Dodger and me

I skipped the morning walk and put in a couple hours of work before 9:00 a.m. and then loaded up Dodger and headed over to Green Dogs. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) was coming there today to film a number of the dogs from that N.C. hoarding case that brought us Dodger. Green Dogs has taken in a lot of dogs from that seizure, probably more than any other single rescue and certainly more of the more problematic, difficult to adopt dogs. Many of them like Dodger were very shut down, shy, and fearful. They had all lived probably their entire lives in that hell hole with no contact with anyone that would qualify as a decent human being. They lived in a huge group, so they were all dog-friendly and well socialized with other dogs, but many of them like Dodger had no experience with people. Dodger has made progress here but he still has a long way to go. 

A number of fosters from that situation were coming there today. It was a reunion of sorts for them, I guess, but mostly I think HSUS wanted to document some of the progress that they had made since being transferred into rescue and in foster homes. Dodger is normally very quiet in the van when I'm driving him to the park for a walk with Bailey. But Bailey wasn't with us this morning and he knew something different was happening and he had a lot to say about it. Once we got there he was fine, but he didn't do much or interact with the other dogs. Basically he was me at any party, wishing he was somewhere else, and I felt bad for him.

After a while he did begin to move around, he sniffed a few other dogs, and he began to explore the large space we were in, peeing on whatever needed it (I don't do that at parties.) A couple of dogs joined him in the exploration and gradually his tail came up and he seemed pretty content. One or two dogs even tried to engage him in play and he reciprocated the gesture. 

I could only stay for about an hour because I needed to get back home and back to work, but it was a good experience for him, I think, to go without Bailey as his social security blanket. When I turned him loose in that (fenced) field, I wondered if I'd be able to get him back on a leash again, but he came back to me a couple of times and when it was time to go he allowed me to slip a leash over his head once again.