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.
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