[yorkiefan_]

My brother and his girlfriend work with some dogs like that. She works at an animal shelter and they always have some cats and dogs they bring back to their apartment to rehab and save. They have one they have been working with for a couple of months who they think must have been badly abused, because she just doesn't show any playfulness or emotion. No aggression either, but whenever I'm over at his place and pet or hug the dog she just stands there completely still with kind of a sad look. Walks pretty slowly and timidly, but looks to be in great health other than the timidity. He said she has slowly warmed up to them a bit, but the dog still doesn't show much emotion. I wonder if anyone here has any kind of experience getting a timid and abused dog to trust humans and to enjoy human companionship again. I don't know the breed (other than mixed), but she's probably 60-80 lbs or so. Maybe some pointers I could give him (they have only been doing this for a few months, but he says they have saved about 50 animals and gotten them to forever homes).