Injured skittish dog who hid in hay barn after being dumped slowly learns to trust farmer, and after years of cautious interactions finally becomes house dog, farmer says: 'It took six months of hard work on my part before she would let me pet her.'

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Jul 20, 2026 7:30 AM EDT

The rural lands of the USA have become so synonymous with the dumping of doggos that it is almost not surprising anymore when we hear about a poor pupper being abandoned on a lonely country road. But this story is one of the more emotional ones we have come across.

Reddit's r/rescuedogs subreddit is of course the first place that pawrents come to post and share their experiences of saving dogs in the wild. And as you can imagine there are more than a few wild stories out there. But this story is certainly amongst the wildest. What began as three dogs dumped by the side of the road quickly turned into only one dog running for it's life. In unfamiliar surroundings that had proven them to be rather unfriendly this pupper sought shelter in a quiet hay barn belonging to a benevolent and kind farmer who would come to the pupper's aid.

But as much as this farmer wanted to help this injured doggo, the pupper was understandably mistrustful of this hooman after seeing what happened to her siblings when they trusted a strange hooman. This left our farmer with only one course of action, to prove to this pupper that a life with them means safety, security, dependability and most importantly love and warmth. It took a long time, but all good things in life take time, and there is nothing better and more worth it in life than to earn the trust of a pupper pal.
 

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  • 01
    "She's now a house dog and has recently graduated to sleeping on our bed. "
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    Woman embracing dog outdoors and dog sleeping on couch

    Humans and dogs represented by models

  • 02
    Sometime back in early June, three dogs were dumped on our farm road just outside of town. Two were shot by the neighbor down the road,
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    the third one moved into our hay barn. We heard her barking ferociously every night we came home, but didn't know where the dog was.
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    (Sound travels in funny ways through the steep hills here.) After a few weeks, we would occasionally see a brown dog crossing the
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    pastures or lurking by the hay barn. I tried to post a missing dog notice on the local social media, but no one responded.
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    Eventually, I started leaving table scraps for the dog and calling it. I wouldn't see her come, but if I checked back later, the scraps would be gone.
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  • Jheez, can you imagine how terrified this poor doggo must have been? It is more than bad enough to be dumped in the middle of nowhere with your canine siblings. But then to face being threatened with a pew pew and seeing your siblings cross the rainbow bridge, goodness, that is a level of trauma usually reserved for veterans. We can totally understand how it came to be that this doggo was fearful of the hoomans who would come to be her pawrents. Truly, we have never seen a doggo have to fight for their existence like this before. 
     

  • 08
    I didn't get close enough until late August to discover that she was female. (I might not have named her Jughead had I
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    known her s x, haha.) It took me another two weeks to see she was missing an eye and now I'm left with terrible questions: did her former owner do something to
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    Cheezburger Image 10647058944
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    her? Was she kicked by a cow? When did this happen?
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    I have never seen such a skittish dog. I'm feeding her regular dog food twice a day, and she trusts me enough to wait in the yard for her food,
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    but she will not come within four feet of me. Poor girl. I don't know what they did to her to make her so scared. Wish us luck.
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  • Oh goodness, how do you end up in such a sorry state in life. How are you meant to learn to trust again? Heck, even being within 4 feet of another hooman is one heck of a feat of trust considering what this pupper has been through. But thankfully this farmer has patience, something which this doggo so desperately needs and something which must have been so lacking in her life previously. Sometimes all a soul needs is to know that someone has the patience to stand by their side and wait for them.
     

  • 14
    Wilker
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    Two Years Later Rescue Success! Back in , someone dumped a dog on my road, and she moved into our hay barn. We didn't
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    even see her for the first month, we would just hear ferocious barking across the pasture when we got home after dark.
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    We started seeing her at a distance and when it was clear to me that she was sticking around, I started putting out food for her.
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    She was so skittish! It took six months of hard work on my part before she would let me pet her.
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    Cheezburger Image 10647060224
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    She's now a house dog and has recently graduated to sleeping on our bed. The other night, she was sound asleep next to me, and I felt a tiny tap tap tap on my
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    leg. I looked at her. She was dreaming, and wagging her tail in her dream. My heart is full.
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dogs caution hay learn farmer house reddit story years interactive hide dog story injured trust dumped barn
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