What are the signs of animal abuse?

Question by CrazyBiitch: What are the signs of animal abuse?
I adopted a dog a couple of days ago, and I have this feeling that her previous owners abused her. It is making me very sad, and I was curious if anyone knew how to tell, and what can I do to get her back to being a happy dog. Thanks for everyone’s help!
Whenver my boyfriend and I reach down to either pet her on pick her up, she scrunches down as far as she can get to the floor, and she will not look at you in the face, she holds her head down.. 🙁 Poor Baby!
Yes she is timid, and she doesn’t attack, but sometimes she will growl, but she isn’t a biter so far… she just seems so scared of everything… I have been trying to keep giving her affection, and it just feels like it isn’t helping… 🙁
She sometimes acts happy to see us, then sometimes she doesn’t, she doesn’t hide from us, just gets really low to the ground. I adopted her from a lady I met, not a shelter. She said she needed to get rid of her because she was moving. She said that she had kids, so I was wondering if the kids were mean to her as well. She doesn’t like kids really, nor men. She likes me, but then sometimes she just wants to be alone… She will play here and there with my other dachshund, then sometimes she gets mean and bites my other dachshund.
I JUST WANTED TO SAY THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO LEFT ME SOME FEEDBACK. I GREATLY APPRECIATED ALL OF YOUR HELP! I KNOW WHAT I NEED TO DO KNOW. GIVE HIM TONS AND TONS OF HUGS AND KISSES! 😉 THANKS AND HAVE A GREAT EVENING!! THANK YOU FOR THE LINKS TOO THEY HELPED A LOT!
*her* opps 😉

Best answer:

Answer by JRW
An abused dog will shy away from any human contact, specially from the hands. They are used to being hit and kicked. When you go to touch them they act as if you are going to strike the. They have lost all faith in the good in people. It just takes a lot of time, love and patience to bring them around.

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