Yay! We have our girl!

[Vic-O]

She is beautiful and adjusting well, I think. She refuses to eat the dried kibble her other humans provided and doesn't like any treats. I figured she was really nervous and just on a food strike, but I've been mashing up veggies and ground chicken necks per our friend's advice and she LOVES it. She had artic char and garlic tonight since that's what we had for dinner. Anyhow, I wanted to feed her a better diet than dried food anyway (this topic isn't totally out of the debate realm in this post) but figured I wouldn't have the time. I guess I've cornered myself into it afterall.
Her previous humans (who turned out worse than we thought) described her as "So ADD" among more demeaning things but we aren't seeing any of those traits. She is very alert and curious and when off leash very precocious. She gets along really well with other dogs but not so well with humans. She has had barely any exposure to people. We want to work on pumping up her self esteem (the doggy version, I suppose) but don't have a lot of direction for this. So far she is very attached to me and a bit less so to my son, but greets my husband and brother who just moved in with barks and fearful posturing when they appear around a corner or enter into the backyard when we are playing. This is improving in some respects but intesifying in others. She is VERY responsive to a barely raised voice or a "No" which is nice since I'm a pretty subtle person with a quiet voice, but I'd like her to respond out of respect and not fear, you know? Anyhow, I could write so much about her, but I have tried to write this post a number of times already and keep getting distracted. I do have quite a few questions for you experienced dog/chow owners though -
It is important to us that she is comfortable around our family and at least comfortable enough around people she sees less often and strangers to not growl and bark and pounce at them (I don't think she would ever bite or attack, unless REALLY pushed though). Basically, any advice about basic socialization would be great. I am taking the same approach I've taken with my son, that security with the world begins with security at home, and making sure to shower her with love and affection (when she lets me that is). BUT I don't want to reinforce the defensiveness with coddling either, if it is just a learned behaviour and not totally fear driven, you know?
She sleeps in the bed with my son and I and I love it. I think this has gone a long way in her attachment. But, do you think this will hinder the development of an attachment to others? I know everyone has a different approach to dog rearing and child rearing for that matter, and any and all advice on this is certainly welcome (on the dog end, that is!)
I'm not sure which of her personality quirks are chow chow and which are border collie, since I'm tacking a lot of the skiddishness up to a new environment and not border collie traits. She doesn't seem to have a huge herding instinct with humans, but we were told she will herd other dogs. She does follow me around the house and watch my every move obsessively, though, with tail wagging becoming a more common site.
What kind of games do you initiate with your chows? She definitely craves stimulation. When off the leash and in the backyard, she is very excited and likes to fetch sticks (minus the bringing them back part, that is) but I'm sort of at a loss with what to play given her personality and what to avoid (and tell my men to avoid). She definitely likes to remain in control and not lose her cool. Any good books?
The human kid needs his mommy now...I'll check back in tomorrow. Good night! (pics to come soon)
-Victoria
Edited to add: DUH! Her name is HUDSON! It seems to suit her and she is vaguely responsive to it, but for some reason it hasn't stuck to me yet. I call her sweet girl and puppy girl probably 80% of the time.

[chow fancier]

What's her name? How old is she, a puppy or adult?

First thing I would do is make sure the members of your household she growls at give her her meals. I never met a dog who didn't like the person that fed her.

Next, teach her to sit. It's a very easy trick to learn and if everyone makes her sit before they give her what she wants (food, attention, outside....) all humans will become superior to her in the pack.

If you want to allow her to sleep in your bed, teach her to ask for permission first, make her sit, and then tell her it's ok for her to enter. Otherwise she is likely to think of it as her bed and she may be reluctant to share it with you.

I admit it, Cinder sleeps in my bed sometimes but she has to ask permission (she goes to the foot of the bed and stares at me while breathing heavily, (I think that is her version of talking quietly) then sits and waits) and have it granted. If she just jumps in, I make her get off and lay down on the floor.

http://www.chowwelfare.com/cciw/alpha.htm
http://www.chowwelfare.com/cciw/socializ.htm

[Dogdad]

congratulations, we love photos and more photos. I let my dogs sleep with my family in bed, they don't have to ask permission and we haven't had any problems

dogdad

[IliamnasQuest]

Hi Victoria -

Thanks so much for rescuing this girl. I know it's difficult to take on a dog with a relatively unknown background (as far as training and socialization especially). She's an interesting mix of independent mind and obsessed herding dog, so it will be interesting to see how she develops in a home that's willing to deal with her quirks.

Providing her with security for awhile is probably the best thing to rebuild her damaged confidence. Lots of love and positive reinforcement for the behaviors you like will help tremendously, and avoiding correction as much as possible will be good too. But you can still set up rules and expect manners from her, of course. I would avoid the "no" type corrections if possible at this point, and just do a more non-committal "nah, that's not necessary" kind of comment in a neutral tone, and turn and walk away from her when she acts fearful or defensive toward people. With the type of bonding you're already seeing, I think that's probably going to be effective enough and won't be as likely to add to her fear. Of course, use lots of praise and reward when she's accepting and non-fearful too.

I think I'd give her a week or so to get used to the situation and then I'd have those she's less comfortable with be the ones to take over her care for awhile. Have them feed her and have them be the ones to let her go outside to potty and explore. I know it may be difficult at and times impossible to have the guys be the ones feeding and letting her out, but the more she sees them as the ones who provide her with the things she needs and wants, the more she'll come to accept them.

Once she's comfortable with those she sees regularly, you can start adding in more people. One way to do this is to go through desensitization where you take her to a store parking lot and park far away from where people go in and out, and then reward her for not reacting to the people. You gradually move in closer (over a period of days/weeks) until she can be comfortable as people are moving past her. And then you find some "safe" people who will drop treats as they move past, etc.

I have some things on my website that may help (http://www.kippsdogs.com/tips.html). The pack hierarchy section will help you consider rules for her to follow, the attention training will help her with focus, and the desensitization will explain that technique in a bit more detail.

Personally, unless I'm having dominance problems with a dog, I don't worry too much about them sleeping on the bed. Some dogs DO take that as a dominant position and that privilege has to be pulled from them. If you find that your girl continues to act defensive toward the guys in the household, you may stop letting her sleep in the bed and make her take a bit more of a submissive role in the house overall. She may transfer her dislike of guys to include defending you from them and you certainly won't want that to happen. In that case, making her toe the line when it comes to "rules" (as on the pack hierarchy page) will help her understand that you're the leader, you don't need to be defended, and when you walk away from her when she acts defensive she'll realize it's a behavior that you (as leader) don't want.

Hopefully that all made sense, it's late and I'm really tired! *L* I think you'll do fine with this girl. Giving her love, exercise, consistency in training, consistency in rules, and reward for all "good" behaviors will help her out tremendously.

Melanie and the gang in Alaska

[vicster605]

Hi Welcome to the site!!! Thank You for rescuing her and congratulations on you new addition. We love pics!!!
I want to see her~~~~
Mine don't sleep in the bed with us but in our room. AWWWW the adjustment phase. Before you know it she will be a very loved member of the family I just know it. Rescues are very greatful....you'll see

[kiwani]

Re: "We want to work on pumping up her self esteem (the doggy version, I suppose) but don't have a lot of direction for this."

"Self esteem" chemistry *rises* when stress chemistry plunges. That's why it's important for socialization events to be non-threatening, with her being able to make the first move towards people, rather than having people just come at her. Above average treats should be part of the meet and greet experience. It's also helpful to associate a word like 'friend' with these experiences, so that you can *cue* the word for the relatives who visit less often, as soon as they arrive.

Chows can easily try to take a 'short cut' to confidence-building, by just latching-on to one person instead, and using that person as an external source of their confidence, instead of building confidence within. Such Chows give the *appearance* of having confidence whenever their person is near, but they're actually driven by separation anxiety, and can escalate to resource guarding their person.

[JH]

Congratulations on your new addition! We'll look forward to seeing your pictures of Hudson. Not knowing her full background and experiences makes for quite a challenge, but certainly one that you can meet successfully. We rescued our female when she was two, and she manifested many of the same things you are experiencing with Hudson. She was very attached to my wife, (who tended to nurture her unstable behavior a bit too much by petting her when she was fearful). Now she is great with everyone and actually looks to me more now as her leader than my wife. Chows are funny that way. They actually will respond better to whoever is firm with them and really takes the lead in their lives.

Several good ideas are contained in the previous posts. I would suggest that the walk with her is the most critical thing you can do to bond with her. I would walk her at least 30-45 minutes twice per day, (where she remains at your side or slightly behind you). If you can, it would be good for every member of your family to join you on the walks. And, trade off the handling with whomever goes with you, especially your husband and his brother. Keep consistency with the walking style, as she will begin to respect anyone who leads her. Don't let her pull on the leash, and keep her moving forward--no stopping to pee or go off on her own. (I would let her relieve herself before you go for the walk so she doesn't need to do it while you are out.) If she is allowed to stop when she wants to and mark her territory, you are just expanding her boundaries to include your entire neighborhood. When she returns again and smells other dogs who have marked as well, it will bolster her aggressiveness.

Desensitizing her to people right away is very important. She was obviously not properly socialized by the previous owner, so you can do a lot to overcome her fear which will make her much happier. The easiest way to do it (I'm not a big believer in bribery with treats), is to simply walk her up to people that you want to talk to while she is on leash. Have her sit right right next to you as she would whenever you stop on her walk. Ask the person to completely IGNORE her by not looking at her, talking to her or petting her. If Hudson growls, give her a quick correction by pulling her collar and telling her "no" or another sound that is one syllable. It doesn't have to be loud, but needs to be used consistently by everyone in your family. The ignore technique is actually a good practice wherever you are in company with other people. Hudson will appreciate it very much, since she isn't too keen on getting attention from anyone new at this point. It will really be a harder technique for the humans to master (since they want to pet her worse than anything) than for Hudson. When you do want to introduce her to people in your home that you want to allow to pet her, try having them sit on the floor right next to you and call her over. They don't have to talk, touch or look at her right away. Let her get comfortable with the new person by smelling them, have her lie down and then pet her yourself before you invite the other person to pet her.

Until you get the fear aggression completely under control, I would limit her freedom by controlling her movements a bit more. I don't let the dogs roam free through the house, up on our beds or furniture at all. They all have very comfortable beds, and when they are in the house, they stay on them for the most part unless we call them off.

The previously expressed ideas of making her work for everything is critical with a chow. Come-sit before she gets food or is petted by anyone is a good habit to get in to, as is being careful not to pet her if she is showing any signs of fear or dominance.

Let us know how things are going...

[kiwani]

Re: "(I'm not a big believer in bribery with treats)


The above-average treats used in socialization, are not so much about bribery, as they are about *reinforcing* the parasympathetic nervous system. There are two parts to the nervous system - one part is concerned with 'fight or flight', and the other concerns relaxing and digesting.

Reinforcing the 'relax and digest' part of the nervous system also reinforces the calming brain chemistry responsible for building confidence.

Also, much of a dog's brain is organized around scent, and scent is stored in permanent long term memory. Using above-average treats in socialization also creates positive scent associations in a dog's memory.

[Layla]

[quote="JH"]keep her moving forward--no stopping to pee or go off on her own. (I would let her relieve herself before you go for the walk so she doesn't need to do it while you are out.) If she is allowed to stop when she wants to and mark her territory, you are just expanding her boundaries to include your entire neighborhood. When she returns again and smells other dogs who have marked as well, it will bolster her aggressiveness.[quote]

I've never heard that before. Can you explain a little more?

[Auddymay]

Sometimes, it is a non-issue when using treats to reinforce. Depending on the circumstance, Lily won't take a treat. If she is out and about, even in non-stress situations, she almost never accepts a treat. When my husband was trying to make nice with her a year ago, he tempted her with venison. her favorite, and she stubbornly let Pip have hers rather than take it from my DH (she has since revised this strategy). During grooming, no treats are accepted, but she will take them before and after.

[Vic-O]

Wow, thanks everyone! It's funny, a lot of the things I went, "hmmm...maaaaybe" about were questioned by someone else. Most of the alpha dog and socialization stuff someone posted wasn't very pertinent, but I may refer to it later on. I also am not crazy about the idea of rewarding her with treats since the act of taking a treat from us is a big to do in itself. It seems to complicate things at this point (I'll continue to look for a treat that she likes though, because it does seem like it could be helpful).
I've been really prioritizing giving her only positive reinforcement (enthusiastic "good girl!" while scratching behind her ears type of stuff) and limiting the corrections. I noticed I was petting and holding her when she was being defensive at first, and quickly adjusted to petting and holding the person she is being defensive to instead. I'm weaning off of being over-affectionate with my husband and brother when they first come in the door, to being normal and she seems to be doing well with that.
My only big thing is using teeth, which she did once completely accidentally (which I realized while I was saying "No" and once today when I came home after being gone for 6 hours and she was excited and nipped at the mitten part of my fingerless gloves. I decided to just take them off rather than make a thing out of it.
So like I said, I left today for a long period for the first time while she was in the backyard. When I got home, I went with my son immediately back there and she greeted us so excitedly, it was awesome. She had eaten all of her food, definitely good, and her bounding and leaping and jumping was just so cheerful with only a tinge of the anxiousness. We immediately left for a long walk (a lady had gone missing in the neighborhood earlier and I figured she'd want to see what all the helicopters and lights and sounds had been doing all day). She was much more confident on this walk than she has been. BUT when we got home and inside, she almost immediately ran under the futon and stayed there most the night napping on and off until going to sleep in the closet in my son's room. I guess she was just exhausted? The fact that she was sleeping and not following me in and out of every room tells me she was feeling more secure, but who knows. Maybe she is feeling distanced from me. I'll find out tomorrow morning I guess, since she still hasn't come out of the closet)
The very first day, I told my brother numerous times not to approach her and to just let her approach him in her own time. That if he just hung out calmly her curiosity would drive her towards him eventually. But somewhere he got it in his head that I was mommying her too much, and standing in the way of their connection (this is the first day!). So he began just reaching out at her everytime he walked by her when she couldn't get out of the way quick enough. She has only cowered more, and I snapped at him pretty harshly the other night for it, but I've sort of given up telling him what to do for a while since it is always met with some ridiculous blame game. AH! Who convinced me to live with family again?! He is way more stubborn and defensive than myself or Hudson, which is saying a lot. Anyhow, I know that his awkward nervous nature and not respecting her space is putting up a lot of barriers to her comfort, and now that I've typed this out, I'm going to really try to address that tonight.
Well, I didn't mean to go off on that tangeant but it's important if we're talking about her comfort. The guys are never home when it's time to go the potty or go for a walk it seems. I agree with whoever said this is critical, and thank you for encouraging that. Definitely a priority.
Iliamna's Quest - Your perspective is right on, I think. I can tell you've seen lot's of pups like Hudson because you zoned right in on the critical stuff. Your site is awesome and oh so compassionate and practical. It's going to take a while for it all to sink in. Thank you!
l'll be around her pretty frequently, I'm sure, and of course will post pictures as soon as I have them (my camera, as cool as it is, takes 4 AA batteries and uses them up way faster than I can buy new ones). She looks like a mix between a chow and a fox. Darker orange with a cream undercoat, and black shading and tip on her tail. I love the cream furry butt/haunches and underside of her tail the best.
-Victoria
Oo, here she comes. I missed her. I think I'm in love! Hehe

[coleywoley]

You might want to check out the bite inhibition post/sticky on the training page. It has a lot of great info on stopping any kind of biting.
I'm so happy that you guys were able to bring her into your home and that she seems to be doing well. I have had quite a few talks with my husband about how he is allowed to be with ginger. So good luck with your brother hopefully he'll listen. Can't wait to see pics.

[JH]

keep her moving forward--no stopping to pee or go off on her own.
I've never heard that before. Can you explain a little more?

Layla--I am advocating using the walk as a specific behavior modification training exercise rather than a leisurely stroll around to sniff, explore and pee, (basically the types of behaviors they would engage in when you let them loose at the park). Just as when you are working a dog through a course of obedience training, there is always a beginning and an end to the session. In Vic-O's case with Hudson, she is trying to overcome both fear-aggression and dominance. The walk can either strengthen and reinforce the negative behavior (if she is allowed to either lead the walk or stop and mark her territory along the way). or reinforce the idea that you are leading the walk, and maintain a singular thought process in their mind--following you. Since she is also dominant, keeping her pee in her own yard will shrink what she perceives as her territory. It is easier to work with a dog who has a smaller territory than a larger one. When they mark the entire neighborhood, not only is it allowing them to think territorially while they are doing it, it will also worsen dog-dog aggression.

While I do understand Kiwani's point about how the treats work and which part of the brain is being affected by them, in Hudson's case, I wouldn't recommend it for a variety of reasons. It is important that the correct behavior is being reinforced. The question that came up was about how to get her used to strangers since she is fear-aggressive. One of the suggestions made was allowing people to drop treats for her as she gets closer and closer to them. My concern here is that it will be rewarding her when she is in an unstable state. It is hard enough for some owners to recognize the signs that their dog is unstable, let alone strangers that you try to bring in to the training exercises. I do use treats when reinforcing obedience training exercises and have no problem with giving them to a balanced, stable dog--just never during a session of behavior modification. Since their brains can switch from being balanced to being unstable so quickly, to me, it's not worth the risk of the psychological damage it might do. I would rather see the animal learn leadership and her role from a physical stimulation like the walk with it's leash corrections rather than a food reward which can cause some confusion.

The breeding of the dog has a lot to do with it. A well bred, socialized animal from a champion line would undoubtedly have less issues than one who was rescued from a situation that either produced or reinforced their unstable mind. There are always exceptions to the rule, (I'm sure that many of the dogs who are owned by people on this site and who have been rescued have become stable, trustworthy animals. I have one myself, and have been through 9 years of constant work to keep her balanced so she won't revert back to her previous behavior.) Since I've found the site recently, I have been limiting my posts primarily to those folks who are in need of assistance with behavior modification issues.

[WildThings]

I'm so glad you got Hudson, it sounds like she really needed you. I have been working for the last 6 or 7 weeks on the same issues you are having with Hudson. My new chow girl Fiona has some fear/confidence issues. She still is not very comfortable with my dad, but we are working on it. If given the choice, in the evenings when my dad is home, she still wants to hang out with just me...unless he has food, then he's her best friend . Because of this, sometimes in the evenings, I put her on her leash and my dad hooks her on to his belt loop. They usually just hang out watching TV, but it seems to help with getting her used to his movements and sound. We stop if she starts to act nervous or afraid. It's taken almost 6 weeks to make her unafraid of working on most training. We've just been taking baby steps. I've been working on training her to sit, but the two methods I can find involve using a treat above their nose which scares her because she gets nervous with hands over her head, or gently pushing her butt into a sitting position, which makes her try to run away from us. So, every day, I get some really good treats (mostly cooked beef, cut into little, tiny pieces) and work on getting her in the sit position. Some sessions, she would only sit once, other times she would stay calm for 3 or 4 sits, but as soon as she started to get antsy, we would be done and move on to something fun like going on a walk or just going back to the attention training.

Two things I have had great success with are her walking manners. She has learned to stop when I say stop (we do this at all street crossings). I would slowly start to reel her in on the leash as we approached a street to cross...just picking up the extra slack as she's walking, not actually pulling her back to me. When she was to the curb, I would say "stop" and stop walking. As soon as I could let the leash go a little lax, I would tell her "okay" and continue walking while praising her. I was walking her today and without reeling her in, I told her to stop and she did...stood there waiting to hear "okay." This helps a lot in the house too. When she starts to chase the cats, we will tell her to "stop" Sometimes she will imminently, most of the time, it just slows her down, but again, baby steps. The other thing is she is finally used to walking past people on the street without feeling the need to run from them. Most of the time, I shorten the leash when we get near people and nonchalantly move in between where she is walking and the stranger. We don't slow down or change our course, just pass them, say hi and keep going. She is to the point now that unless they have kids with them or hyper/aggressive dogs, I don't have to shorten the leash. With kids, it's mostly because I'm afraid they will try to pet her without asking. We just move over to our side of the sidewalk and keep going.

I'm sure you and your new girl will get along great. It really seems to come down to what works best for you and Hudson. I can't wait to see her pictures...she sounds beautiful.

[Vic-O]

Well JH, I'm not so sure she is typically dominant OR fear-aggressive. She is testing it out some, by growling and posturing and the like (which is actually improving A LOT) but it's very obvious she doesn't mean it. She's just trying to remain in control of herself, not really others, if that makes sense. I think I'd rather use the aggressive label for dogs who actually might hurt someone. Also, she LOVES other dogs and cats as well, though they don't always love her. So basically, I'm not sure that a real hardline training regimen is ideal right now, especially for something she enjoys so much as her walks. She walks really well on leash, it is slack a lot of the time with her trotting in front wagging her tail. Really, it's mostly in the house and around people without dogs that all of her issues seem to come out. I'm thinking from what little I know about her previous life, she almost never entered the house, so I'm sure this has a lot to do with it. She is frightened of all the strange sounds (heat vents, refrigerator, etc). She is in the closet again after coming out to sleep on the bed and wander in and out of the room briefly this morning. Anyway, I'm having a hard time today with my toddler but hopefully he'll be into coming with Hudson and I outside for a while today. Sometimes it sends her some weird messages when I'm talking to her and my son is yelling (toddler speaking) at her at the same time. And JH, I do like the idea of not stopping to potty on our walks since there are a lot of animals in the neighborhood.
Thanks again. More stuff to come, I'm sure.
Victoria

[JH]

Well JH, I'm not so sure she is typically dominant OR fear-aggressive. She is testing it out some, by growling and posturing and the like (which is actually improving A LOT) but it's very obvious she doesn't mean it. She's just trying to remain in control of herself, not really others, if that makes sense. I think I'd rather use the aggressive label for dogs who actually might hurt someone. Also, she LOVES other dogs and cats as well, though they don't always love her.
Victoria

Hi Victoria--

I would take her behavior seriously since she does mean it right now...but the good news is that she doesn't want to mean it. Displaying dominance or aggression in animals is like humans being depressed. There isn't a stigma attached to it unless it leads to anti-social behavior. That's why we want to help our animals to become stable and happy. When we don't feel well from a psychological perspective, we can go get help for ourselves; a dog can't. So when we recognize the signs and symptoms in our animals, we are doing a loving thing to give them the help that they need. If you don't feel bad for her, she will not feel bad about herself, she'll just move forward and adjust to her new life.

There are numerous triggers for fear-aggression. Hudson has human-fear aggression, ergo the "growling and posturing" that you describe when humans (your husband & brother or strangers) get closer than she is comfortable with. My female rescue suffered from animal-aggression. (She absolutely loved people, children, etc., but let an animal come anywhere near her and she would fixate on them). In a well-balanced stable animal, there is no acceptability for that behavior. The fact that Hudson's behavior hasn't escalated is due more to humans respecting her boundary so that she doesn't feel forced to defend herself than her deciding for herself that she would never bite anyone.

Dogs are either submissive or dominant. My observation of her being dominant came from my suspicion that she leads you on the walk (although I didn't have confirmation of that information earlier). Whether she is pulling on the leash or not isn't the issue. She isn't pulling you because you are keeping up the pace that she is setting. If you tethered a pack of dogs together, the lead dog would run ahead of the pack and pull on the leash if the pack they are leading isn't moving at the pace they want to go. Look at it in reverse--why would you ever pull on the leash? It would be because she wasn't going in the direction or at the speed that you want her to go, so it works both ways.

You don't need to have a hardline training regimen, but unless you are comfortable with her growling (especially with a toddler, whom she will view as hers) you need to be the one to set the tone for her behavior. If she sees that you won't allow her to do it, then she'll stop it, since she ultimately wants to please you. I find the information that she is fearful in the house interesting. Not having had that before, my advice was right on target in my previous post that you limit her movement around the house. Her choice of the closet in your son's room to sleep in makes perfect sense. She feels protective of your son, since he is weak-she sees it as her duty, and in the future, may become quite defensive of him with you and your husband. The closet is the logical choice for her since she has three walls around her, she only needs to keep her eye on the door. That's exactly what my female would try to do when we first got her. She always chose a place whether inside or out that allowed her to keep her back to a wall. To work on it in the house, we put her bed in the middle of the room and made her stay on it. When people walk in and out from different directions, (behind and around her), she became conditioned to people being behind her and it eventually broke her of the behavior.

[coleywoley]

Victoria since Hudson came from a situation of being outdoors all the time have you thought of letting her stay outdoors and moving her indoors more gradually? We are dealing with this situation with Bel, who is not at all chow. While living with my FIL he was never let inside ever. When we brought him here we left him outside at first because we didn't want to change to much on him at once...there was also some concern over Ginger not being finished with her vaccinations and getting anything from him. After we took him to the vet and got the antibiotics and all clear we started letting him in the house. He seemed to want to be inside with us so badly-he will sit at the backdoor and stare in. When we let himin he sniffed everything (he is a bloodhound) afterwards though he wanted right back out.
We have now taken the approach of letting him come in whenever he seems interested and letting him back outside when he goes to the door. His time inside is increasing by his choice now and I think he is more comfortable because of it.
I don't know if that is what other people would suggest or think is the right thing to do but it is what has worked for us.
I would also try letting your husband and brother feed her.

[Vic-O]

Yeah, after it really sinking in that she is frightened as all get out of the heat running and the intake vent at the end of the hall, and noticing her attitude change after several trips outside and inside today, I'm definitely leaning towards keeping her outside more often. The back yard does not have a door or anything for her to come to, though. She is much happier out there when we are there, but I have no idea how she is when we aren't. She seems to spend quite a bit of time lounging on the porch since that is always where she is when I go to get her. I'll have to watch her out a window. We also don't have a dog house for her right now, and can't afford one for a little while. Is this important if they are out for a long time in the cold? I'm sure if she's not running around, she must get a little chilly (she doesn't have quite the mass of fur that a PB would have and also is still growing her coat in for the winter).
Thanks for bringing this up. I was sort of tunnel visioned on proving JH's labels and behaviour modifications false for a minute there (and therefore exemplifying the power struggle philosophy myself...sorry JH). Finding out what she is needing and craving should be first on the list of priorties at this point, not trying to fix her to fit into our lives.
Things to do. Will write again. Thanks!
-Victoria