Project Maya

This was the first picture I received of Maya.  I thought: "she's clearly a mix, of what I don't know, and I can't tell anything about her age."  She was an owner surrender, was terrified, and "not doing well" at the shelter.  One of our volunteers went to meet her on Saturday and called me from the shelter to say that she wasn't sure about this dog; she wasn't comfortable going into her run even to leash her, much less conduct any sort of temperament test.


It was clear that we weren't going to know anything about the dog's true nature until we got her out of the shelter.  She wouldn't get adopted from the shelter and would certainly have been euthanized, so we had nothing to lose.  I told her to bring me the dog and she did, along with vet records and history from the prior owner.
 


This is Maya when she first arrived at my place.
She looks like a skinny, scared little fawn.

Maya is less than two years old and was vaccinated but not spayed.  The prior owners had a new baby and had Maya living in a backyard kennel from which she had escaped.  She was actually better than I expected when she arrived here.  She was scared, certainly, but would allow me to touch her.  I put her in the large, center section of the tri-kennel along with a bowl of dry dog food, canned food, and Panacure.  She was too scared to eat immediately so I just left her alone until night.



This shot shows Maya in her new digs.  That A-frame is
about 8' long, closed end tunnel, filled full of straw and
covered with a rug.  Look at Riley, peering at her from
over the dog yard fence on the right.

I didn't want to leave her in the kennel by herself overnight but also didn't want to introduce her to Hercules, Riley, Barack and the boxers right away.  I brought the boxers into the house for the night again, they like that.  Maya was running from me when I tried to approach her in the kennel.  I took Hercules into the kennel with Maya knowing that he would ignore her because he's only interested in his ball, but she could see me with Herc and know I wasn't a monster.  I still needed someone who could and would approach Maya so I brought in Riley.  She was ok with Riley and Riley could tell she was scared and didn't push her too hard.  I was finally able to drop a slip collar over Maya's head and got her into the cozy shed with Herc, Riley, and Barack for the night.


Everyone was alive and well when I brought them out this morning, but Maya was still scared of me.  I got Clay to help me add some fencing to the end of the canopy kennel so she can't escape by climbing to the top of the a-frames and jumping over.  With that added security, that kennel is a good spot for her.  She can observe everything that goes on from a place where she can feel secure.  She's got good shelter from the elements there so I can leave her in there if necessary.

Perched atop the A-frame, you can see she has the
potential to be a good looking dog.

We will take it slow, but at least I know now that she's ok with other dogs.  She wants human contact but she's scared of it too.  She's more shepherd looking than I thought from the first picture I saw.  She's actually got a very pretty shepherd head and face.  Maya is small and very thin at 44 lbs., but not as small as some of the little pocket shepherds we've had.  She will be a project to see if she comes around and at this point I wouldn't care to predict the outcome, but at least now she's got a chance.

She has an intelligent look about her and
I suspect that she is quite smart.

Other plans for the day have changed.  Barack's prospect isn't coming to meet him today due to the weather.   I had a phone call about a rottie I had agreed to take a couple weeks ago.  The owner changed his mind, but now that the dog is sick again he's changed his mind again.  The dog is due to arrive late this afternoon and I've asked for a signed owner surrender statement so the asshole can't change his mind again.