Lenny's Song

Lenny. I don't even know where to start. He is one scared little boy. I hate to even think about what must have happened in this young dog's short life to have made him so scared of anything on two legs.

He arrived on Saturday and actually fell into a pretty decent household routine. When he leaves his crate in my office he runs to the back door that opens to the AC yard. When he comes in he runs directly up to his crate. I hoped that by letting him go to place where he feels secure that he'd be able to observe the rest of the household routine and see that we weren't monsters fattening up all the dogs around here just to eat them. I kept a leash on him for the first few days so I could lead him without having to reach out and touch him. Still, he would piss all over the floor when I approached him, even to just open the door or let him out of the crate.

Yesterday I decided to try taking him hiking with Maya, hoping that a fun activity that involved me would get him to relax a bit and maybe begin to trust me. He's so scared that I knew I'd need to use two leashes. I put one on his collar, a nice secure martingale style collar, and I let him borrow Maya's harness for the second leash. He ran to a corner and cowered there while I got the harness on him, but he literally shit himself during the process because I had to actually touch him.

This picture just makes me want to cry.

I've had a few dogs like this and they've taught me patience, and Lenny is the benefactor of those lessons. It's hard to look at him sometimes, to see the look of fear, sheer terror, in his eyes. He looks at me a lot, no lack of eye contact, to see if I'm going to be the monster he's expecting. I'm the one trying to avoid eye contact with him now, I don't want him to feel intimidated because that always seems to lead to submissive urination. Instead, I'm trying to touch, or let him touch me.

When we are hiking he is sometimes out front with Maya, whom he loves, but sometimes he drops back and walks behind or beside me. During those times I reach down with my hand and try to occasionally make contact with his nose or his back, just a gentle touch, and sometimes he does the same to me.

Compare tail positions here. Maya is
a confident one out on the trails, I am
hoping that will rub off on him.

As scared as he is, I do think he enjoys the outings. His tail isn't up, but at least it's not tucked completely under his body. I've even seen a little wag.

It's easy to shed some tears for the sadness that is Lenny, but that's not going to help him. If there's one thing that gives me hope for this guy, it's the way he is with other dogs. He's less than year old, still a puppy, and he really wants to play. He's submissive to the older dogs, but appropriately so, not the way he is with people. He tries his best to get Maya, TJ, or Jackie to play with him. All the dogs know that he's a scared little pup and they are being very tolerant of him.

When we were finishing today's walk we passed by the dog park. Several dogs ran over to the fence to greet him and he was very interested in them and not at all fearful. Maya raised her hackles and growled at the other dogs though, so we kept moving.

After today's hike I put Maya in the AC yard with him for a while and I heard them tearing around out there playing together. They stopped when they saw me looking out the window, of course, but it was good to see and hear. TJ has played with him too.

I've got to hope, I've got to believe that the power of the pack can save this guy, help him get over his past, learn to trust, to play, to be a dog.

A few years ago, Maya was as scared as Lenny is now.