further
back because trust broken again, right?
Yeah,
Inez: exactly.
You reinforce the fact of that she can't trust
Anke: these big, yeah, there's these two licking beasts.
You can't trust them,
Inez: right?
Yeah, you can't trust them.
You can't trust them.
And you don't know how the next person's going to try and really who is out there.
who is going to be prepared to put that much effort into what
most people think is just a dog.
Yeah.
Anke: So, so what would you, if somebody takes on a dog that's kind of really
fearful, like, you know, a shelter dog, what's one tip you'd give them?
Inez: Space.
It's, it's our, uh, as humans, we want to, most of us who take on a rescue
dog, we're nurturers, aren't we?
We want to sort of cuddle and make the world whole again, but it's the
worst thing you can do for the dog.
The best thing you can do is to bring the dog in, If you've got another
dog, let them introduce each other, just leave the dogs alone, obviously
watching that there's no issues.
Um, throw treats or get really high value treats.
Um, and again, you've got to watch if your dogs are, you know, snappy
at food, but if you can just throw high value treats, just randomly.
There's no, no sort of for a sit or for anything particular,
but just because you're building that connection, there's space.
And connection.
You've got to build that connection.
When you've got that connection and trust, then you're 99 percent there.
Anke: I love that.
So I mean, talking about treats, like, where can people find out about you,
your work, your treats, because you are selling treats as well, aren't you?
Yeah, I
Inez: do a bit of everything and, uh, yes.
Um, it's, uh, InezRobinson.
com is my website.
Everything's actually on there.
I mean, all the things I do have their own websites, but it filters into that one.
So, if you go on there, you can see all the different stuff that I do and
anything new that might be coming up.
Anke: Absolutely wonderful.
So I'll just, obviously the link's going to be below here and wherever
you're listening or watching this, then the link will be right there.
So get in touch with Ines and yeah, I'll look forward to seeing
what we'll have you back for next.
Thank
Inez: you very much.
Really enjoyed that.
Thanks so much.
Thanks so much for listening.
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That's A N k E at Soul touched by dogs.com.