Harper: small, slight signs of progress

Harper is still a basket case and she will be a work in progress for a long time, maybe forever.  It's still too soon to say, but she has made some small steps in the right direction.

She has learned the routine movements expected of her and the other dogs - crate, outside, inside, upstairs, bedroom, etc.  She's trailing about 6' of a light, nylon rope and when I grab the rope she will generally get up and move in the intended direction.  Many times I get her to go where needed without even touching her rope.

Maya is her idol and she snuggles up to her whenever possible.  That works to my advantage because Maya is usually near me so Harper has to come near to me as well.  Just recently she came up to me when I was sitting at her desk and stood there like she was wanting petting.  I did so, of course, and when I stopped she nudged me to indicate that she wanted more.  

She sort of cowers in one corner of the bedroom at night, but last night when she got disturbed she ran over to my side of the bed and laid on Vince's bed next to me.  She even moved herself half off the bed onto the floor to get closer to me.  

Make no mistake, she is still skittish and freaky as hell, but she has shown some signs of progress.  On Sunday I decided it was time for her first walk.  I got the harness back on her, put a leash on that and another on her collar.  Then I put a slip lead around her neck as well so we started off with three leashes but after a while went down to two.  I had to pretty much drag for the first hundred yards, but after that she began to walk.  Mostly she was behind me and she often moved out to the side as far as the leashes would allow like she wanted to be as far away from me as possible.  A couple of times she moved up front next to Maya.  We ended up completing two miles, however, which was much more than I anticipated starting out.  

It was near the end of the walk when I finally got a picture of her with both ears up.