Honey, This IS Your Forever Home!

kjd,

I understand your concerns very well.

All my 3 dogs, Holly Noah and Daisy, would never go for a walk with ANYBODY but me, as long as I am home. Even my husband cannot, let alone the neighbors. Fortunately, I work in an outside office and my husband works from home, so they all get a daily walk with him, obviously I am not home during the day.

Holly spent 2 months at 2 different shelters before her foster family took her out of the last shelter. She was found as a stray when she was taken to the first shelter. She was with the foster family for 2 weeks before we adopted her. Living in a shelter kennel for 2 mos must have been a stressful experience for Holl, a border collie/cattle dog mix.

I just couldn't and still can't take her to a kennel for boarding because that would give her a wrong idea that she was abandoned again. Just like you said, kjd, I can not explain her that this is a temporary solution while I am on a vacation. Also, being an extremely smart dog, she needs interaction with people and I just cannot justify the kennel environment is good enough.

For the same reason, I cannot leave Noah and Daisy at a kennel, even for a few hours. I looked for a house setting day care, where all the dogs are loose in a house with more human interaction but I decided not to use it because of Noah's fear aggression towards strange dogs.

>Does making her go with the neighbor help her or hurt her?

I think it will hurt her if she is not ready for that yet. You can not force your dog to trust someone. What you can do instead is to go for many walks with Sunna along with the neighbor and give her a chance to get used to go for walks with the neighbor. When she gets comfortable with the neighbor, leave the leash of Sunna with him/her as you tell Sunna to "Wait" and go inside the house for a few minutes. Ask your neighbor how Sunna was when you were gone. Repeat this kind of practice and see how it goes.

>Would boarding her overnight speed up her adjustment or just worry her?

I would not board her at a kennel but you might consider leaving her with a very dog savvy friend (hopefully someone who has a dog too) that you can trust for a few hours and ask him/her how she behaves. My dogs can be left a my mother-in-law's house for overnight, and at my friend's house for a few hours without any problems. They know those people very well and they trust them because I trust them.

>Once the days get longer, I hope obedience classes will help her adjustment, but while we are waiting for that, what kinds of things can be done?

kjd, will you refresh my memory? Is Sunna the only dog you currently have? Do you have other dogs that can help her settle in your home? My own dogs are big help to my foster dogs. Foster dogs can develop bond and trust towards me much faster when they see how much my own dogs trust me and have a close relationship with me. It is as if they tell foster dogs "Hey buddy, you can trust our mom. She is nice most of the time but you'd better behave, because she gets very upset when you misbehave so watch her out!"

If you have no other dogs, how about taking her everywhere in your car? When it's raining (which is almost 90% of our winter days here) and can not play outside I take my doggies to grocery shoppings and make them wait in the car. They love these rides since I give each a treat when I'm done with shopping and come back to the car.

Paying a lot of attention, bathing her, clipping nails, brushing, sitting with her and talking to her, playing games with her, teaching her tricks, etc. I believe any activity with her will help her get a feeling that she belongs to you...

MaxHollyNoah,

Thank you for your reply. My computer crashed last Saturday and I lost ALL my passwords! Finally got the computer, stripped of all my data and bought programs, yesterday. KOP gave me the information to sign on just today.


> All my 3 dogs, Holly Noah and Daisy, would never go for a walk with ANYBODY but me, as long as I am home.

This is interesting, and very valuable. I will talk this over with Alex and we may try it -- my leaving and his trying to walk her. Or we may wait a bit until she is more settled. Right now, I suspect she may hide in the house.


> I just couldn't and still can't take her to a kennel for boarding because that would give her a wrong idea that she was abandoned again.

That is what I am afraid of. So far, I don't go where she cannot come.


>> Does making her go with the neighbor help her or hurt her?

> I think it will hurt her if she is not ready for that yet. You can not force your dog to trust someone. What you can do instead is to go for many walks with Sunna along with the neighbor and give her a chance to get used to go for walks with the neighbor. When she gets comfortable with the neighbor, leave the leash of Sunna with him/her as you tell Sunna to "Wait" and go inside the house for a few minutes. Ask your neighbor how Sunna was when you were gone. Repeat this kind of practice and see how it goes.

We will have to try this. The only time we did go for a walk together, he held the leash.


>> Would boarding her overnight speed up her adjustment or just worry her?

> I would not board her at a kennel but you might consider leaving her with a very dog savvy friend (hopefully someone who has a dog too) that you can trust for a few hours and ask him/her how she behaves. My dogs can be left a my mother-in-law's house for overnight, and at my friend's house for a few hours without any problems. They know those people very well and they trust them because I trust them.

As soon as the ground is less muddy, I hope to take Sunna to a play date. This may help her with car rides while giving her some good exercise and socialization with other dogs.


>> Once the days get longer, I hope obedience classes will help her adjustment, but while we are waiting for that, what kinds of things can be done?

> kjd, will you refresh my memory? Is Sunna the only dog you currently have? Do you have other dogs that can help her settle in your home?

Currently, Sunna is an only dog. We had a foster dog for three days (he was being moved to another state and I was closer to the pickup point), a young dog who happily went out walking with my neighbor. I'm thinking of adopting another dog. Sunna appears to enjoy them and has shown no aggression -- he growled when she got near his dish; she just watched him when he started eating her food!


> If you have no other dogs, how about taking her everywhere in your car? When it's raining (which is almost 90% of our winter days here) and can not play outside I take my doggies to grocery shoppings and make them wait in the car. They love these rides since I give each a treat when I'm done with shopping and come back to the car.

This is a big problem! My dogs have always gone with me some even got visited with while I was gone. I thought she was OK on car rides, but she has decided she doesn't like them. She far prefers I leave her home. Since all she gets to do is sit and wait, I cannot blame her. I've tried giving her treats she likes at home, but I will have to find something that ups the ante for her. She just recently decided milkbones were good of course, she gets one when I leave her behind, so she just might like what it means!


> Paying a lot of attention, bathing her, clipping nails, brushing, sitting with her and talking to her, playing games with her, teaching her tricks, etc. I believe any activity with her will help her get a feeling that she belongs to you...

I think she is there. She goes around with a smile on her face. She no longer feels she has to be on the same floor as I am. She is much better about eating. Still cowers at sudden movements towards her, but she is learning she isn't going to be hurt.

Thanks for all the advice. I will apply it as I can.

I would add that I have a local dog kennel/training center that does doggy day care. I brought Max there a few times before we left on our trip. They let me stay with him and the other dogs until I could see he was doing okay. I could have stayed the full time if I wanted to. Maybe to start with you could do something like that. Take Sunna to a doggie day care and stay with her, leave her sight for a few minutes and then come back. You know the drill. It might help.

I am a believer in multiple dog households. (I had 4 at one time!) I think they help each other all the time. Sunna really sounds like a sweety to me!

crazycrayonmom,

At Saturday's indoor dog park, we were all given coupons for a free one-day doggie day care. However, when I asked if I could stay, I was told "No." The owner told me they have some dogs with extreme separation anxiety; but these dogs are so bad when left home alone the dogs' owners think daycare is better. Sunna does very well left alone at home, so I was thinking of finding someone else for the free day. OTOH, you have given me an idea. I have a friend who runs a doggie daycare (and grooming), who should let me hang around. I might try that with her.

kjd