Daisy: Day 4

Day 4 was a turning point for Daisy. There were successes… and there were some challenges, too. I’ll start with the successes.

Daisy has found her voice. She whines when she wants a drink and she has to potty. She gets a drink first, then she heads for the door. Once outside, she is cued to “go potty”, and she does. She is also eating very well, now; putting her on a feed schedule, along with changing her food, has made all the difference.

The bedtime ritual I started on Daisy’s first night is going well. Up the ramp, get picked up and placed on the large kennel her crate sits on, open her crate door, remove her collar and then her harness. She goes in, she gets a quick little pet, she hears the cue “night night, Daisy”, the crate door is closed, and it’s lights out. No muss, no fuss.

Leash manners is slow going, but Daisy now looks to me for direction, and she seems to be starting to tune in to leash pressure. When she pulls, I stop moving and tell her “no” or “uh-uh”; then, I wait in silence while she figures out how to release that pressure. When she gets it, I reward her with a “yes” and go forward.

Challenges

Daisy remains on leash inside the house. She was introduced to the living room, where she discovered two dog beds, a toy box, and a whole lot of new scents… including Violet. She did show a very brief interest in one of the toys, but then she caught wind of Violet, who was hiding under the loveseat, silently watching. I allowed Daisy near the loveseat for a sniff, while listening for Violet to set her threshold. The moment I heard Violet’s soft warning growl, I calmly brought Daisy back to me to give Violet some space. Daisy, however, took Violet’s warning as a call to rumble, and she and Violet became very vocal with each other. Daisy was immediately removed from the living room and taken back to the office to settle down.

Bedtime became chaotic about 10 minutes after I was in bed. Violet came up on the bed looking for snuggles, and Daisy started barking up a storm, scaring Violet and sending her racing out of the bedroom. Daisy continued barking, growling, and pawing at her crate door demanding to be released, until I finally gave her hard eye contact and calmly but very firmly told her “that’s enough”. The hard eye contact from me got the point across, and she settled.

Creating a positive relationship between Daisy and Violet is challenging. However, it does tend to take a few weeks for Yorkies and cats to learn how to be with each other safely and calmly, so I’m not giving up. We’ll just have to go moment by moment, day by day, and hope for improvement. Overall, though, Daisy is doing better than she was when she arrived, and that’s what matters. She’s been through an awful lot over the past month; it’s to be expected that creating positive and lasting change in her is going to take time.