Happy New Year to me! Last night this beautiful what I believe to be Great Pyrenees/Golden girl found herself in a shelter and in need of rescue, she is heavily pregnant and completely terrified, half feral. Her owners died and she was left to fend for herself with another dog who is the father of the pups, (also a Great Pyrenees) for roughly 4 months time, got pregnant earlier this year, then finds herself there once again now. While terrified she is not mean, just tries to hide. Please say a prayer if you would that she waits a few days before having the babies so I have some time to bond with her, that is my biggest worry currently is how she will react when they come since she is so fearful. Name and more photos to come! I got her last evening quite unexpectedly, I left within minutes of learning about her because of the holiday we had to rush to get her before the shelter closed, she is close enough they were afraid she might have them alone in the shelter.
She ate and drank some overnight as I figured she would once everyone had gone to bed and it was completely quiet. She still refuses to lay on the dog bed, always over in the corner on the floor, but she will learn in time, after being on her own so long, I am sure laying on a bed is completely alien to her. Last night I left her be for the most part, just quietly sitting in there every few hours for 5-10mins. This morning I have been working on getting her used to me touching her, and after only a couple times of this, she allowed me to pet her head without trying to turn her back to me or flinching as she often does right now, and she also allowed me to get a collar on her, that's an amazing amount of progress for the first day! Since she will let me touch her I go in there for a few minutes and pet or brush her, always waiting until she relaxes as much as possible before leaving again, I want her to connect that feeling of relaxation with my presence. Though I am being careful to not push her too hard, I am pushing more than I would normally because there just isn't much time, she needs to get used to me touching her and being around her for when the pups come. Her expression and body language have softened as you can see from the photo and she is more alert now. She allowed me to pet her belly earlier and those babies are kicking up a storm in there, I think she is going to have a big litter.
She ate and drank some overnight as I figured she would once everyone had gone to bed and it was completely quiet. She still refuses to lay on the dog bed, always over in the corner on the floor, but she will learn in time, after being on her own so long, I am sure laying on a bed is completely alien to her. Last night I left her be for the most part, just quietly sitting in there every few hours for 5-10mins. This morning I have been working on getting her used to me touching her, and after only a couple times of this, she allowed me to pet her head without trying to turn her back to me or flinching as she often does right now, and she also allowed me to get a collar on her, that's an amazing amount of progress for the first day! Since she will let me touch her I go in there for a few minutes and pet or brush her, always waiting until she relaxes as much as possible before leaving again, I want her to connect that feeling of relaxation with my presence. Though I am being careful to not push her too hard, I am pushing more than I would normally because there just isn't much time, she needs to get used to me touching her and being around her for when the pups come. Her expression and body language have softened as you can see from the photo and she is more alert now. She allowed me to pet her belly earlier and those babies are kicking up a storm in there, I think she is going to have a big litter.