[kjc]

When older dogs are adopted, they can come with baggage. Do you know why her original owners no longer wanted her? Dogs need to go through a lot of socialization during their first year, and I am suspect she may be lacking in some social skills. You don't know how she was treated for those early developmental months.

Example: My dog is barking incessantly. I am actively ignoring this behavior, but I picked up a magazine to read, and she charged at me. Okay: Previous owner must have used the magazine to reprimand her. No way to tell this beforehand, but I am careful how I pick up a magazine when she's around, because I don't want her to have this fear of being hit, or rage towards magazines. I work with her on this regularly.

Paint fumes are never good, and they may remind her of an unpleasant time in her young life. Or the fumes may be making her ill. I would have someone keep her at their house until you are done painting, if possible.

Each time you find something she's timid about, I would just take a second to introduce her to what's going on. If she is too fearful, I would stop what I was doing and move her to another room until I was done, and make a point to work with her on that more extensively at a later time, unless you have time right then.

You both are learning, she has a whole new environment with new people and she doesn't know what to expect, other than drawing on her past experiences, which may not all be good. You are learning about her, what things she feels insecure about and how to make her feel happy. When you develope a bond and become friends, and she learns she can trust you, then she should become more tolerant of things she's not sure of.

Professional training may be helpful too.

Hope this helps ...