It looked like a pretty serious conversation. "Look," says Chance. "You think way too much of these two. They're nothing special. The rest of those bipeds out there? They're OK. Do something cute or look at them all wide-eyed, and a lot of them will even give you the good treats that these freaks never let us have at home. I mean, come on--carrots? They think carrots are treats? You've gotta learn to suck up to the other humans, Mabes. Seriously, butt on ground, bark held back, treats in mouth. Learn to work the system. " Update, 7/4/08: We did the same thing again last night, and despite encountering several people in close proximity, she didn't bark at anyone. Not once! She was still nervous, but she didn't even start to bark at anyone. We were so proud. :) She did really well again this morning when we took her out among people, but she did have one scared barking incident, when two men suddenly came out a storefront entrance, on Mabel's left, just as we were passing it; they were much closer than others have been so far, they came out on her blind side, and they paid attention to her, leaning toward her a bit and talking to her and us--all things for which she wasn't ready and which terrified her (she tried to run into the street to get away from them). We're not walking tonight because of all the 4th of July noise (which also scares Mabel), but tomorrow, we have a date with a bustling park.
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Tonight we began doing what we should have started doing weeks ago. *sigh* We've been too overwhelmed to think. Too much has been happening with both the humans and the canines and felines in this house for me to keep my head on straight.
Here's the thing: Mabel is scared of almost all people. Really scared. As in "I don't care if you look like Stephanie's gentle G-rated grandma and lie prostrate on the ground and hold out the the world's biggest, best, smelliest treat and sing lullabies; I'm going to bark at you nonstop and hide behind my foster mom's legs until you back the hell away" scared.
Yeah. It's a problem.
She was terrified of us at first too, but she was sick and in desperate need, so she was kind of forced to trust us relatively quickly. But note that I say "relatively quickly," not "immediately." You may recall that actually getting a hold of her and getting her into our yard and then, dear god, getting her across the yard, down the basement steps, and into the house was an absolute horror. It involved half an hour or more of lying down in the dirty alley with treats and food while Mabel repeatedly got within a couple feet of us and then scurried away, then another ten minutes of literally half-dragging, half-carrying her back to the yard, and finally another long process of coaxing her across the yard and into the house--getting her down the steps and in the door involved her running back up the steps a dozen times before we actually got her in and got the door closed behind her. But then, miraculously, after just a minute or two inside, she loved us. She didn't bark a single time that night, but I think that's because at that time, she was just so weak and sick that she didn't have it in her, and she probably was just beyond terrified and knew on some level that she needed help.
But look at us now! Like I said, once she was inside, everything changed, and since that first moment when she started licking our hands and faces 6 1/2 weeks ago, she hasn't shown an ounce of fear toward us again, not even once, and there's never been any aggression. But the only other human with whom she's had repeated, close contact is her often-mentioned beloved vet, who is wonderful with Mabel beyond belief and who too earned her trust quickly. Most other humans still get the bark-and-hide treatment when they try to get--or just happen to end up--close to Mabel. And though we fully, absolutely trust her to warm up to other people with time and patience, and though she has no interest in hurting anyone and just wants to run away from people, it's still hard to expect or ask other people--those who don't know her or trust her yet and who just hear that awful bark--to trust us and just sit there for half an hour and let her bark at them until she decides they're OK.
We've started realizing, though, in the last week that one of the reasons Mabel hasn't made much progress with other humans is that she just hasn't been around them. She's seen other humans at the two training class she's attended so far, but (1) they've kept their distance, and (2) they've been attached to dogs for the most part, and I've really started to believe that she's inherently less frightened of humans who are attached to dogs than humans on their own--as if the presence of those dogs and the humans' kindness toward those dogs provide proof to her that the humans aren't going to come over and hurt her. And as noted, she does pretty well at the vet's office. But otherwise, she's had only infrequent exposure to other people. Beyond these relatively few instances over the last 6 1/2 weeks, Mabel's only daily close exposure to non-us humans has been via the people who walk down the sidewalk past our yard. And that's an entirely different matter--that's a case of people walking in Mabel's territory, so she just barks and barks and barks at them while running along the fence.
We walk Mabel daily, but it didn't occur to us until just recently that we have not been walking her in the right places. We don't pass very many people on our walks. And this dog needs to get used to seeing people. Lots and lots of people. Close by. I mentioned this to Brandi last week--that we needed to start walking her in busier areas--but life continued to be chaotic, and we quickly forgot this plan and continued walking our usual, quiet, automatic routes. Then a friend whose advice I sought regarding how to help Mabel get used to humans and become trusting of them reminded me of the obvious again today: "I would suggest taking her to public places as much as you can . . . Walks downtown . . . parks . . . busy, bustling places. She'll get more comfortable with it."
So that's our new priority. Tonight, we headed toward the Macklind Avenue Deli, where we knew there'd be a crowd of people sitting outside, drinking and eating. A block from home, Mabel barked at two strangers who were walking door-to-door selling security systems. A block from the deli, she noticed an older couple sitting on their front porch and barked at them (they were friendly and took it quite well). And then we approached the deli on the corner. So many people! She let out one quick bark right as we approached and was visibly freaked out by all the bodies and noise (her tail moved between her legs immediately), but she didn't stop and bark. She allowed me to keep leading her on, and as we rounded the corner, walking down the other side of the deli's patio, she tried to speed up and get away from the people as fast as she could, but she still let out only a little half-bark. It took her another block to feel safe again--her tail remained tucked, and she kept swinging her head back and forth, looking around frantically, as if to make sure no one was going to sneak up on her--but I still say she made progress even on this first attempt. She kept walking and didn't freeze, and she didn't bark nonstop when the people were so close. On the home stretch, when we saw a woman in her front yard, Mabel didn't even start to bark at her--she tried to speed up a little to get past her, but she didn't bark.
We'll be doing this every evening that we can now--walking by places with outdoor seating and frequenting busy parks--and I'm optimistic that this is going to help significantly and maybe even quickly. Every time we pass a group of people, and those people fail to hurt her or even notice her, a little bit more of her fear will slip away. And soon enough, she will realize that not all people are like the people who hurt her after all, and she'll be ready to give the species a second chance. And the rest of the humans will be so lucky then--not because she's any kind of danger to them now, while she's afraid of them, but because everyone who meets her will more quickly get to experience her loving affection once she knows it's safe to give it to them.
