3rd Meeting (1st Week/September)

Now it was the Wednesday before I was to leave on Friday. My staff person wasn't sure Sweetie was going to warm up and allow her to come into the house or even touch her if I wasn't there. I had hope, though. One of Sweet's special qualities is that once you're in her club, you're in for life. She's not a shy dog that has weird handling issues and will snap or be uncomfortable once you've made friends. A small blessing, but it means a lot when she makes new friends.

But, we knew that if she was going to be watched by a new person, that person would have to come up to the house when I wasn't there. So, when her new friend came over, I left the house (hesitantly but optimistically) a few minutes before she arrived.

We had success! My staff person walked in the door with treats, dispensed yumminess, and was greeted with a bouncy-ish Sweetie. Not totally loosey goosey but interested and wagging. When I returned in the house 5 minutes later, they were in the kitchen by that point and a petting session was in progress in Sweet's favorite doggie doughnut bed in the kitchen. She had relaxed enough to be on her back and have a full-on belly rub.

She had made a new friend, and my trip was on! I was nervous, I cried out of joy that she had made a friend and a little out of nervousness of leaving her. I have a high level of management for Sweetsie to keep both of us safe and allow her to progress, so the thought of leaving it in someone else's hands was a little scary. But, I knew she was in capable hands.

2nd Meeting, New Person (1st Week/September)

With not a lot of success in the first meeting, I decided to take a closer look at how Sweetie was going to meet people at my house. What I thought would work, with not a lot of thought put into it, did not pan out. A plan was needed.

So, I put the Manners Minder in the kitchen and sat in a chair in the living room - and we made a game out of dinner every night over the next couple days. It played out like this: Sweets runs to the chair, targets my hand and then the cue noise goes off on the MM and dispenses food (which is actually the more salient cue for her). We made a relay race out of it with her bopping my hand and running back into the kitchen for food. I wanted her to associate the chair with super good things, that she didn't have to put herself in a weird emotional place to eat the food (she was safe in the kitchen for later use) and she could keep playing as long as she wanted. She took to the game very quickly, so we tried another meeting with new person #1.

This time the meeting was much more managed. I kept Sweets in the kitchen and hallway initially separated by the baby gate at the threshold of the living room. New person sat in the chair I had sat in during the game and Sweets first saw her sitting down. Sweets got rewarded for coming up to the gate and looking at my staff member with kibble from the MM in the kitchen dispensed. I continued to set up the MM in the kitchen to provide a mini-break from the stimulus and dial down her stress levels.

This time, we had virtually no barking and lots of wagging loose postures. So, after 10-15 watches, I moved the baby gate up to the sofa so Sweets could move up if she wanted to - and she did. We repeated rewarding the watches - and then I removed the gate and provided the new person with dried chicken strips (hopefully outweighing the kibble by this point and safely allowing an interaction after this managed build-up).

Sweets approached hesitantly and took the strips - and came back for more. The new person feed and starting incorporating some chin rubs which pushed her a bit too much and resulted in some stiffening and a little unease, but not a lot. We continued the treats for a bit, she relaxed more and then we moved outside to do the come game in the backyard with me, Sweets and the new person. I had kibble, new person still had chicken and we would call her - and she would run to both of us for yummies, preferably to the new person as the treat was more high value. We did that exercise for a couple minutes with success and called it a night.

She was interested in interacting with the new person, finally! Progress, no reactivity, although some stiffening, but potential.

1st Meeting, new Person (1st Week in September)

After settling into our routine here in Colorado, I decided I wanted to return to Illinois for a friend's wedding. But, with only a week or so before the trip, I was concerned Sweetie wouldn't be ready to have somebody new watch her.

Nevertheless, working at shelters has perks - like being around dog savvy folks and better yet, trainers. So, one of my staff members came out to my house to meet Sweetie. Despite my best intentions, I set up the meet all wrong. I had Sweetie out on my porch and her potential friend walk into the kitchen. I put the Manners Minder out on the porch and had it set to go off automatically and feed Sweets.

Having a new person walk into the house, with her on the porch and seeing the two-legger walk towards her (even if separated by a screen door) caused her to bark - and bark in the "what are you doing here" sort of way. I backed off my staff person to give Sweetie some distance (maybe like 10 feet or so), and she stopped barking (90% or so). She was eating and happier, relatively speaking, but then returned to barking with a barrage of barks - continuing for probably 15-30 seconds. I stepped out of the room, to potentially dial down the barking, but with no effect.

I stayed out of the room and instructed the nice person to leave the room the moment she stopped barking. She did for a second, and we called it a night. Not a great first meeting. I was not optimistic.

settling in (august 14-31)

over the next couple weeks, i settled in to having a new dog in my house. i was just settling into denver, which had its own challenges, and now i brought a behaviorally challenged dog into the mix. i wanted to take it slow. so, for the next couple weeks, i had no visitors come over to my house. i wanted sweetie to feel safe, that she could predict the routine in this new environment and she wouldn't feel forced to react to scary stimuli.

while i had been riding my bike to work, i returned to driving once again so that i could come home on my lunches and let sweetie out for potty breaks. as advised by her former foster, she could only go 5-6 hours before needing to go outside, so i knew with my long shelter hours she couldn't go all day on her own.

our routine became, well, routine. i would give her meds in the morning and leave a couple food dispensing toys for her while she was baby-gated into the kitchen. the first days went great - but when i left her for a little longer in the morning, she had an accident. so, we continued on the 4-5 hours in the morning in her crate, a break and then left out in the kitchen the rest of the afternoon. also, at the same time, i decreased her clomipramine dosage from 3 tabs to 2 tabs a day.

thankfully, that one accident in the morning after leaving for work was the last. i started leaving her in the kitchen (baby-gated) in the morning and out still in the afternoon. then, i started leaving her un-baby-gated with free run of the house with - again, success.

then, we had total and complete success beyond what even i thought was possible when i left her out one day and couldn't get back to the house - but again there was no accident. she went over 8 hours without a potty break!

this completely housebroken behavior continues today and i no longer need to go home on my lunches to let her out. she goes out in the morning for a good 45 minute romp in the backyard and then is OK to be left alone until i return after work. she now has a "crate it" command in the morning in which she runs into her crate and then receives her breakfast in food dispensing toys.

i usually find her when i return home in the evening snuggled up on my bed or happily dancing in the kitchen when i walk through the door. she is a submissive urinator, however, and it's important to get her outside first before we have any cuddle sessions.

the drive to colorado (august 17 & 18)

after i adopted sweets (aka sweetie, sweetsie), i had to bring her back to colorado. there was no way that i was going to put her on a plane to send her here. riding in cargo is difficult enough for normal dogs - but a dog that has a fear of people, has difficulty adjusting to new environments and is sound sensitive, i was afraid it would be too traumatic for her.

so on august 17, we hauled off on our roadtrip across california, nevada, utah, wyoming and finally colorado. to make the trip as easy on her as possible, i set up a comfortable back seat in the rental car, maintained her high level clomipramine dosage (3 tabs a day) and also used alprazolam (xanax) for some situational anxiety relief.

while she barked at the toll attendant at the carquinez strait bridge, the trip was fairly low key. she even pottied outside at a couple gas stops! she slept a lot of the way.

we made it to salt lake city the first night and stayed at a dog-friendly hotel. i was worried she would alarm bark throughout the night, but she was quiet (and i was relieved). we, thankfully, didn't run into any people while walking or leaving our room, and she slept beside me the entire night on the bed. i had classical music playing - to drown out any outside noises - and blocked the door and windows with chairs to eliminate the temptation of bark patrol.

on monday, we were on the road to colorado, and the remainder of the trip was fairly uneventful. we arrived in denver around 5 pm, and i brought her to my place. until i had her there, i hadn't realized how perfect of a set-up it would be. quiet, low-key neighborhood; little traffic; 6 foot high fencing and a neighbor that was barely home.

she explored the backyard, and given her noise sensitivity and aversion to the outdoors in san francisco, i was worried about my city surroundings. but she took to it like a champ - exploring the grass and ivy intently with relaxed body postures and a high confident tail.

i let her settle in for about a 1/2 hour, and then crated her in my bedroom so I could return the car to the rental agency. unfortunately when i returned, i found that she had urinated in the crate. figuring that she hadn't got around to going to the bathroom outside, i chalked it up to first day jitters and hoped her crate and potty skills would improve.

in the sphere

this blog is for documentation purposes.

it is an attempt to chronicle my work and life with sweetie. sweetie is a 1.3 month old labradoodle that i adopted in august 2008.

sweetie was brought into a limited admission animal shelter in august 2007. she was evaluated at her originating shelter in the central valley of california and deemed suitable for adoption. she was 4 months old and surrendered with two other littermates. she was to be euthanized the day before our team arrived but was not.

upon entry into her new shelter, she was spayed and ready for adoption. she was not as outgoing as her sister (who was adopted within a couple weeks), instead hesitant and fearful in the new setting.

difficulties first surfaced when sweetie growled at a woman who wanted to pet her while she was lying down in the park. then she attended a pet fair and growled there as well. concerned about her behavioral health, we began working with a trainer dedicated to her case and began pursuing foster options. she was made unavailable for adoption.

unfortunately for sweetie, the trainer made some but little progress in the challenging environment and no foster home was found for her at 5 months of age or during her 10 month stay at the shelter. her behavioral health declined considerably. she was scared on her walks, petrified of other dogs and people, would not go to the bathroom outside and constantly wanted to return to the shelter. in the shelter, she would alarm bark at the presence of new dogs or people - and was relegated to a kennel with no visibility of passersby.

despite these considerable concerns and unadoptable behavior, i believed that sweetie had the ability to be rehabilitated and placed as a loving companion into a new home. while she was scared and reactive to new people, she was very social and was completely trusting once she made friends (which usually only took a couple meetings). and while she was petrified of unknown dogs outdoors, she had fabulous dog-dog skills and was a great player. there was hope, but it was dwindling fast.

by the beginning of 2008, sweetie continued to deteriorate, was put on medication for anxiety; however she had instances of growling at strangers and was reactive with barking - and on a couple of occasions, lunging as well. by spring 2008, we were at the end of options, so we call in a renowned board certified vet behaviorist to assess her case. after obtaining history and observations, she determined she had the potential for rehabilitation (given the shelter's resources) but she needed a foster home ASAP.

with no fosters in sight, she took sweetie into her home for a month long foster. while rough at first, she improved, was able to meet new people and live in a multi-dog household. bolstered by her behavior, she was placed in a short term foster home to continue her road to recovery. despite having no training support, the new foster was extremely dedicated to sweetie and provided a dream home environment.

unfortunately, another foster home could not be found (to help her generalize all that she had learned in her two temporary homes) - and despite no decline in behavior health, the shelter had slated her for euthanasia. given the mismanagement of her case and my belief that she had the potential and ability to rehabilitate, i adopted her. this was the least her case deserved.

this is our story together.