a little worried about my worried dog

Puppy Wizard begone! Ignore this one.

I think we got the *best* dog in the shelter! He is wonderful!

arccos...

My wife wanted a younger one, but I was looking at things she didn't
see. None of the dogs at the shelter are acting "normal" because they
are so whacked out there, so choosing one is a real pig-in-a-poke. I
watched each dog carefully as they interacted with my wife and that told
me plenty. He was in the shelter for 3 weeks. I thinks he is kind of
funny looking . . . a shepard mix with short hair, but everybody says he
is beautiful because his eyes have softened a lot since we got him.

We got Cody a week before Christmas. Cody really has no bad habits.
Doesn't jump on the furniture, doesn't do all the things a puppy would
normally do, but then he is not a puppy.

Rocky...

Does he want to jump on to the furniture?

Vey...

Not sure, really. He makes no moves to do it. He is a big dog, maybe 75

Rocky...

The reason I asked goes to your description of him shaking.
I've seen dogs shake and quiver when they really want something,
but this doesn't sound like such a situation.

Can you describe his shaking and nose licking in greater detail?
How often, how long, etc.?

pounds.

A few weeks after we got him, when we left him alone for an hour or so,
we would come home to find all the pillows knocked off the couch. But
that hasn't happened in gosh 2-3 months, now?
Something like that.

When we watch TV, he lays under or around our feet and "slups"
contentedly. No interest in furniture at all.

He gets along with the cat, too. In fact, the cat has taken to laying on
his bed (!) and pushing him around that way a little bit. I can tell he
is not happy about it, but he makes no aggressive moves.

In fact the only aggression I see is if anyone makes any noises around
the outside of the house or comes to the door. We have had to start a

shore...

Personally, I'd like to see the use of the word "aggression"
fall by the wayside in most cases. It's not that it's not a
real and serious phenomenon, but that it tends to be used
too easily and to account for behavior that might be
problematic but isn't actually aggressive.

Most of the behavior you're describing in this post is more-
or-less normal, albeit not always desirable (pillows strewn
about, for example). The only thing that sounds like it's
actually a problem is the barging up to visitors, and even
then it's not clear to me from your description whether the
issue is that he's being inappropriately territorial or he's
just being plain old rude. In either case, though, it
sounds like you're doing the right thing with asking him for
a sit/stay and he's doing the right thing by being obedient
when you ask for it.

A dog should be pretty well settled in within several months
of moving into a new situation, and problems that you see
won't be the result of any "adjustment" problems on the part
of the dog, but instead what the dog is actually all about.
That is to say, at that point you're dealing with
longer-term issues. The thing that raised my eyebrows was
your earlier description of shaking episodes. That kind of
thing is extremely context-dependent and while there are a
few people here with enough experience to be able to hazard
some guesses about what's going on without actually being
there and being able to watch, I'm not one of them.

routine now, where I or my wife makes him sit/stay near the door where
he can see, then we open the door to let visitors in. If we don't do
that he can really scare people, even people he has met many times
before. When we do the sit/stay, he greets them happily with lots of
tail wagging.

Someone trained him somewhere along the way. He is 5 years old and we

Handsome Jack Morrison...

How do you know that? What exactly do you mean by "trained"?

are his third owners. The house is nice and quiet. He gets attention all
day because we are home all day. We don't have children, but we do have
a cat which he seems to get along with. He gets 2 mile walks and outdoor
playtime twice a day.

Handsome Jack Morrison...

What kind of attention? What kind of play?

And yet he is constantly worried/stressed. Shakes all the time. Licks
his nose. Sometimes turns away, but not often. Yawns. It's classic
stress. When we have friends over, he gets his rawhide "worry bone" and

Handsome Jack Morrison...

Maybe. Maybe not.

What do you think could be "stressing" him?

And surely he doesn't shake "all the time," right?

Then when *does* he shake?

tries to destroy it. When they are gone, so is the bone.

Handsome Jack Morrison...

What's so strange about that?

scfundogs...

You may want to consider taking him to the vet for a chem panel just to rule
out anything medical.

Having said that, its possible that having been rehomed 2x before has caused
him some form of long-term or permanent uneasiness. Then again, he might
just be a natural worrier.

If you can rule out medical problems then time is probably the only real
remedy. You can always institute some trust/confidence building exercises
though.

I suppose we will just have to wait. We have a cat that it took 6 years
before he would allow us to rub his belly. I guess he thought we wanted
to rip his guts out before that.

Handsome Jack Morrison...

Do you *do* anything *with* your dog? Have you ever done any
OBEDIENCE training with him? Any other activity?

arccos...

How long have you had him? If it's been less than 6 months, he's
possibly still adjusting. It took our shelter dog about 4-5 before he
really became comfortable with us, and there's still a few quirks after
9 months.

shore...

That's really not typical.

It sounds like your dog is doing pretty well, actually. No self
destructive behavior, and he uses an acceptable outlet for his stress
(the bone).

If you want a possible solution to fix the friends problem, give your
friends a couple treats when they come over to greet the dog with. If
they can coax the dog over and give petting and treats (especially
after commanding an easy trick, like sit), he'll likely come around
with enough exposure. Just make sure the dog comes to them, and not the
other way around, since you want to reward friendly behavior.

How does he do with other dogs? Have you done any obedience training
classes yet?