Dog Stories: Meeting Leah

I'm leaning toward calling him Rufus at the moment, so that's what I'm going to call him for this episode. Nelson is morphing into Neville, the awkward character in Harry Potter who ended up killing Voldemort's snake Nagini. So maybe Rufus Neville Dufus.

In any case, a big hurtle was getting him to accept Leah, my pet-sitter, enough for me to visit my parents and sister for spring break. We started by me walking Rufus up to her mom's home, which is a few doors down from me. Leah was wise enough to bring a chair out into the yard to sit in to be less intimidating. It was a good idea but he was still freaked out and wouldn't go near her.

Next she suggested we walk back to my place. It was another good idea. This took the focus off of her so that he had some time to process that she was in no way threatening to him. He was seeing that I approved of her and was relaxed around her but I knew that seeing how much my dogs loved her would help. I didn't yet have much clout with him and he believes other dogs before people.

Once Leah came in my house and I let my dogs out, Zippy went completely berzerk, climbing all over Leah. I let Rufus do his pacing thing to expend some of his nervous energy and let him come to Leah in his own way. He eventually did come up to her, though just barely. We let that be enough for that day.

I think it was about a week later that we tried again. I again walked Rufus up to her house. She met us on the road half way. He was cautious of her but not panicky. He clearly remembered her. We sat close together on her mother's porch and chatted until he finally went over to Leah and accepted some attention. He wasn't actively frightened of her but he wasn't completely comfortable either.

We weren't able to get together again before the day that I was to leave. I was dragging that day and didn't leave until the afternoon. She came over right before I left to get some last minute pointers and to see him once again with me there. Once again he was skittish. This time it was as though the excitement of the other dogs prevented him from relaxing. The biggest thing was to get him out into the back yard and into his crate. He wouldn't take a biscuit from Leah at all. However, bologna was another matter. That was the bait that allowed her to get him into his crate.

It was not the best situation to leave a pet-sitter in but I have a lot of confidence in Leah and decided to leave. I called her a couple of days into my visit and she said they were doing great and that he was laying his head on her lap. I was very relieved that he had finally warmed up to her, even though she reported that it made one of my other dogs jealous.

Rufus continues to improve on his walks. He is now comfortable walking in front of me. He is still wigged out by people but not as uncontrollably.

The next big obstacle will be getting him into my car and to the vet for the rest of his shots. Opening my hatchback freaked him out. It could take a lot of bologna to get him into the car and I hate to think what he'll do when it starts moving. Stay tuned!