4 degrees

We are still making progress every day. I had a nice chat with Sarah the trainer at the shelter where we got Jessie. She said because Jessie was kept in an outside pen for the first 2 years of her life, that is where she is most comfortable. She will probably come in on her own when she gets too cold.

Today I was going to try to leave her out there until she made that decision, but it was 4 degrees. She did come right up on the porch after only a few minutes, but still just sat there and came no closer even when I called her. She went back and forth a few times from the porch to playing outside until I finally caved and (pretty easily) caught her. Only 40 minutes! Yay!

Now we can get to work on some of her other issues. She has no fear of outside noises, but unexpected inside sounds make her hide and shake with fear. One safe place is under the computer desk in between the 2 speakers with a YouTube video of pouring rain to drown out the windows making cracking sounds in the wind. 

Right this minute she is upstairs by herself hiding from the wind. At least she is all warm and cozy on her little bed with the dryer running to cover any other sounds...

My difficult child

It has been exactly 2 months since we brought Jessie home. That should have been enough time for her to adjust to her new spoiled life, but no, she still needs some work.

Coming back into the house is her biggest problem. She has refused to come back in ever since that first cold rainy nasty night when I missed one of The Hub's gigs because the little wanderer was out there for 5 hours avoiding me.

There was a week or so where she would go into a smaller garden fence and wait to be captured, but then she changed her mind about making it so easy.

For a while I could let Cyrus out to play with her (previous post) and then he would "catch her".

She has been dragging a long leash since about the second week. I was able to grab the end of it, until we got snow. Now she is smart enough to know exactly how long the leash is, and exactly where it is behind her. 

I have tried offering food—tiny pieces of dog biscuits, kielbasa, cheese, chicken, or big plates of our dinner, her dinner... At least now she almost always comes running for it (progress!). She will come close enough to get the food, even take it from my hand, but then she charges off if I even look at her (middle pics).

We have colder weather on the way. I left her out there at 7:20 am this morning when it was about 44° and barely raining. Then it rained harder for about an hour. She did come up on the porch several times. She was 3 feet from the inside door, bits of kielbasa on the floor, but she would leave them and run off as soon as I opened the door. 

When I finally ignored her long enough to have breakfast, the sun had come out and she was back to sitting in one of her safe spots by the fence (top pic). It was almost 10 am when I finally gave up and went out with Cyrus to get her. 

Cyrus and I are both exhausted. We are definitely not used to this much early morning activity.