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Hope is even scared of a phone being held in front of her or the sound of a photo being taken but here are a few photos I have managed to take. She is such a pretty girl, better photos in the future I hope.
DSC_0338.JPGIt is clearly going to be slow progress but who knows what sort of past she has had
She looks like a lovely dog but so very scared. I am full of admiration for the way you are dealing with her, especially making "drinking puddles" for her in the garden. Thank you so much for the up-date, needless to say, I am following Martem I have few suggestions
1. Don’t let her to hide. Hiding just deepens her psychological problems.
2. You have perfect tool you can employ your dog to guide her around home.
Best luck to her recoveryI’m really happy to report that there have been some improvements with Hope. About four days ago I sat on the floor and let her come over to me, she paced around for a while but then sat down beside me and then lay down (Sphinx position to start but then she relaxed her back half into a proper lying position). This was the first time she had willingly lay down and allowed me to pet her. It was wonderful and we have continued building on it – I don’t think she was used to being petted so it’s wonderful to be able to work on that. She is enjoying the walks but jumps at every sound, gust of wind, stone accidently crunched underfoot etc, but she is getting used to people and strange dogs passing by so it really is going well. She has started coming back into the house, from the garden, more quickly and on her own. She has begun to get a little more playful in the garden and will nudge a tennis ball with her nose and paws and chase after it if I throw it low to the ground. She has even tried to engage Ruby in a tug of war
but Ruby is very noisy when she plays and that scared Hope off a bit. Last night another big breakthrough – she walked from the sitting room into the back hallway and then into the kitchen and out to the garden on her own!! (without being carried!! – it took her about five minutes of going backwards and forwards but she did it). We have just come back from the Vets and she has put on weight, up to 11.4kg. She is eating well but not on her own. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. She will eat from my hand and if I put small amounts on a plastic sheet on the floor she will eat those – but she will not go anywhere near food in a bowl or plate, even if she is left on her own with it for 5/10 minutes. I do know that letting her hide is not good so we don’t let her into the sitting room until later in the day when we are in there ourselves. But during the week when she was particularly bad – she was so distressed that if she hadn’t been able to hide at times she would have exploded. One week after we got her she went missing, we could not find her anywhere, we searched the house top to bottom. The back door was open and I was convinced that she had somehow gotten out of the garden and run away (it didn’t seem likely but she really was not anywhere in the house or garden). We were beside ourselves, I was distraught. We formed a search party and went out looking for her – My son eventually found her – she had crawled between our headboard and the wall in our bedroom – a space of about 9 inches. The other time when she got under the shed if I had not seen her crawling there I would have had no idea where she was. I hope that as she relaxes she will no longer need to hide, but she can be quite determined ! But the developments over the last few days have been great. We’re trying not to push her to move faster than she is ready to – but we can see subtle changes and that makes us so happy. We are getting so much help from Kathy and the gang. Thanks to them all. EI’m really happy to report that there have been some improvements with Hope. About four days ago I sat on the floor and let her come over to me, she paced around for a while but then sat down beside me and then lay down (Sphinx position to start but then she relaxed her back half into a proper lying position). This was the first time she had willingly lay down and allowed me to pet her. It was wonderful and we have continued building on it – I don’t think she was used to being petted so it’s wonderful to be able to work on that. She is enjoying the walks but jumps at every sound, gust of wind, stone accidently crunched underfoot etc, but she is getting used to people and strange dogs passing by so it really is going well. She has started coming back into the house, from the garden, more quickly and on her own. She has begun to get a little more playful in the garden and will nudge a tennis ball with her nose and paws and chase after it if I throw it low to the ground. She has even tried to engage Ruby in a tug of war
but Ruby is very noisy when she plays and that scared Hope off a bit. Last night another big breakthrough – she walked from the sitting room into the back hallway and then into the kitchen and out to the garden on her own!! (without being carried!! – it took her about five minutes of going backwards and forwards but she did it). We have just come back from the Vets and she has put on weight, up to 11.4kg. She is eating well but not on her own. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. She will eat from my hand and if I put small amounts on a plastic sheet on the floor she will eat those – but she will not go anywhere near food in a bowl or plate, even if she is left on her own with it for 5/10 minutes. I do know that letting her hide is not good so we don’t let her into the sitting room until later in the day when we are in there ourselves. But during the week when she was particularly bad – she was so distressed that if she hadn’t been able to hide at times she would have exploded. One week after we got her she went missing, we could not find her anywhere, we searched the house top to bottom. The back door was open and I was convinced that she had somehow gotten out of the garden and run away (it didn’t seem likely but she really was not anywhere in the house or garden). We were beside ourselves, I was distraught. We formed a search party and went out looking for her – My son eventually found her – she had crawled between our headboard and the wall in our bedroom – a space of about 9 inches. The other time when she got under the shed if I had not seen her crawling there I would have had no idea where she was. I hope that as she relaxes she will no longer need to hide, but she can be quite determined ! But the developments over the last few days have been great. We’re trying not to push her to move faster than she is ready to – but we can see subtle changes and that makes us so happy. We are getting so much help from Kathy and the gang. Thanks to them all. EA little update on Hope. This sweet little girl is just so gentle and her fear never comes out as aggression. There have been some good developments over the last couple of weeks. She has not had any more accidents in the house since we had a small breakthrough one day (when she came over and lay beside me and let me pet her) I think her accidents in the house where just a result of how stressed and anxious she was feeling. She seems happier and more playful especially in the garden. Noises and people appearing suddenly still stress her and send her running for somewhere to hide. But in the last five days she has been walking out of the sitting room and out to the back garden on her own (with three doors to get through this is no mean feat for her). She enjoys her walks, lets me put on her harness and even walks out the door and into the car on her own (most times), She is doing great when passing other people and dogs and even if she gets scared during the walk she recovers quickly and carries on walking. If she stops and refuses to walk I just wait until she is ready and the minute she moves again I say ‘Walk On’. She seems to be starting to recognise this command and will start walking again (most of the time) when I say it. She is still very nervous around meal times – I have never seen a dog who reacts this way to food and I think it is the most telling thing. But she is putting on weight well – I can no longer see her ribs and the bones at the base of her spine no longer protrude so terribly. Although she does not always follow Rubys lead or rely on Ruby I think she would be better in a house with another dog as she is more willing to come out of her shell when she sees Ruby interacting with us. This little girl deserves to be loved and to know she is safe for the rest of her life, I hope some kind person can give the her a safe, loving, calm home.
DSC_0345.JPGDSC_0346.JPGDSC_0352.JPGI was wondering about Hope just this morning, she is my big dog to follow. She is looking so much better, you can see she has put on some weight. It’s great that she has her moments of forgetting the scary things and manages to focus on her ball but how sad that she feels she can only drink out of puddles. At least the water will be clean and she will get there eventually. Come the day she manages to drink water from a bowl. I cannot imagine what she has suffered but I am so very happy with the progress you are helping her to make, she really is coming along very well indeed. She looks like a lovely dog and deserves the very, very best home
Thank you for the up-date and the images, the ball one made me smile .Hi Elsa,
Marie here I met you in Bray with the harness, drops etc.
I assume she is wearing the thunder shirt? If so is it making a difference?
The harness seems to be doing a good job as she seems more comfortable on the end of the lead.
The food is certainly working as she is not looking so miserable anymore
Thanks.Thanks Marie, the harness is great. She never really pulls at the lead unless she is spooked by something -but it is much more comfortable with the harness. I am using the Thunder Shirt every day. I’m sure it is helping (but she’s such a nervous baby it’s hard to tell sometimes)
and Jetta is giving us some great advice and things to read up on. It’s just going to be a matter of time with this little girl.DSC_0383.JPGDSC_0380.JPGHope Im happy to see that you are looking a little more relaxed in your last pictures…..everyone is rooting for you and your fantastic foster family
We are continuing to make progress with Hope. She has not had a single accident in the house for the last couple of weeks
and she is becoming more comfortable coming back into the house from the garden. She is now walking out of the sittingroom and out to the garden on her own every time and with minimal amount of coaxing. She likes being outside in the garden as it is when she is at her most playful. We have a lovely game of ball and she tries to engage Ruby with varying amounts of success. We got through Halloween brilliantly – luckily there were not too many fireworks and bangers during the week so everything went smoothly. Last week we went to the dog run in my local park. I wanted to see if she would come back to me when we were ‘Out walking’. She was great and absolutely loved having a really good run around and chasing the ball with Ruby and having me chasing after the two of them like a mad thing. And she did come back to me when I called her! But it’s too early to let her off the lead anywhere else as when she gets spooked her instinct is to run and I’m not sure she would stop running. At the moment my immediate concern is that she is still not eating on her own – She has huge anxiety around food and I don’t know how to break through it. I am trying putting the food on different things – recently I have tried the plastic sheet, a paper plate with the rim cut off, now I’m trying a plastic chopping board. This will be the biggest breakthrough when it happens. I will be delighted to let you all know as soon as it does. But she is a beautiful girl and she is well worth the effort.DSC_0431.JPGDSC_0427.JPGHope your last two photos are very encouraging and you look happy ….your foster family should take a bow….I’ve previously had foster dog that wouldn’t eat out of conventional bowls…would only eat out of a treat bowl…..I fed him by hand for a couple of days then i put the food on the floor in front of me and fed him from the pile and I slowed it down and he got bored with me being purposely too slow and ate from the food pile then i kept it up but after a couple of days put the food pile into a bowl and he reverted to hand feeding but at the second feed time went to the bowl….every dog is different but you never know maybe it would work for Hope…..following you every step of the way
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She looks like a lovely dog but so very scared. I am full of admiration for the way you are dealing with her, especially making "drinking puddles" for her in the garden. Thank you so much for the up-date, needless to say, I am following 
! But the developments over the last few days have been great. We’re trying not to push her to move faster than she is ready to – but we can see subtle changes and that makes us so happy. We are getting so much help from Kathy and the gang. Thanks to them all. E
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