Thursday, May 17, 2012

My Two Weeks with Monroe - Part IV

After a long night filled with dread, regret and worry, I got ready for work the next day with a feeling of hopelessness hanging over me. What do we do now?

I opened the garage door and started to walk to my car. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something. It was a harness-less Monroe standing in the middle of my driveway watching the garage door open.

I couldn't believe my eyes! She came back!

Monroe's expression seemed to say, "Sorry I freaked yesterday."

I quickly came in the house, got a nice big breakfast ready for her and put it in her normal spot in the driveway. She ran over and gobbled it up. Granted, she kept a bit more distance from me now, but at least she was back. I would work on rebuilding her trust.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay long with Monroe because I had to go to work. I told her that I would be home the same time as usual and I drove off. She stayed in my driveway after I left. I felt horrible leaving her there, but the sense of relief that I had that she was willing to give me a second change was exhilarating. But, how on earth were we going to capture her now without her harness?

That evening we devised a new plan. We decided that we were going to lure her into our backyard. In the confines of our backyard, we would have a bit of an advantage because she would only be able to run so far. She wouldn't be able to disappear into woods.

While we had a solid plan, we agreed we would not rush things this time. We would do things at Monroe's pace.

So for the next few nights, we laid a line of food bowls leading from our driveway to our backyard. The bowls closer to the backyard had the best food in them. Each night, Monroe made her way to our yard, clearing out the food bowls and gaining more and more confidence in her new surroundings. Eventually, we put a bowl in the yard. It took her a while, but she finally went in and ate from that bowl.

The pugs and Monroe had their evening play time as well and we made sure that we ended each night by walking the pugs into the backyard. Monroe always followed, but she never came far enough in the yard. After about three nights of this routine we were started to make progress. The food was helpful, but the pugs were even more helpful. Monroe was super dog friendly and seemed to be becoming one of the pug gang. It also didn't hurt that I believe she is some sort of herding dog because she liked to keep the pugs in a group. She would never let one of them stray away from the group. This was extremely helpful because Monroe seemed to like corralling them into the backyard.

Finally last friday, after eating in our backyard and playing with the pugs in our driveway Monroe herded the pugs into the backyard. I positioned myself by the gate and she walked into the yard after the pugs furthered than she ever had. I closed the gate. Monroe spun around to see what the noise was. I was expecting her to freak once she realized the gate was closed. She didn't. She went around smelling the yard. The pugs were pooped and not really interested in playing so she just hung out with them. She was relatively calm. I immediately called our dog sitter and let her know that we had Monroe in the yard. She was on her way and would help us get a leash on Monroe and would take her to her house that night.

After about a half hour of letting Monroe get used to the yard, we began our attempt to leash her up. We walked her into a corner in the yard and she just laid down. She submitted. We slipped the collar over her head. For the first time in two weeks we got to pet the dog that had consumed every moment we weren't at work. She wasn't afraid anymore.