AND here is BHRR’s Black Diamond wearing the gorgeous collar sent by Margaret with East Coast healing love! Good-bye to that awful choke chain that she arrived in…..
The beautiful collar arrived last night and per my previous post, she trusted Mason enough to allow him to place it on her…..
What a gorgeous BBBBB she is! She is uneasy with her photo being taken so not the best photo yet one can still see how gorgeous she looks!
One baby step at a time Black Diamond…..Rome was not built in a day and your rehab shall be as long as it takes…you are surrounded by a village that is patient, kind and caring.
We shall show you helping kind hands…not hurtful ones. Your trust is a gift and we are patient…..
She trusts Sean/Mason the most and that does not say too much.
She shall reliably come in for them when they let her out and for for me, I am batting about 85-95% on that front.
The first day she arrived, she was leaning into me, letting me gently touch her several hours after her arrival and then every AM is back to the beginning all over again. She is back to her shutdown survivor mode.
Even if you have to go to the bathroom and come out again, it is right back to step 1.
When you are with her long enough, her eyes begin to register things….when you leave to do a load of laundry for example, her eyes are right back,,,,,unfocused, not seeing anything, filled with terror.
She does not whimper in fear, she will almost scream softly in fear if she feels intimidated and threatened, which thank goodness is less and less.
Yesterday, two times I did have to circle around her again in the fenced in yard to gently guide her inside. We are a long way off from using a lunge line etc. Leashes terrify her.
Today, so far she is back to the progress I made days ago with opening up the door and passively ignoring her and she comes in.
She will at least drink in front of us and around us now. Eating was not there when she first arrive – not abnormal – then she was eating and then she went off eating.
We are now mixing wet and she eats best when everyone is asleep.
Once she lets you touch her, she begins almost frozen to the spot and then over time will stand up and pace back and forth just within reach of your fingertips. If you let you hand fall down, she will step a bit closer, not much and you know that she wants you to lift your hand again and let her walk past them letting them gently drift across her fur.
When we also let our hand fall back down, she will look towards you, so that is when you know she is registering and in the depths of her fear, is on the edge of the land of the living.
She is wonderful in her crate and is housebroken and this is why BHRR exists…for her, for dogs like her…..
AND as long as it takes….we are patient…..very patient….we have demonstrated that many times over the past 21+ years.
