Tessa - Part 1

Surprise! Surprise! We have added a new dog to our crew! This was as much of a surprise to me as it is to everyone!

A few weeks ago, I went and evaluated a dog for Glen Highland Farm. Nothing unusual about that. She was in a shelter about an hour and a half from here and her name was Maggie. She was not a happy camper in the shelter. Believe it or not, I've actually met dogs that love being in a shelter. And most tolerate it reasonably well. Maggie was almost completely shut down. When I walked into her run to evaluate her, she cowered in the corner. Still, she let me move in and touch her and I completed her evaluation with no problem. Once I got into her space, she was fine with me doing what I needed to do.

GHF decided to take her and they asked if I could hold her for a while since the rescue was currently full. After meeting her, I was happy to do that. There was something I liked about her, in spite of the fact that she shut herself off from me completely. It was clear there was nothing personal about it and she would most likely co-exist with us and our dogs peaceably.

When I went to pick her up, she again cowered in the corner when I went in to get her. Once on her leash, she went right along with me. All was well until we got to the car. She balked, and balked big time, when she realized I was leading her to a car. I had to coax quite a lot and finally she jumped in. Only to jump out in the split second when I went to open the crate door. She even slipped two leashes and she was off!

That has never happened in all of the transports I have done.

Knowing she would not come to me if I caught up to her, I got the shelter folks. They found her in a neighbor's yard and when she spotted them, she ran again - thankfully, back to the shelter! They cornered her and corralled her into the main building of the shelter. After that I got one of them to put her in the crate in my car. Thus secured, we were off.

I rather expected her to panic in the crate during the ride, but she didn't. She seemed content. She even looked at me with curiosity on occasion - always shifting her eyes away from me quickly when I looked back at her!

You know, right then and there, I knew I had to watch it. She was my kind of dog. Even on that ride home, it went through my mind that I could open up so many new worlds to her. And, even, that I wanted to! But I pushed that aside. We already had four dogs and Ben was adamant that we already had too many!

Also, there was already a potential adoptor for her.

So, we got to my house and I prepared to bring her in for a shower. She didn't smell too bad, but she did smell like shelter, so some washing was a must. I put my dogs in the dog yard and opened the side door and opened the car and got her out of the crate, holding firmly to two leashes. And it's a good thing I held on. She immediately started to struggle to escape. And the closer I got to the house door, the more vehemently she struggled. Finally I stopped and moved her back away from the door and we both took a breather. She seemed to gather herself together at that point and she followed me, very unwillingly, into the house.

The shower went no better. It was plain she was not going into the shower compartment and there was no way for me to shower her on the bathroom floor. Finally I took a small container and filled it with water and mixed in shampoo. I put towels on the floor and got her wet and lathered right there on the floor. She tolerated it. Then I took her outside to rinse her with the hose! That's when she met my dogs, who were still waiting out there!

She was pretty oblivious to them until I got her rinsed off. Then she checked them out. I had her on a leash. I could just picture her flying right over the fence and into the wild blue yonder. She made no move to try to leave, but I still kept hold of her, just in case.

After a decent meeting, we all went inside and I dried her with towels, which she was fine with.

In the house, I kept a leash on her and, for the most part, I had her go with me throughout the house on leash. I had no idea if she was housetrained, or how she would behave with my dogs in the house. I was surprised, but she was fine with being tethered. Any time I went to move at all, she jumped up, and followed me readily through the house. She would not, under any circumstances, go through a doorway ahead of me. But she would follow me anywhere.

I frequently took her out to see if she needed to potty, but nothing. She would go out, stand around, look around, and then we would go in. I figured she would go eventually.

I had a bit of an issue when it was time for me to go teach training class that night. I had planned to crate her, but there was no getting her into a crate. By that point, I knew her nerves were worn thin and I didn't want to push her any more than I had to. So, I put her in the bathroom with a bunch of blankets and towels. She didn't make any protest, so I hoped it would be OK.

It was not horrible, but she was clearly not happy with the arrangement. When I got home, I found she had pulled a bunch of blankets and clothing that had been outside that door through the space underneath. I guess she was trying to get out. She also pulled some molding off the door, but that was easily fixed. But the biggest thing to come from that is that she was bound and determined to avoid the bathroom after that.

So, I was not sure what we were going to do about sleeping arrangements. But the problem solved itself. I thought about putting her next to the bed and using a tall gate to give her an area next to me. But when I went to set that up, she jumped right on the bed and planted herself on it - chin and all. I figured I would try having her on the bed, still attached to the leash. That worked. She didn't move the entire night.

One really good thing is that from the start my dogs did not mind her. Even Speedy acted as if she had been here forever and he couldn't care less about her. I think he knew that she was more afraid of him than he could possibly be of her!
I'm going to end there for now. I have lots more to tell about how she ended up as our dog, but I want to write it all.

Here are a couple of photos of Maggie (now Tessa) at the shelter. It is plain how badly she wanted out of there.