Chester's fourth morning in his permanent home. Yesterday was a nice day but fraught with ups and downs as they will be for a long while.
Chester sleeps more soundly and peacefully each night. He seems to love his (always open) kennel with the soft bed & toys. He knows I'm only a few feet away and acknowledges me several times before he falls asleep.
He continues to eat and potty just fine. That's amazing because there was a doggy door at his foster home and we don't have one. He was in foster for 6 months, so there's a lot of new routines to learn. His foster home had 4 other dogs and a Mom who was gone during the day. Glenn and I are retired and lead a fairly quiet life, we're always doing "something" but mostly at home. I have Chester on a pretty good schedule so he knows to expect the food and potty breaks.
He "parks" himself in one of several corners in the house wherever I am and doesn't leave unless I hook up his leash to the halter and prod him up, then he walks to the next location with me. We don't shift around too much ... sleeping in my room in his open kennel with his comfy bed & toys ... my office and his corner (and background iPod music) ... on the leather sofa in the kitchen (to watch me make dinner and do dishes) and in the basement family room under a small table by my chair. We eat lunch and dinner in the family room and that's where the sliding door is to the fenced back yard so we spend a lot of time there. Only twice since he came here (Saturday) has he left his corner to find me elsewhere in the house.
Yesterday he took a short morning walk (tandem) with his new big sister Casey and an afternoon walk alongside Casey but not using the connector lead. My husband, Glenn, and Casey walk a lot but Chester isn't comfortable walking unless he has a Golden buddy alongside or close. In foster care Chester had a 10-yr-old Golden to walk with, so that's his comfort zone for now.
While we were on the afternoon walk, Chester was striding along so gracefully like he does and we got too far ahead of the slowpokes (Glenn & Casey). We turned a corner and got to the top of a hill when Chester realized he couldn't see Casey. He stopped walking and started spinning in tight circles, looking all over for her in a panic. When they caught up to us, Chester was fine and continued his walk.
Note: Glenn had stopped to tell some little girls that they couldn't go pet Chester like they do with Casey. Casey is a magnet for all the little girls in the neighborhood. When she sees kids, she sits immediately because she knows we won't let them pet her unless she's sitting. She loves it and they think she's so nice, they stop by when they see her in the front yard with Glenn. "Can we pet Casey?" is heard multiple times a day around here. We did let 3 of the kids come back to the house later and explained about Chester. We let them, one at a time, come in the house. They sat on the floor next to him in his corner and they petted him and spoke to him softly. He was fine with that and they learned that our 2 dogs are very different.
Last night (first time since coming here) Chester picked up one of his soft toys in his mouth and looked at me (like he realized it was okay and it was his). He hasn't played with any of the toys but he snuggles his soft Clifford toy at night, uses it like a pillow sometimes.
This morning I took Chester out the front door to go to the back yard for potty (Glenn and Casey were still asleep in the basement so we didn't want to disturb them by using the stairs), and a neighbor was walking his small dog across the street ... the dog yapped and Chester ran under our front porch park-type bench. It's going to be a long process, thankfully we have lots of time and nothing more worthwhile to do than to rehab this sweet and lovely dog.
Today Chester and I will take a car ride (one of his favorite things), to a store that's about 15 miles away so he can get some real riding time looking out the windows. Car sounds don't seem to bother him. Even train whistles (we hear them a lot at home) aren't triggers for fear. Am sure being in the car is like being in a corner ... you are in a somewhat confined, protected space, but you can see what's going on around you.
We'll walk while the kids are in school today.
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