What a girl needs...

is space, time and the ability to make choices!  K is not ready to receive touch from us and, with that said, there some basic reasons we need to touch K.  An example is getting her leash on to go out and potty.  So for those experiences I start by having her baby gated in the kitchen which is a small space - I don't want her loose in a big space because I do not want to chase her.  First of I probably couldn't catch her and secondly having me come after her is not a way to build trust!  In the kitchen we are able to calmly and quietly move towards her and hook her leash.  She gets a high value treat after the leash is hooked.  This does stress her out - she freezes and looks away.  So once she's leashed, we leave her leashed to reduce the unpleasant experiences.  Once she trusts us more we will work on teaching her that it's fun to wear her leash but, we are not to that point yet.

When we do need to take K out potty and the leash is still on, we walk towards her  (not looking at her) and calmly sit down near the end of the leash, gently pick it up and gently stroke the leash towards us.  We then slowly and quietly  walk her to the door and out to go potty.  She does better when we are not looking directly at her. This is true for most under socialized dogs - the pressure of our stare on them is too much.  So if you see a dog that looks worried, soften your gaze/ look a way.  It makes a huge difference for the dog.

 

Again, we are leaving her leash attached to her collar through out the day.  We make sure to have her within eye sight so she doesn't get stuck should her leash get caught on a piece of furniture.  If we can't watch her, the leash is off and she's gated in our kitchen.  So, yesterday K was able to explore parts of our house which she was curious about.

She does much better about coming close to us if D'light is around.  Below you can see her leashed and that I gently toss treats her way.  She comes as close as she wants (her choice) and you will see a stress yawn as she's getting closer to me. 

This is a wonderful trust building game for a under socialized dog.  Notice the treat is tossed, she can decide if she wants it and if she wants it she can move away, taking off the pressure of getting close to me - again her choice.  Then deciding if she wants to come back. We did this game probably 3-4 times yesterday throughout our house.  Each sessions was very brief as you will see below.  Right now it would be asking too much of K trying to get her to take the treat from our hand so this game gives space and again gives her choice.

And while this may not look like a lot of work, it's a lot for K and really any under socialized dog.  Her brain is working and making choices.  Not to mention she's still adjusting to a new environment with new people and new dogs.  So, this is our work right now - the rest of the time she's able to relax and just hang out.

 

We are working at creating positive experiences with K and it takes one day at a time.  We are already seeing some trust occurring which is super.