Puppy Mill Puppy Version 1.2

I’d like to say we are at PMP V2.0 by now, but unfortunately I just don’t think we are there yet.  Little Alaska is just not coming out of her shell as quickly as we might like… and certainly no where near as rapidly as Dixie did.  We have had her for a week and a half now and while she is no longer as scared and confused as she was, we are just not seeing ANY signs of her ‘acting like a dog’ yet.  I am sure she’s in there and it will come, but so far… sad and scared puppy is sad and scared.

Wednesday August 14, 2013 at 2:06pm
Alaska spent most of today hiding in the bathroom and only coming for cuddles when I went and collected her and had her sit with me for a while.  I have still been feeding her by hand in an attempt to stop her flinching and seeing hands as objects of fear that may result in hostility.  It is time consuming, but I think it is starting to work.  We are able to handle her a bit more readily (I’ve stopped picking her up with a towel and that only took a couple of days) and she is letting us pet her more, though she is still flinching whenever you move touch her or pick her up.  I bought a new collar and lead for her, which fits properly and while we haven’t tried to take her outside on the lead again yet, it is good to know she can’t wriggle out of her only ID tag.  She has spent all her time inside the house since she got here, I just couldn’t bear it if she got out… there is NO WAY she would come to any human, ever… and if she got out on the streets I doubt we’d ever see the poor little girl again.

Thursday, August 15 2013 at 11:33pm 
Pretty much the same as yesterday.  Alaska has spent much of today sitting on a pillow in the sun next to Mr K while he works on an MBA assignment with plenty of sporadic cuddles.  Gotta keep that human contact up or I think she’d start to retreat again.  She still gives the impression that she’d rather just be left alone and doesn’t like being handled at all.  Dixie and Alaska are sorting themselves out – with Alaska getting so much attention, Dixie has a couple of times been startled upon waking and had a ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to anyone in the vicinity… not biting or snapping, just jerking herself upright all startled.  It’s a bit of a hard balance to keep lavishing attention on Alaska to get her to trust us without making Dixie feel like she has been usurped – herself a puppy mill dog, she is now very outgoing but since Alaska got here, if she can’t sit on or beside us, she will go and flop somewhere nearby rather than lay in a ‘second best’ spot or less close than Alaska is laying to the people.

Friday, August 16 2013 at 10:45am
Had another biting incident just now, but it was totally our fault.  Alaska has shown very little interest in leaving her crate or the room the crate is in unless she is physically picked up and moved to be with us… and today she finally decided to venture out of the bathroom (she is in the bathroom because the laundry is primarily Dixie’s domain and has ready access to outside).  Anyway, the laundry door was open while we were, you know, doing laundry, and Alaska actually came out of the bathroom to investigate what was going on.  Mr K saw her, just as her little bottom was about to step out the dog door to the outside – where we knew we would have trouble catching her without traumatizing her.  Reacting quickly, he grabbed her hindquarters and went to stop her from exiting the building scoring a quick bite to the hands for his troubles.  I think he startled and scared her more than anything – she’s definitely not showing signs of aggression any more since last week, other than this isolated incident.  She’s not snarling or growling at Dixie and while still flinching from us she isn’t showing signs of wanting to be aggressive at all.  Oh well, the plastic flap has been reinstalled on the puppy door, so if she ventures out of the laundry again she’ll be flummoxed by the contraption.

Saturday, August 17 2013, and Sunday, August 18 2013
We had a busy weekend with a very docile and still timid puppy, but on Saturday, we did see her wag her tail and show some interest in a tennis ball!  I can’t believe how excited these little things made us.  She is such a beautiful sweet little girl and it has been heartbreaking to see how damaged and scared she has been.  This is the first sign of ‘acting like a dog’ we have seen.  She has also started sniffing Dixie over the weekend which is awesome – she is taking an interest in things around her and even though it’s little baby steps of progress, we will take it!

Tuesday, August 20 2013 at 11:03pm
Had a quiet day at home with the puppies.  Alaska will sit comfortably beside me or on my lap for hours.  And even curling up right beside Dixie now which is awesome, though they seem to be jockeying for prime real estate closer to the people still.  Occasionally when petting her she will attempt to lick my hands and fingers as they do!  I hope she is associating hands with the giving of food and comfort now as compared to previous attitude which appeared to largely treat hands as things to be feared in the extreme.   We have all been extra attentive over the last and giving her lots of hands on cuddles and tickles and scratches behind the ears etc., in the hope that she will eventually relax enough to enjoy being handled.  At the moment she is sort of ‘this is okay, but I will keep my wary face on and see where it goes’.  So she’s not soliciting affection the way Dixie does (Dixie is a total cuddle slut… as soon as you go to pet her she rolls onto her back for big tummy rubs 🙂 ), but she is tolerating it and obviously isn’t finding the attention and physical interactions onerous or annoying or (most importantly) scary!

Tonight, she came out of her crate, all by herself, to investigate what was going on in the kitchen while I was preparing dinner and again while we were eating.  As soon as someone called her name or noticed her presence in any tangible way, she scooted back to her crate though.  🙂  For the first time I saw her walk with her tail up in the air rather than hanging between her legs… which was fantastic!  I hope she continues to feel more and more comfortable and we see her exploring more and more.

alaskaweds puppy mill rescue dogShe still has that wary and slightly scared look in her eyes, but we have seen moments when it seems to slip away.  Baby steps… baby steps…

 

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