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Last Wednesday, I picked up Amber. for those of you who followed the progress of kelso, or even my Taff half ear, Amber is another dog rescued from the same Jefferson puppy mill with the help of the Border Collie rescue of Texas (Amber is Tx#19 on that list, Kelso was Tx#22 and Taff half ear was Tx#4. Amber had been adopted, but was not doing well with her pack mates so has come back into rescue. Sadly, it appears that the family who adopted her did nothing to help her fear of strangers, so she was extremely scared and stressed when I took her. She has begun to settle in but is still very skittish. She loves to go for walks, but will hunker down and refuse to budge if a stranger comes close.

 

post-7882-0-66690300-1423406944_thumb.jpg

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Thank you for taking her back in.

 

As you know, many of the puppy mill dogs require a special foster/adoptive home. (I fostered one of the Sprakers, NY dogs.) I am sorry to hear that her adoptive family was not the correct fit, but I am sure you will help her along.

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Our adoption coordinator (and founder) wrote this to me;

I feel so very bad for this little dog. She has been failed over and over and over.

I don't know too much about her earlier foster history. My frail and fallible memory is trying to tell me that she bounced between foster homes -- I may be totally wrong there. Right now she is a Project dog. I will work with her until I feel she is ready to be adopted -- however long that may take.

 

She is a strange little thing. Sometimes she runs away when I approach her; If it's time for an outing, she sits readily for me to clip on her leash. When we came back from a quick shopping trip this morning, she not only came up to me and let me pet her, but when I stopped to give Senneca some love, she immediately nuzzled me to say "don't stop". She appears to be torn between a desire for contact and fear.

 

She loves food(!), outings of all sorts, and the doughnut bed she was occupying in the photo above. Toys, balls and the like? No interest so far. I'll try a tug toy and see if that gets her going.

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I was || close this past Dec of taking in a dog who was surrendered back to breeder after 11mo of life. Much of these symptoms were present, albeit not as pronounced as you're describing.

 

I was fearful he had been manhandled (literally) (during the process of rehabilitating him (and him stealing my heart), others echoed the same fear). The first few times I'd go to leash him up, he growled and ran to hide in the house. Eventually, the desire to explore outside won out over his hesitation to trust me. When he would come over, and receive petting, he would insist on it never stopping. Over time, he became more comfortable and would trot over to get leashed up, and if I stopped petting him he was ok with that.

 

Helped having another dog in the house. She was a sweetheart with him, and they would bond. Her setting the example I believe egged him to trust me more openly. These dogs.. they know things we don't, and are capable of communication between themselves..

 

Eventually the dog in him returned, and it was worth it. It always is.

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Oh, poor little Amber. I feel bad for her for the way her life has gone up to now. The rescue founder is right - human beings have failed this dog.

But .............knowing that she is with you, JohnLloydJones, I know that she is in the very best of hands now.

From now on, her life will be ever so much better, and she will learn to trust, and will eventually get a truly good home where she will be appreciated.

Keep us posted about her progress, will you?

I will be sending her and you good energy. :-)

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Keep us posted about her progress, will you?

I will be sending her and you good energy. :-)

Amber is doing good. She has settled in nicely and is much less skittish than before. She still has a fear of strange people and we are working on that by taking her a teeny bit outside her comfort zone each day. It's baby steps, but already we have made some progress.

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Amber says "these are my favourite things"

post-7882-0-30227900-1424021478_thumb.jpg

She loves her doughnut bed and has chosen that green ball as her favourite toy.

 

Bit by bit, she is getting less skittish in the house, but there are still times when she will back away from me. She will also startle at the slightest strange noise; on our morning walk, I brushed against a plant and the sound made her jump and panic. She is also still very wary of strangers, but is able to accept my greeting people as long as they don't come too close.

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Sounds as though she is coming along, John. :-)

I think the startle reflex sometimes takes the longest to dissolve. In people with PTSD it often is the symptom that lasts the longest. Dogs get PTSD, too. My little terrier, who did not have a great life before he came to me, would startle hard and flinch every time I touched him for the first year that he was with me. It took a lot of work but he's pretty relaxed now. :-)

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Sounds as though she is coming along, John. :-)

This weekend saw an almost magical change; she is beginning to trust me and her skittishness is dissolving away. At the park today, a black lab came right up to us and sniffed Senneca. Amber went into alert posture and growled a little, but didn't panic or attempt to run away. She also let a young man offer the back of his hand for her to sniff and tolerated walking along with him and -- presumably -- his parents who had an aussie. All of this may seem trivial, but they are huge steps for little Amber. It's going to be a long journey, but we have already made the first steps in the right direction.

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My little Amber is fully settled in and has decided that her mission in life is to be a professional paper shredder:

 

post-7882-0-76600600-1424542449_thumb.jpg

 

We are making slow, but steady progress at socialization. She has got used to the routine of going to the park each day and is a tiny bit more comfortable with seeing strangers, but still only f they don't come too close.

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JLJ, your post from 2/18 reminds me of an incident with Shoshone. I took all 3 beasts to a local dog park every day. A nice little community grew up - sane and responsible humans and lovely dogs.

 

Everybody knew Shoshone and her history. They all went out of their way to speak softly to her, offer a treat or a hand to sniff. It was very sweet.

 

One afternoon, I felt this breeze on the back of my legs. Just as I looked to see what was happening, somebody said, "Hey! Shoshone's wagging her tail!" She was. Everybody in the park congratulated me and each other.

 

Glad to hear of Amber's wonderful progress, and thanks for prompting a lovely memory.

 

Ruth and SuperGibbs

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Urge to Herd I remember that story...you told it to me when I had Kelso, and he came up behind me for the first time and nudged the back of my bare leg with his nose. Those triumphs seem small, but they are really not. I remember that I felt like throwing a champagne party every time Kelso made one more step toward coming out of his shell.

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Just an update on my little project dog, Amber. At home, she is gradually becoming confident. She will lie at my feet and if I get up for something, she doesn't automatically jump up, but simply looks to see what I'm up to. Even more positive is that she has started to play with Senneca. Yesterday evening the two were so excited when I came home that the spontaneously started to tease each other and play a round of "catch me if you can" with power slides on the tile floor. Fun to watch.

 

Outside in the big scary world, Amber is still very cautious of new things and new people. They're OK at a distance, but not when they get too close.

post-7882-0-04494600-1425131509_thumb.jpg

 

So it was a major milestone yesterday when we were in an otherwise empty enclosure and a guy and his 4 month old puppy came in. [off topic, but he was given the puppy by a farmer as a nice gesture after losing (possibly stolen) his Brittany.] They approached -- puppy on leash -- and he started talking to me. I told him that Amber was very scared and he came towards us very slowly and carefully, talking to Amber. In a few minutes he had her drinking water out of his cupped hand. With the sun right behind and the worst possible angle, this is the best I could get of the moment -- when I tried to move to get a better angle I disturbed the whole thing, unfortunately.

post-7882-0-93784200-1425131637_thumb.jpg

 

Still, the fact that Amber allowed him and his puppy right up close is huge. I hope that we can build up Amber's confidence even more in the coming weeks.

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D'Elle, thanks for the reminder of your Kelso and the wonderful/difficult journey you helped him through. Made me tear up a bit.

 

JLJ, Amber's progress report mad me tear up more! What a nice guy, to approach her so gently. And what wonderful, amazing results from your work with her.

 

Gotta go get a tissue.

 

Ruth and SuperGibbs

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What a nice guy, to approach her so gently.

Yes, I am normally very wary of strangers now I have Amber, but this fellow (he told me his name and I forgot it immediately -- puppy's name was Stella, though) just seemed to be right. I hope we meet him often; he is a first time border collie owner, so he wanted to come an greet us. That may be a gift, because he can share a little experience from me and I can use him to help build Amber's confidence and trust.

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What a great moment for Amber (drinking from a stranger's hand). You must have had a big smile on your face.

 

I remember several different moments like that when I was fostering Gael, one of the Sprakers, NY dogs rescued from -20 degree temps in Jan, 2014. Once I volunteered to foster one of the Spraker's dogs, I immediately questioned my sanity. But I have to say that she was the most rewarding dog I have ever fostered, even though I thought she was unadoptable the first few weeks I had her. When you have a 'big step forward' like Amber had, I felt like dancing around, but know that if I did that it would just scare Gael.

 

Go, Amber, Go.

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Amber reports:

 

It was perfect weather yesterday -- you know, cold and rainy -- so no one was at the park except us. We went into the lake side where I've never been before, because it is always full of scary people. There was a lot to explore -- a whole new area I just had to sniff and investigate. Senneca found this funny thing:

post-7882-0-50746500-1425410893_thumb.jpg

It didn't smell so good, so we left it alone. I think it must have come out of the lake.

 

I hope we get more of such nice weather, so we can visit the lake more often.

post-7882-0-13186700-1425410876_thumb.jpg

 

[Maybe if Amber gets to visit the lake area often enough, she can be coaxed in, even if there are other people there? ]

 

 

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I've been following this thread and I keep thinking how Amber looks like the dog I wanted to adopt: post-16997-0-43623300-1425417936_thumb.jpg

 

mixed with the dog I actually adopted, even down to the tongue sticking out: post-16997-0-10405900-1425417953_thumb.jpg

 

She looks like such a sweet dog; I'm so glad she's coming out of her shell and learning that the world can be a good place--all thanks to you!

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