Sanity check - 8 months into 6yr old resuce staffy

Hey I would love some help on whether this is "normal" or not.

We rescued a 6yr old staffy eight months ago. There wasn't much info on previous owners other than the owners that had her for a short period of time before giving her to the rescue centre we got her. It is likely she was abused or at least never taken out / socialised.

She has serious anxiety issues - and I know that's not uncommon for staffies or any rescue dogs but we are eight months in and I wondered how to set my expectations going forward (we have this dog for life and won't give up). How have others who have recused an anxious staffy found life after the first 12 months? How much did the staffy improve over time?

Nina sleeps well (in the living room), eats fine (doesn't beg), loves to snuggle, no issues with people (or children - she is on a lead with toddlers), she toilets outside, she understands basic commands and in general is pretty perfect around the house and garden (we have a big garden). We can leave her on her own for a few hours too.

The problem...

When she leaves the house / garden, she completely changes. We can't go anywhere near other dogs (even if she sees one from far away, her stress goes through the roof). She happily goes in the car, but when we drive, she is very stressed. We can't use public transport, take her for a walk in even a slightly built up area and we can't take her inside a public place like a pub or park with other dogs. Although, she has never shown aggression (snarling, barking) other than killing birds in the garden(!), we can't be sure, so have been cautious with her.

When she is stressed she makes this indescribable noise / howl. The closer she is to the stressor (ie another dog, driving, wildlife), the higher the pitch. She rarely barks. We could walk for 15 mins with her pulling slightly and then see a dog, and the red mist descends and we just can't calm her down. Peanut butter distracts her, but doesn't necessarily restore peace!

As a result, she is never off the lead. We live in a rural place near a lot of wildlife and feel her prey instinct is too high and recall too poor. She is a bit better on the lead (still pulls) and we use a 15m lead to give her more space and work on recall (making some progress).

She gets lots of walks, training (occasionally with a dog trainer) and love from us. But it feels like her stress outside is not improving. We can see improvements in her behaviour with us and around the house and some walks (providing there are no other dogs or wildlife around).

I'd love to hear anyone else's experience 1-2 years into rescuing an anxious adult staffy, as we really are unsure if it is just time, some focused expert training or just going to be life for us now. We adore her and want to give her the best life possible. Any help / insight wold be much appreciated!

Thanks!

Taking on a rescue dog can be hard work, you don't know what she's been through!
Katy is reactive as she was taken from her litter too early (5wks) I got her at 6wks & socialised her a lot but she's still reactive to dogs. I have been working with Absolute Dogs based in Devon & she's getting better They cover anxiety, car travel in their courses. Have a look & see if it helps her

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Hi, our story is quite similar, we've adopted our 7.5 old Rom from a rescue center two months ago.
Although we know very little about his previous life you can see he had obviously been abused, has a lot of scars all over him, is afraid when somebody picks up a stick and so on.
Nevertheless he is amazing loving guy, gentle, patient and even trusting, God bless him, in spite his past experience.
The only thing we were a little bit concern were his prey drive and dog intolerance.
I use the verb "were" instead of "are" because luckily it changed one day, and I hope (maybe!) it can happen to Nina, too... Or maybe give you some new idea to try.
(Just to be clear, the prey instinct is still there, I don't think it will dissapear so easily, but we don't have issues with dogs anymore... :-)
So what happened is, one day we were on our walk in the street (we walk only on leash!) when suddenly we saw two dogs walking with their owners on the other side of the narrow street (4-5 meters to the other side).
At some point these two dogs started to play one with another.
Rom watched them for few seconds and suddenly started to wag his tail (never did so to the dogs), bow on his front paws (never seen him doing that) and whine (once again, never did so) asking to play with them.
Obviously that play didn't last for long, since Rom didn't know how to introduce himself nicely and calmly to other dogs, so the first dog got scared and barked on him and the owner took him away, but the second dog was more expierenced and balanced, so they sniffed a little and played a little, but it was a tipping point, some "aha" moment.
From that day, we almost don't have real problems with dogs, Rom is able to pass them on the street without looking for fight, sometime he plays with some of them (not all the dogs and not the little ones obviously).
So I would suggest to try this approach: try to find/arrange some meeting with two friendly and balanced dogs that can play one with another, and let Nina watch them from the safe distance and let her to get the idea that playing dogs are fun and all that. Maybe after some time she'll decide to give it a shot.
Even if not - still she'll have a chance to understamd that not all dogs are evil and dangerous for her.
Wish you all the luck and hope it helps.