As many of you know, I began fostering Sid last fall for La Plata County Humane Society (LPCHS). He had originally been transferred into the shelter from a local organization and adopted quickly. But after a month, the couple didn’t see any changes in his shut-down behavior and returned him. At that time, I took him home to evaluate his quality of life. After two weeks of living with me he jumped through the cat window and began doing things ‘on his own.’

I reported back to the shelter that I didn’t believe he was an adoption candidate. His severely shut-down behavior and complete fear around humans made people pity him, but in no way want to take him on. Once he jumped out the window, I told the shelter that he could stay living with me in a long-term foster situation as long as they were okay that I was going to treat him more like a feral or barn cat than a dog. He was much more comfortable just being with my dogs and near the house than with any attention on him at all.

Now, here we are six months later. Sid has made many positive changes. He now actively looks for me and hangs with me on walks, comes to me when he gets hurt and doesn’t hide his happiness anymore when I talk to him. He often lays with me in the evenings and he’s taken over one of the dogs chairs in the bedroom – rather than always being in his crate. He’s bonded tightly to my girl Asha (not sure she’s very happy about that) and follows her everywhere she goes.

But here’s where we aren’t…..

• I can’t ask Sid for any behaviors; if I held a treat and asked for anything he’d just walk away. I still actively make him come to me for treats (at least a foot or two) rather than me delivering them -mostly because I want him to actively reach toward people, but food is second to security for him.
• Although he’ll walk with me and people who have nice dogs, he won’t come in the house if there is anyone around. It’s one of my biggest worries about going out of town (!). If people come over who have pushy dogs he’ll stay clear until well after they leave.
• Although we have the tentative structure of trust forming between the two of us, we still have a long way to go. Every little sound from a crackle in the fireplace to the fridge turning on still makes him jump.

It’s really difficult to judge the severity of a dogs trauma/stress, let alone how they’re going to come away from it. Recently we’ve had a number of dogs enter the humane society who have been terrified. The dogs won’t let anyone near them, some were caught in traps, none could be walked, but three of those terrified dogs turned quickly, a couple within 48 hours of getting them outside. These dogs have returned to such a balanced state that no one would guess how bad they were initially. While others struggle for their entire time (and even after being adopted, like Sid).

If Sid ends up staying with me (and of course how can he not – although I’m not willing to have that conversation with my kiddos yet), I’d like to think that our relationship gets stronger and stronger – but I don’t have high hopes that he’ll ever be a calm, confident well-adjusted dog. Like so many really blue dogs or dogs who are severely traumatized or shut down, we need to be happy with baby steps and manage their environment to ensure it’s as good as possible for them.