Anxiety and trauma can manifest themselves in one’s physical body in a number of ways, and the same is true of animals.
This video story posted by We Love Animals on YouTube shares how a rescue dog was so utterly paralyzed with fear that he couldn’t even walk until his person came along and showed him nothing but love and everlasting patience.
After being in traumatizing living conditions, a rescue dog named Bruno was completely shaken to his core that he couldn’t even stand or walk. Due to his weight, anyone who needed to move him around had to gently pull him around on a blanket that was placed underneath him.
In the footage, you can see that Bruno’s foster parent, Angela, had to use the blanket-pulling method to get him into her car. The next day, Angela began with some simple stretches at home to help Bruno get used to feeling those movements again.
Angela also started to use food and treats as a big motivator for Bruno to get up on his own. She was really surprised at how quickly she gained his trust when he finally stood up on his own.
Each day, Angela would take Bruno outdoors for some short leash sessions to help him learn to trust her even more. Each time, he would make little improvements, like coming out of his crate when it was opened or coming up to Angela on his own to get some food.
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Bruno’s anxieties around interacting with humans were slowly starting to dwindle thanks to his foster mom’s ongoing work and patience with him. He soon even ventured outside of her backyard for walks.
To learn more about brave Bruno and how his adoption process went, watch the full video posted by We Love Animals on YouTube.