Lyka goes hiking

I'm not sure where Lyka came from. I wasn't her original foster. I've had her for a while now and haven't had much luck finding her a home. If I believed in animal communicators, she's one that I'd take in for a session. Animal communicators are people who claim that they can communicate with animals, much like John Edward claims to communicate with the dead.

I would love it if it were true because I'd like to know what happened in Lyka's past and I'd like to be able to tell her, in a way that actually gets through to her, that she needs to change her behavior so she can find a home. Unfortunately, I think animal communication on this level is complete bullshit, a way to separate well-meaning but gullible people from their money.

Lyka is a nice girl. She's sweet, friendly. But she also seems to be rather deranged at times. Her excited utterance bark is one of the worst noises known to nature. When she's overstimulated, she just seems to go insane. It is very hard to describe. At adoption events she's pretty good for the first 60-90 minutes. After that she starts fighting the leash, jumping up and pawing at anything or at nothing, and even goes into the alligator death roll at the end of her leash. That in itself is not unusual, I've had dogs who have time limits at outings. My own time limit is only about two hours, less if I have to talk to a lot of stupid people. But Lyka has other problems as well. She goes frantic in a crate and will break out, although she's pretty much fine indoors without one. She chases cars on the road, running along inside the front fence in the pasture that fronts on the road. She doesn't seem to have learned much since she's been here. She still jumps on me incessantly. Her behavior with other dogs has gotten better, however. That is one thing that my fosters learn pretty quickly as a matter of necessity and survival.

She's obviously been hit in her past and when she becomes fearful she's extremely head shy as if every move is an attempt to strike her. She's a troubled girl. Consider also the facts that she's probably a mix breed; she's not terribly pretty; she's got manical eyes; she's too jumpy for kids; and she hates cats, and Lyka adds up to being a tough adoption prospect.

I've decided that I'll have her forever if I don't do some work on her. My foster numbers are somewhat down at the moment (10, including the ringworm dogs who will be going back soon), so this is the time to get to work on fixing Lyka and getting her adopted. It's also time I got my butt back on the walking trails, so Lyka and I are going to be hiking buddies. She's unfocused, terrible on a leash, erratic, but I'm hoping that the directed exercise and leash work will help. At least it will help me.