Great Progress!

I had been taking Minden on short walks on a short leash for the past 4 days and she generally has seemed very curious about seeing what the outside world smells like. So even though she still generally will not approach any one in the house, she likes to stay close on the leash as I think it gives her a little feeling of security (being on the leash) venturing out to unknown territories.

So I left for a bike ride today and Minden apparently was a bit distraught that I left without her. This was pretty encouraging to me now that I know we have some sort of bond and are getting close to some sort of understanding, which is: Leave me alone unless you are at the front door, then we'll talk.

So to get Minden to come to me all I have to do is open the front door, close it and sit down. Then she will approach me and let me massage her ears. She won't leave either until I go somewhere else or take her for a walk. So apparently we've got myself and door associated with something pretty good. Minden is a tough nut to crack, but we're getting closer. The odd thing still is that she runs from me pretty much every where else in the house, but if I change rooms she gets up to check where I am.

Here's some pics of her outside to show better how she's looking.

Ferrell Dogs

Well, I don't know how to spell "feral" (or wild animal). So I was googling around for "training ferrell dogs" and this is what I got. (Click here to avoid a commercial)

Clean Bill of Health

We just got Minden's records from the Raytown Animal Hospital. Great check-up. The summary essentially says "the described canine is free from all diseases".

They estimate her birthday to be September 4, 2007 (1.5 yr/o). I'm not sure if any of these dogs had any previous records kept.

I checked her poop samples in the backyard and they look healthy. I was fully expecting to see rocks and sticks as I heard this account from many of the other dogs, but no such thing.

Poor Minden just doesn't know what hit her. Most of the time she just wants to be alone in the smallest hole she kind find. I was talking to some other fosters and reading some stories about the other Missouri dogs and many of the dogs do appear have a fear/distrust of humans and have no concept of a leash. Minden doesn't act like she was physically abused and she eats well, but pretty much every new experience has been met with quite a bit of trepadation. A quick attempt to put her on a leash and take her out didn't get further than the front yard.

We're working on feeding Minden by hand to build her confidence in us; good things come from the hand that feeds you. Our 4 year old has been feeding Minden frequently and crawling in small spaces with her keeping her company, which Minden doesn't seem to mind too much. So every little step towards confidence and reassurance with Minden is quite big right now. And it's nice to see the (infrequent) wag of the tail.

And she hasn't had an accident in the house yet.

Frazzled Nerves

We've only had Minden for about 12 hours now so we are still getting to know each other but she's pretty nervous. Understandably so, the past couple of weeks involved:

1. Have her kennel set fire to
2. Living with 200 dogs to living with people
3. Lots of random travelling and getting "fixed"
4. A long ride in a kennel with 9 other dogs to Texas

Minden howled for a couple of hours in her crate last night but then settled down and we all got a good nights sleep. She needs some encouragement to get in her crate so we'll work on that; she prefers the soft beds of her foster brothers where she is laying now.

Minden like to stay a safe distance from people right now, but even after a few hours she lets me approach her and rub her ears. She acts like she has never had human interaction before, as if she's thinking, "Hey, this ear rubbing thing isn't so bad. If I don't run away I get my ears massaged."

She didn't seem too nervous around our 1st grader this morning so having kids around doesn't look to be a problem. She's also not an alpha queen bitch, she has backed down to my two other male dogs when chasing the peanut butter filled kongs around the house.

It will be interesting to see how she comes out of her shell in the next few weeks.

Her teeth are milky white, I could not find any brown spots at first inspection so I'd guess she's about 2.