All's Good on the Homefront

After a couple of hours of huge fear reactions to just about everything -leash, dogs, people, a change in breeze direction, etc, etc, things calmed down late last night. (But you should have seen DimSum bellycrawl like she was in the warzone. Poor thing).

All is well this morning too. I'm glad I've done some of these shy/semi-feral/not heavily socialized at a young age dogs before. After Allie, it would take a lot to really rattle me. You just take one day at a time, one behaviour at a time. Of course there's a plan to build the confidence, etc, but really, you look too far ahead and you're just asking for too much all at once. They really do move forward at their own pace, which is usually a lot faster if you don't put expectations on it.

After Jerrad left for work late last night, DimSum climbed on the couch for a cuddle, and it almost like having Chow again. Very, very similair dogs (as was expected, they're sisters). Chow had more confidence though (but at the same time, she did try nipping Beckett's nose when she first came too, just didn't land the blow).

Anyway Sum's tried telling Lemon off, and got a quick, efficient tell-off. Lemon might be little, but she's the 'big dog' around here. Afterwards DimSum has decided to play with Lemon. She's tried to initiate play with Beckett too, but he's giving her the cold shoulder. After all, who plays with someone who gave their nose a good chomp!

DimSum: Hey you, PLAY with me please!

Beckett gives DimSum the cold shoulder.

Dear Foster Mum: What the heck! Why won't he play?

She'll be wearing her leash around the house for a few more days. A) In order to get desensitized to having it on her (she's already not doing the fish out of water thrash anymore, and her tail has started to come out from between her legs too, all good signs), and B) She's still a bit skittish with us on approach. Sit down or lay on the couch and she'll come right up and hang out with you. But if you're up and moving, she's not quite sure about that. It will be much easier to get her through that if there's a leash to grab instead of moving the whole dog. All learning curves.

Migo is out with Jerrad today. He will get an hour walk before Jerrad goes to school for two hours, hang out in the back of the car for 2 hours tops while Jerrad is in school and then J is coming back to grab Beckett and possibly Zephyr to do a longer hike this afternoon. Thank you Jerrad! With this portfolio due tonight at midnight, I need a tired Migo. He's a great boy, he just doesn't know he should settle in the house yet. Everything is a party. He's a super fun dog though. Just not for the day you need to spend glued to the computer screen. Our landlord is back from vacation tomorrow, so we should be able to finish up the fence then --needs official clearance before we tackle the last part to make it a usuable yard and not just a mostly-finished one with a big hole unusuable yard.

As for Zephyr, he's doing very well with the new recruits. He and DimSum understood each other from the get go. Mind Zephyr's space, you're good. He's been patient with Migo so far too, but I don't mind if Zephyr tells Migo off. Happy-go-lucky dogs have a few flaws of their owns, mostly to do with not knowing when enough is enough. I'm getting a tad bit nervous that I haven't heard from his applicant yet.

I hate this MAYBE crap. I don't know if I can take very many more 'maybe' people.

And now, off to that portfolio. I'm SO ready to be finished with this beast!

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