I have a new foster dog, 2-yr old female that was surrendered from a puppy mill. I have had her about 3 weeks and it seems she has never had much exposure to humans or anything outside of a crate. As long as she is in my house or in my backyard with me and my dogs, she is fine and acts like a normal, friendly dog. If I take her out anywhere or have anyone come over, that is where we have problems. I have been working on taking her somewhere everyday for very short periods (2-10 minutes at most), but the problem is this: when she gets nervous she pukes everywhere (actually if I'm lucky, all she'll do is puke)and she will continue dry heaving until she gets back home.

I am hesitant to try having strangers offer her any treats because of this. So my question is, does anyone know of any alternative meds/suppliments/herbs or anything that might help her with this?
I've tried Rescue Remedy and it did nothing, the vet said he would give her a prescription of amitriptyline, but I would like to try something a little less drastic if anyone knows of something.

(she is on a series of medications that she has to take with food every few hours, so just not feeding her before we go out is not really an option)

My other brilliant idea was, since I have taught her 'sit' and 'down' is to take her out to my front yard and have her focus on me and sit, thinking maybe it would distract her from being somewhere scary. She puked the entire 5 min she was out there and I ended up giving up and taking her back inside. We've tried this everyday for the last 6 days, same result.

Help?

You have a broken dog, I wouldn't push her to socialize at all except in the back yard. Try to turn everybody who comes over into hotdog/liver dispensers and pretend she's not there, don't let visitors try to fuss over her. Treat, make happy noise, and go get a beer. Go SLOWLY with the socialization away from home and keep the treats rolling. If you must travel, try five or six ginger snaps with cream cheese to releave the motion sickness. and in a few YEARS she'll be ok around people but you'll always have to watch her to make sure she's not stressing. Be sure to feed her in her crate and make it her "Safe Spot" when she starts to stress. Once she settles into a routine start obedience training, cute tricks and agility for therapy. This has work for my nerve bag and I can take him in public but I have to be vigilant.

I appreciate you taking time to answer me.

Unfortunately, since she is in foster care she doesn't have the luxury of taking years to get over this.
I totally forgot ginger helps with nausea, so I will definately give the gingersnaps a try.

wish me luck!

This is something to really think about before doing anything:

You may want to start by weaning the dog out of the crate. A dog can bond to its crate as it provides safety and structure. A dog that is bonded to a crate is difficult to train. In the middle of a play-training session it may suddenly bolt across the house and dive into the crate and if the dog is closed, claw at the door persistently.

However, if you think that limited crate access would be an appropriate situation for this individual dog, you still need to confine the dog to a safe place. I would suggest putting in a strong tether (screw into a stud) about 18" - 24" long depending on the size of the dog, in the same place where you keep the crate. You will need to carefully watch the dog as a destructive dog is not suited for this arrangement.

Don't try to socialize the dog with people if it can't focus on you in the yard.

As far as diet for a fearful dog, raw diet that is chosen to support liver function is the most benficial. Rolled oats/oatmeal is a particularly good insoluble fiber for fearful dogs. Vitamins B, C and D are essential - food sources are preferred. Maybe consider looking into sam-E supplement. Flower essenses Rock Rose, Minumulus Oat flower are great as well as dilute essential oil blends such as Composure (not my first choice) Calm & Relax (a really good one). I can go on and on about this so I will send it to you in a PM asap.

You are absolutely correct on teaching the dog to sit and focus on you. Try doing it indoors (maybe on a plastic sheet <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Possibly the most useful tool in calming a fearful dog is exercise - "chronic exercise." The benefits of exercise are "dose-specific." For an idea of the appropriate amount of exercise (assuming the dog is otherwise healthy) is defined by one study as running on a treadmill at 4.2 mph, 6% incline for 90 minutes.

Training a task is also beneficial but not necessarily for all dogs. In the "nervous pointers" studies, dogs that were bred to be fearful acted normal while hunting, but only when hunting. IMO, anything that requires a dog to focus is a task for this purpose.