Well, I started back to school this week. I am a teacher. So, I slacked off on Jack's week 2 blog, so will do that one late and combine with week 3 early!
He continues to hang out in his safe spot - a little corner between the head of my bed and the night stand I shoved against the closet door so he couldn't hide in a littler corner! He is doing really well at eating and drinking with me in the room. Not every time, and as long as I don't watch him he's okay. I continue to feed him in the protection of the x-pen and he will eat even if another dog is on the outside of the pen.
He's still pulling when walking, but I honestly think the initial is just because he wants to hurry up and empty his bladder. We've been trying a longer lead to let him have some space between us and him. It is helping, so we will continue with that, but as we walk bring him closer and let him find his own space. He doesn't always want to walk at the end of it; sometimes he is content to walk fairly close to me.
As we are home a lot this weekend, I will have Jack walk through the house with me, or sit in the living room. Since he hasn't tried any exploration on his own, we will have to push him a little.
He is doing pretty well with me - I think he even perked an ear when I was petting him earlier, instead of laying them back. He looked happy to see me when I came in the other afternoon when I got home from work. ;) My 11-year-old son helps with the walking and the distant interaction. Jack is mostly okay with him, though he'd rather have me on the leash.
He has talked to me a little bit now - I've been trying to add to his behavioral assessment. He continues to be ambivalent to the dogs and cats. BUT, he is absolutely terrified of my toddler granddaughter. She is VERY good with the animals and just wants to pet Jack. It scares him so much he'd climb through the wall if he could, so we just keep Madi away from him when she is here. My gut feeling on Jack's history is one of two things: a family with at least two very young children got the cute puppy and the parents weren't responsible enough to teach their children the appropriate way to interact with him (in other words, they let the kids pull ears, hair, tails, chase, lay on the dog, maybe even meaner) OR a young couple got him, had a child who wasn't taught to interact well and Jack was just ignored or tossed out because he was afraid of the child.
I have not had him in contact with any adult male yet to see his reaction there. The other day we were in the yard and some guys were delivering a load of wood. Jack was definitely startled by the sounds of the logs being thrown and landing. But we slowly moved closer and he simply stopped, sat and watched. The noise stopped bothering him and he didn't seem to have any reaction to the two men. I will test that when I get the opportunity.
At this point, Jack is probably not really ready for his forever home yet. I am hoping within the next few weeks I can say differently. The one thing I can say is that I do not believe a home with young children (younger than 8 or 9) is a good fit for him. He would enjoy a quiet home, that is for sure, and could get along well with either another male or female dog, or cats.
No comments:
Post a Comment