Drake

After nearly two years of volunteering, I have to admit to a bit of complacency.  All of it went out the window today!  The shelter was down to just a few dogs and Drake, a beautiful young boxer/lab mix was the only one requiring an experienced volunteer;  my choice was easy. He met me at the back of his kennel up on his hind legs; I did what I usually do, calmly told him to "back" then waited for him to quiet and back up.  I do not use the word down, since when I say that, I expect the dog to lay down. After several minutes, I realized that Drake was NOT going to get down off his hind legs.  Plan B:  I slowly began to push the door open, saying "back" all the while, unfortunately being somewhat hampered by a full water bucket placed at the door opening, I had to wonder when the the bucket was going to tip over.   My objective of getting in his kennel quickly was not going well. Drake was excitedly bouncing everywhere intent on getting out his door.  In an instant he got past me into the inner kennel area and was dashing around; there I stood, harness in hand.  I called him and fortunately he soon got close enough for me to get him harnessed.  As I was about to attach his leash another volunteer came in and lent a hand.  Drake and I finally made it outside and thankfully the exercise yard was vacant; I felt that he really needed some energy burn off.

Drake was very nervous, unable to focus on basic commands  too stressed even for treats.  I let him sniff around the exercise yard  and tried some ball throwing but, though he exhibited the chase response, the retrieve  part was more than shaky.  I went to one end of the yard and called him but his attention span just was not there.   I thought a short walk with some quiet sniffing would be a good next step.  Drake did seem a bit more relaxed on the walk.  He was still weaving (moving right and left) for about the first ten minutes but, except for the frequent whining, seemed fairly normal during the walk.

On our return the other exercise yard was vacant, I really felt that he was not yet ready to go back to his kennel.  I was happy to see that in just a short time he had made progress.  He not only chased the ball but he brought it back (video, weird stuff at the end, eventually I'll figure this out!) ).  As I walked around the yard he followed me.  All of the whining had stopped.  Drake still needs to improve, but I know he will progress rapidly as  volunteers work with him.

On our return the Volunteer Coordinator had some excellent suggestions on dealing with a super stressed dog that I will remember and pass along:  Deal with the stress before dealing with anything else.  I should have started our session in a quiet room with just Drake and I. Along with possibly calming him, it could have enabled me to read him a little better and sooner.  I'm afraid I have to give myself a grade D with Drake; hopefully I'll do better the next time I have a challenging dog.  Today was a good wake-up call for me.