This is a tough post to write.
It's 11:30 p.m. and Mojo's outside and won't come in. He's been out for a couple of hours now, and he just won't come in.
We've tried everything in our play book, but nothing has worked tonight. For a while, when he first went off-leash in the back yard, he would be reluctant to come in and trot off in the other direction. But you could cut him off at the pass, point to the ground and say "down", and he would lie down to be leashed for the walk in. Lately, he has stopped doing that, but up until this evening, we could ultimately get him to come in. Most of the time, he will just come in when we say it's time. A little slowly, but still he'd come.
For what ever reason, with what ever is going on in his mind, he just wants to be outside. He is wandering around, sniffing, pacing, walking the perimeter, occasionally passing by the back door, but any attempts to go toward him sends him running off in the other direction.
He doesn't seem to be scared, we know he hasn't been spooked, and he knows he's welcome to come in (we even propped the door open and given him space to come in a couple times -- this has worked in the past), but he's having none of it.
Without question, this is the most difficult time we've had with him since he got here. I'm up writing this because it's hard to sleep with him out there. I rather doubt that Jay will get much sleep either ... and I know this is really really bothering Jay. He has always been able to get Mojo to come in for him.
Mojo's safe -- the yard is securely fenced and we've left the porch light on for him -- but it's unsettling and frankly, it hurts.
We totally understand that he has a lot of bad past experiences that need to be undone. I know that it will take a lot of time and repitition to literally alter his brain chemistry to forget the old and be repatterned with the new.
But what to make of this?
Going forward, it would seem he can't be off-leash in the yard, particularly at night. At least for now. We don't want him out there. We want him inside, even on the bed with us while we settle in for the night.
Apparently this won't be a restful night here for anybody.
