Sunday, May 6, 2012

Teifa Update

1) She now loves the car. I no longer leash her between the house and the car. I just open the front door, give all the dogs their release word, and she runs with them (a space of all of 15 feet) and waits eagarly to jump into the jeep. It wasn't that long ago that I had to pick her up and carry her that same distance and place her in the jeep.

2) Likewise, she no longer seems to be afraid of doorways/thresholds, or at least the ones she's familiar with she no longer pauses before rushing through.

3) She has yet to have a single accident in the house. You'd think a feral dog would be a lot harder to house train, but I wonder if, because she lived only outside for so long, that she makes an even greater distinction between "outside" and "inside" than other dogs (who're raised indoors) do. My theory doesn't hold for Sammy, however, who was also an outdoor-only dog up until I got her at the age of 4 months, and she STILL will defecate in the house if I don't respond to her cues quickly enough.

4) Leash walks around a suburban neighborhood are still very stressful for her. But we went hiking in an off-leash area and she thought it was great. She still has a lot of work to de-sensitize her to people and vehicles.

Teifa chillin' in the back room on lunch break and watching what Zelda is doing off-screen.

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