For Whom the Bella Tolls. It Tolls for He.

Well, nothing says the end of writer's block like a title rich in bad puns!

For those who have been so kind to follow Mojo's progress and ask how he has been doing during my absence, thank you for sticking with me and rooting for him in the meanwhile.

It wasn't as if things weren't happening, because they were ... but they were becoming more subtle.  They were things we were noticing in retrospect rather than at the moment. 

There have been a few "biggies" -- Mojo now officially loves riding in the car and sticks his head out the window when we go places, just like a dog!  He also has been known to go upside down on the bed in the middle of the night, that cute little belly getting some fresh air.  Just like a dog!

But there were other doggy things that still weren't surfacing:

We've never heard him bark.

He's never whined.

He doesn't wag his tail.

And boy, oh boy, this dog LOATHES the word "come".  You'd think we were calling him with one hand, while holding a meat cleaver in the other.  He sort of slinks toward us, looking behind his back occasionally as if someone back there would give him a reason to run the other direction. 

And, much to our chagrin, he has to stay on-leash outside in our wonderful back yard because he still won't stop running in circles, ignoring all attempts to have him come inside.

Which brings us to the other things we've never seen him do:  he has never once sat down or laid down outside. 

Well ... never until today!  

Because last evening, we added a new secret weapon to our arsenal.

We've added the Bella factor.

That's right, folks ... we have finally found Mojo's trainer.  She's a two-ish year old yellow lab-ish firecracker who has taken on the responsibility of teaching Mojo the Art of the Dog.  50 pounds of energy and she's bringing youth into Mojo's old soul.

If Mojo is a piano chord -- rich in notes, maybe a bit on the melancholy side ... Bella is that sound you get when you slam both hands on the keys with all your might. 

She has tumbling skills, tackling skills, nibbling skills, rolling skills, and she's not afraid to use them.  Last night, Mojo tolerated her but didn't respond to her in any way.  Not even to resist some of the poking and prodding. 

Today, however, he FINALLY let his hair down and gave back a lot of what she was giving.  It was a joy to watch. 

The result?  Well, take a look.  I do believe that's Mojo sitting.  And laying.  By us.  Without a leash.  Outside.

Oh.  And he comes in when Bella does.  If he starts to look like he's not going to, we send her out and she brings him right in.

Independence Day, indeed!

We're probably not completely out of the woods yet; I think there will be moments when he'll feel overwhelmed by her and retreat to one of his safe spots, but I would love to be wrong about that.  He may not want to miss a thing anymore.

Up All Night

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.

Leaps and Bounds

Well, I've been feeling neglectful of the blog, but when I walked into the bedroom to find that Mojo had gotten up on the bed by himself, I knew it was time to report in.

Every once in awhile, we've wanted Mojo to come up on the bed just to hang out with us and get some hands-on attention.  He seemed to like it once he got up there ... but getting him UP there was always interesting, because he wasn't buying in to the concept at all.

Jay can pick him up, I can't.  So for me to get him up on the bed took a 4-step approach:

1. Get under his armpits and lift up his front half while he manages to look utterly bored.
2. Scooch him over to the end of the bed while he cooperates not one whit.
3. Get his front legs onto the surface of the bed.
4. Get under his bottom and hope he'll put in a little effort at this point.

Once there, Mojo would be in hog heaven, and I use the word "hog" deliberately, because somehow, this 75-pound dog manages to consume an entire King bed.  No matter how many times he is swiveled to run north and south, within two stretches he's gone east and west and Jay and I are pretty much half on the bed and half out of covers.

Anyway, to have him so close, to watch him relax into us and even sleep so deeply that he would dream (and kick!) has been really nice.  We just wished he would initiate this kind of companionship himself.  We thought he didn't know how to get up on his own!

So imagine my surprise when I walked into the bedroom after work this afternoon to find His Highness curled up smack in the middle of the bed. 

It kind of makes us wonder ... what else does he know how to do that he's not telling us?!

In other news, we've found a toy that Mojo loves and now he engages in games of keep-away and tug-of-war with it.  I'd like to include fetch in that, but he's not bringing it back.  He'll go get it (most of the time), but forgets what he was supposed to do and wander off.  That's alright ... at least he's up for the game!

To Nap, Perchance to Dream ...

It's been a busy day around Casa Mojo:

Jay mowed the front 40 and the back 40 once it looked like the rain was going to hold off, and we're hosting our couple's Bible study tonight so there was some house cleaning to do, as well.  ("Clean" is a relative term here; when measured against many of the hoarder houses we work on in our business, it is clean.  Measured against any other standards, probably not so much.  The housekeeping gene my mom had clearly has skipped a generation.)

Anyway, moving the furniture around to add a few more seats in the living room put Mojo in a real tizzy.  He is a creature of habit, and builds them one very slow step at a time.  There is one place he lays down in the living room, and if that gets altered, he is perplexed and simply cannot decide what to do.  He kept coming out to look at the room, clearly willing it to be back the way it was.  Even though his spot is really not altered, the layout of the other furniture pieces is.  There has been a great deal of pacing on his part trying to work out his options.

As you can see, the option he has gone with is one Jay suggested: to hang out on the bed with him for a bit of a nap before company comes.

He won't jump up on the bed by himself (although after watching him jump into the van at obedience school, it would seem that logistically he could do it), but he will jump off.  And even when he is sleeping up on the bed, his breathing is very quick and and he doesn't go into a deep sleep.  I'm sitting at the edge of the bed typing this, and if I so much as move my foot on the floor, his eyes pop open.  It took about 10 pictures before I could catch him with his eyes closed (or close to it) because he was constantly checking to see what I was doing.

 I suspect this will change over time, once being-on-the-bed is a good habit instead of a New Thing.

But for now, he's getting in some extra bonding time, and counting the minutes until the living room furniture is put back WHERE IT BELONGS!

A Command Performance

Jay made an executive decision regarding obedience training, and it was a good one. 

The fact of the matter is, Mojo worships the very ground Jay walks on, and will do anything for him.  Well, anything that he is able to process at this point.

Me?  Not so much.  It's not that he doesn't like me (Mojo is unfailingly kind!), but I'm his second choice, certainly not the object of his affection.

And so, Jay thought it would be wise if I was the one who took Mojo through obedience training.  And we did some pretty good work together last night.

The goals were a reverse u-turn (or as we like to call it: "left"), and a sit and stay.  At first, "sit" was more of an awkward pose between sitting up and lying down, but as you can see in one picture, he kind of nailed it toward the end, even earning him/me two thumbs up from the trainer.  Compared to the chocolate lab who spent most of the evening upside down, or the terrier who preferred eating the training mats more than walking over them, I think we did quite well.  We even pulled off "stay" (most of the time).  "Stay" and "Pause" are kind of the same thing, don't you think?

Anyway, we made it through, although there was no denying that when class was over, he had real pep in his step as he bee-lined it back to Jay for the walk to the van.

But we did have an encouraging finale: when we got to the van, Jay said "go" and Mojo jumped up and in all by himself.  Up to this point, all entry into vehicles begins with a body plant to the ground and ends with Jay carrying him in.

Every day, another layer of mystery is peeling off of this wonderful dog.  We're just getting a kick out of being there when it happens!

Obedience School: He Aces the First Test!

So obedience school started on Wednesday. We're in a class for non-puppies who need to work on the basics, hence the name: "Basic Obedience".

In theory, we'll be learning how to sit, stay, come, and all those things.  But we have a bit of a hitch:  Mojo cannot be swayed by treats.  And positive reinforcement techniques are pretty much rooted in the concept that a dog you can bribe is a dog you can teach.

Hmmmmmm.

So, we either have to find a treat that Mojo finds utterly irresistible, or we may not accomplish a whole lot in class. 

On the plus side, the first session was dedicated to the art of leash walking, and Mojo was like the poster child for the technique.  There was serious envy in the room, on both ends of the leashes. 

We were also pleased to see that he wasn't fazed by the other dogs (and we have some very vocal pooches in the class), nor did he slink around.  He was fine. 

... we just have to figure out how to whet his appetite to learn all the other stuff he's supposed to learn!

Shop But Not Drop!

OK, this wasn't in the plans for today, but we went totally spontaneous on Mojo today and it had a really awesome outcome!

We went to the forest preserve and clocked another 2.4 miles, and this time he encountered people and several dogs and he handled it like a champ.  A stutter in his step, maybe, but he didn't cower, didn't shake ... he kept to heel and stayed tall.  Didn't even tuck his tail between his legs.

Then, on the way home, Jay mentioned the need to go get the proper leash for obedience class (we start Wednesday!), and we realized when we got to PetCo ("where the pets go") that Mojo could go in with us.  And we said: why not?

What a pleasant surprise!  He stuck very close to Jay, and if Jay stood still too long he had a tendency to go down on his belly, but we walked him all over that store and as you can see ... he looks about as bored with shopping as most guys I know.

One more notch on the old collar for Mr. Mojo.

Well Preserved

Things just continue to move toward "normal" here at Casa Mojo ... as you can tell, I haven't been updating on a daily basis.  The milestones are more like mile-pebbles at this point, and we're all for it.  To us, it means that Mojo's trust in us is deepening and that he is starting to relax.

We still see him retreat when he gets overwhelmed -- and we really can't tell what triggers that sometimes -- and he doesn't do a lot of things (yet) that our dogs have always done.  But he tests the waters to see if what we're suggesting is reasonable, and once he's content that no harm will come to him, he's willing to give it a chance.

But I'm reporting in today because the three of us went on an adventure, and while we didn't know what to expect, I personally had a hunch it was going be a good move, because the one kind of training Mojo has clearly had in his past life was leash training.  We have no idea why someone trained him to walk at heel so well when they mucked up every other part of their relationship with him, but he is excellent on a leash.  So, we decided it was time for a trip to the Forest Preserve. 

And, as luck would have it, we happen to live right across the road from a great one.

So, we combined two new experiences in one today:  car riding and public walking.  The car ride was the trickier of the two: he wouldn't get in the car on his own, but Jay rode in the back with him and he didn't shake or whine or anything.  He was willing to jump out on his own, and then we did almost 2 1/2 miles on the pathways.  He stayed at heel all the time, walked tall, and kept up with us the whole way.  Frankly, he had a blast and so did we. 

We didn't encounter any other animals, wild or otherwise, this time, but we plan to add walks to our regular routine and I think he's going to be a willing participant from here on out.  How much more fun a walk is when you have a dog with you who's good on a leash!

And Wednesday, we all start our 8-week obedience class ... so I imagine there will be many progress posts coming down the line once we get going with that. 

Living Large

I don't think there's any place else left in the house where Mojo won't go.

Including the bathroom, where he started drinking from the toilet (seriously:  where do dogs learn this????) so now I have a post-it note on the way out reminding me to keep the lid down.

But the most fun place to see him is in the living room. 

One spot and one spot only, but it's just great to have him in the living room with us when we're watching TV or reading or whatever.  It has always been kind of weird to have an "invisible" dog, even though we completely understand that Mojo has a lot to work out for himself.

There are still a few quirks -- what would this dog be without quirks? -- such as not laying in the living room unless one of us is either in the living room or kitchen, and not always coming in when we're in there.  Not sure how he weighs out when it's the right time or not, but we're just glad to see him!  One of us often will sit next to him on the floor, and he's completely fine with that. 

... and if we happen to be snacking on something, all the better: at times like that, Mojo's nose is much less shy than the rest of him!

On the Road to Normal

When Mojo first came to live with us, every day was a new adventure.  Every minute, actually. 

He was, as Churchill said, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. 

Now, we are just shy of the 6-week mark together, and while there is still a long way to go, I think we've hit the point of exhale:

He sleeps at the foot of the bed every night, and now he comes into the living room to hang out with us when we're there.  He won't always do that if we're elsewhere in the house (or when we're gone), but he has declared us presence-worthy.

When he's out in the yard, he spends most of that time off-leash.  We realize now that although he would pee and poo on leash, it was only because he really had to go ... now, he waits until he's off leash and immediately runs to "his" corner to take care of it all.  However -- I personally have a challenge that needs to be addressed: since he doesn't know any commands, he doesn't come when called and I can't get him into the house.  Jay can; he will lay down when Jay approaches with the leash in his hand.  Me?  He just laughs and runs the other way.  We'll begin interviewing obedience trainers next week!

Jay has been working with him to eat and drink when we're present.  Up to this point, he would only eat or drink from his bowls when we weren't around.  And he ate as if someone was going to take the bowls away from him at any second, filling his mouth with food and running back to his corner to chew it.  Now, Jay sometimes brings his food bowl to wherever he is and sits next to him while he eats, to help him understand that he doesn't have to rush and he doesn't have to be afraid that he'll lose his food.

He's started to become very interested in what we're eating, and has the potential to become a classic irresistable beggar, complete with big soulful eyes and just a hint of a wrinkled brow that will make it really hard for us to not accidently drop a little food under the table now and then.

We've found a kind of rawhide chew bone he likes, and he's showing interest in them as soon as they're presented rather than ignoring them until we're not in the room. 

In other words, Mojo's becoming a dog!   There is still fear, but it continues to abate in leaps and bounds.  He is exposed to a lot of loud noises outside with the traffic on the road, and it doesn't seem to phase him anymore.  He still drops down when he's unsure of something, but we see him standing tall much more than we see him go low.  He runs and leaps a little when he's in the yard, sometimes for no reason what so ever. 

So now, I think we start working on the things that we have chosen to overlook while he was coming into his own.   We need to start giving him rides in the car.  He needs to spend time with other dogs.  He needs to spend time with other people.  He needs to learn to sit, stay, lay down, and (most of all) come.

Every day is still a new adventure, but what a trip it is!

Blink and You'll Miss It

There are some things that we see Mojo do that could be a hint of the dog he's going to become.

Or, maybe better put:  the dog he was designed to be that has gotten buried under layers of fear, stress, and overall disappointment in the human race.

Anyway, the problem with these glimpses is that they're so fleeting I don't usually have a camera at the ready, but this wouldn't be much of a blog if I didn't at least mention a couple of things over the past couple of days that happened -- albeit briefly! -- that took us by surprise.

But first off, I need to mention that Mojo has relocated.  He now "lives" in the bedroom instead of the kitchen.  It's his new safe place, and he hasn't selected a corner.  He stays at the foot of the bed.  But, considering that I work out of the bedroom a lot, and (obviously) we're here all night, we're encouraged that he's chosen to be where we are.

The logistics of this are that he comes in from outside at the far east end of the house.  The bedroom is at the far west of the house.  So he does traverse the entire house to get to his new spot.  And it did take him several days to make the decision permanent, which is Mojo's typical timeline:  he tests the water for reallllllllllllllly long time before he's willing to jump in with all 4 feet.

What we're hoping is that he'll develop a love for the middle of the house and hang out with us when we're eating, reading, or watching TV in the great room. Maybe on a nice doggy bed.

Which brings me back to the fleeting glimpses of things to come. 

Take, for example, the super-deluxe-memory-foam doggie bed that we've been trying to persuade him to use from Day 1.  His foster parents mentioned that Mojo loved using dog beds when he lived with them, so I snagged him the best they had at PetCo the very day he came home.  I've slept on it.  Jay's slept on it.  Mojo ... has found it interesting that Jay and I have slept on it, but hasn't opted in.  We've put him on the bed (picture left), but when left to his own devices, he is always found as in picture right.  But now that he has laid on it, he's been sniffing around it a lot, so maybe he'll go for it eventually.

The other glimpse of the future that took us by complete surprise is that he actually stopped to pick up the tennis ball out in the yard during his off-leash laps.  It must have surprised him as much as it did us, because he dropped it a second later and hasn't touched it again.

But it hasn't been for a lack of trying on our part:  Jay and I have been tossing the ball in his direction just in case he gets the urge to play again.  But so far if there's any fetching going on, it's being done by the two of us!

Round and Round He Goes ...

So, Mojo is working through how to handle his freedom off the leash (in the fenced yard only, of course).  He's apparently burning off a couple years of pent up energy he couldn't express as a puppy or young dog, and I'd have to guess he has walked and/or trotted a few miles so far.

He's chosen the south and east fence lines, then he kind of does a diagonal cut and back around again.

It's wonderful to see him go.  Sometimes he kind of does a sideways thing:  he looks at you the whole time, but runs past.  Luckily there aren't any obstacle in the yard or he would be bound to run smack into them since he isn't always looking where he's going.

However ... it has made it even more clear that we'll need to start working on basic commands, because when it comes to, well, "come!" he's having none of it.  Oh, sure, he likes to tease every once in a while by heading toward you when called, but when he's just beyond arm's reach, he zooms off.  I swear he's laughing when he does it!

He's been out for about an hour this morning (Jay takes his Bible study out and sits on the porch since the weather's so nice) and Mojo hasn't stopped yet.  Needless to say, he'll be sleeping like a log all day.

To get him in, Jay needs to go to him with leash in hand, and then he'll go down to get hooked up. 

Progress, thy name is Mojo!

Mojo Unplugged

Mojo's been breaking out of his patterns in leaps and bounds (and scurrying back into them when he's feeling insecure), so we figured it was time to see what happened if we broke one, too.

On this glorious "summer" day in March, Jay decided to take the leash off within the confines of the fenced yard.  Just to see what would happen.  And with plenty of daylight left in case we needed to figure out which corner he was hiding in!

Well, as it turned out, he didn't run and hide at all.  In fact, he stayed completely at heel for several laps around the yard.  If Jay did a 180, not only did Mojo turn with him, but he also re-placed himself to the right side.  It was fascinating to watch!  And it begged the question:  why is he so good at this?  What was he taught?  Who taught him? For what purpose?  And how did they train him this well and yet treat him so badly?  The mind boggles.

We tried to mix in a little fun with this -- I brought out a ball and Jay tossed it around, but as usual, Mojo was having none of it.  Didn't chase it, didn't try to catch it, didn't care.  Ah, well.

The story doesn't exactly end here, however:  Jay walked in the house without him and then went back out, and it was as if a lightbulb went off in Mojo's head that said: "Hey!  I'm unfettered!"   He did not report back to Jay's side.  He wandered around a bit, and since he doesn't answer any commands, he wouldn't come when called.  He didn't exactly bolt away, but he kept his distance.  It wasn't until Jay got the leash in his hand, moved to Mojo's left, and walked as if they were on leash together that Mojo fell back into step with him. 

Then Jay snapped the leash back on to lead him into the house again.

So now we have yet another new experience to work out together. 

... and we definitely need to make plans to get some obedience training for this dog!  You can bet that will lead to some interesting stories.

A Most Curious Sign of Curiosity

I'll admit it:  I'm not a great housekeeper.  Having a shedding pet in the house will mean I have to step up my game, since dust bunnies (and dog hair bunnies) reproduce at a rate much faster than real bunnies do.  I confess that I didn't inherit my mom's cleaning gene.  You could eat off her floors ... mine don't even qualify for the 3-second rule.

Anyway, the point I'm going for is that even though I know I tend to let things go longer than maybe I should, I know for a fact that the smudges on the window over by Mojo's eating station weren't there last week.  And I know nose prints when I see them.

Somebody's got his eye on the backyard!  What's he watching ... the grey cat that has started hanging around lately?  The squirrels who run up and down the maple tree?  Those stupid moles (or are they voles) who are turning our yard into Swiss Cheese (and shouldn't the cat be doing something about that)?

Whatever is catching his attention, the point is, he's paying attention!  He's never made a sound for us, but does he bark at the critters outside the window when we're not home?  It's sort of like that old riddle about the tree falling in the forest:  When no one's here to listen, does Mojo make a sound?

The Beak and the Squeak

As I've mentioned before, Mojo doesn't play.  He just doesn't.  On the day he came home, we got him one of those twisted rope bones, a bunch of tennis balls, and a ducky/chicken/bird-looking thing.

They have seen no action at all, other than me moving them when I step on them in the dark of night, at which point they have been known to zoom across the kitchen floor!

A few days ago, Jay started "squeak" training ... showing Mojo over and over that there was a squeaker in the head of the bird toy.  Mojo seemed intrigued (in an ear-forward kind of way), but it didn't compel him to try and make it squeak himself.  In fact, several times I've been caught running from elsewhere in the house when I heard it squeak, only to find that of the two creatures in the kitchen, only Jay had his play on.

However .... today, when I went to say good morning, I gave the toy a squeak myself and lo and behold, Mr. Ducky had a soggy beak! 

So, who knows?  Maybe one day soon Jay's squeak training will pay off ... and it will be music to our ears.

When in Roam ...

Mojo's progress could be costing us some sleep for a while!

Last night, he spent a good portion of the evening wandering around the house.  He didn't have to go out (we had already cleared that hurdle) ... he just must have decided it was time to expand his horizons.

He meandered around the living room, sniffed the rug Chloe -- our Big Ol' Dog who died at the ripe old dog age of 125 in December -- used to sleep on (a rug that has plenty of stories to smell), and wandered around and around and around the house.

It was hard to say if there was an agenda to any of this.  If we lifted a head to peek at what he was doing, he'd bolt back to his safe place in the kitchen.  Even if we didn't peek, but so much as moved a foot or started to adjust a blanket ... back he'd run. 

It appears he was so emboldened by the nighttime raid, that he was still at it this morning as I sat down to read in the living room.    (notice the 2 coats on the dining room chairs ... that's so we can find them easily in the dark if we're summoned for an overnight constitutional)

So much progress!  What's next?  We can't wait to find out.

One Small Step for a Dog ...

Even though we know that something new doesn't mean something-that-Mojo-is-going-to-start-doing-regularly, we're definitely seeing a lot more interest on his part to be a part of the world beyond the kitchen threshhold. 

We're seeing a lot more of this:

(Sorry for the bad lighting ... I sometimes have to set up "stealth" photograhy before he catches on!)

He even walked all the way down the hall to the bedroom where I was working yesterday evening while Jay was out. I figured he needed to go out, and so we did, but apparently he just wanted to come and see where I was since the trip outside was a non-event.

Each day, we get a bit more of a glimpse into the dog Mojo's bound to become.  When these little things are so rewarding, we can only imagine what it will be like when he comes into his own!

Sunny with a bit of Mojo

Something I'm fascinated by is the fact that Mojo is excellent on leash.  He walks right next to you (and always to the right), and he looks up a lot to make eye contact ... the kind of connection you might see on a dog who's had training.  I remember when Jay was training our previous lab in agility, and this type of closeness and eye contact was a big part of it.  You can see how little slack there is on the retractable leash ... he could pull away because it's not locked; he just doesn't.

It's hard to imagine that Mojo has been involved with this type of training.  It just adds to the mystery that is him.  Pictures are of Jay and Mojo enjoying an unseasonably warm Leap Day morning.

The end!

Today I Bought a Book ...

Today was a day when Jay and I both admitted to feeling frustrated. 

Not at Mojo -- certainly not! -- but at ourselves.  Just feeling inadequate.  I can't speak for Jay, but for myself, it was wondering whether I'm smart enough about how to help Mojo acclimate. 

So, I was reading through various websites and postings about how to help a fearful dog adapt, and none of them really clicked with me.  The dogs they were talking about didn't sound like Mojo. They seem more ... advanced.  They already responded to treat rewards, or extra play time, etc.  Mojo loves treats, but as you can see in a previous post, he won't extend himself for one.  And he doesn't play.  Roll a ball toward him and he barely even looks at it.  Get down with him and say "who's a good boy?" in doggy baby talk, and he looks embarassed ... for me.

Anyway, looking through the websites made me feel even more inadequate, until I found the one that I should have latched onto in the first place, based on the name:  FearfulDogs.com.  I mean, seriously -- is there a place more perfect for the likes of us?

It's all based on the fascinating story of the woman who runs the site and the dog she rescued.  And after being 9 days into our time with Mojo, who still lives in our kitchen but has shown signs of bonding, trust, and progress, you can bet I was reassured to read the following:

Initially, Sunny [her dog, a border collie she rescued from an animal horder] could not tolerate any contact with people. He lived in a corner of our living room for more than a month. He ate, slept, peed and pooped there.  I imagined that “any day now” Sunny would come bounding out of the corner and realize that life was good. He didn’t. It took over a year and a half for him to

not just tolerate me, but also to stop showing signs of fear when I approached him.

At last!  I found someone who has not only been through what we're going through (to an extreme we are not [mercifully] dealing with), but she has dedicated herself to helping help people like us who want to give a fearful dog its confidence back.  So far, the chapters I'm most eager to read are:  Helping a Fearful Dog Interpret Humanity, and Getting a Dog to Play.

So, today I bought a book. 

And I shall learn to read Mojo!

Oops.

Hmmmm ... we have a new puzzle to work out with Mojo.

Overnight, we heard him walking in and out of our bedroom several times, which as you know is a HUGE new thing and one we were getting a real kick out of.

What we didn't realize, is that he had to go.  And then I remembered his foster mom Robyn's sage wisdom that when he needs to go out he paces.  Oops.

We did the get-dressed-scramble, but our noses told us that we hadn't figured it out quickly enough.

It happens.

But it also was repeated today while we were at work, so we are going to have to figure this out.  On the one hand, we're thrilled that he's more comfortable venturing out of the kitchen ... but of course not so thrilled if he figures it's a good place to boldly go where he's never gone before. 

So, we're going to adjust feeding time and make sure we've gotten him out enough (we still have to keep him on leash because we're concerned he won't come in when called and it's an awfully big yard to be chasing a dog around!).

We'll just have to see how it goes.  No pun intended.  OK, yes it was.

I guess we need to get more fluent in Mojo!

... and it's probably time to ratchet up the rug cleaner and odor remover inventory.

HALL-elujah!

No pictorial record for this one, because the moment was very fleeting, but Mr. Mojo's curiosity must have gotten the best of him last night after we had gone to bed.  Actually, thinking about him had made me restless last night, so I had camped out on the couch so that I didn't keep Jay up.  But I don't think Mojo knew that.

Around 3:00, the ticking of nails on the floor caught my ear.  What was he up to now?

Apparently, Mojo was ready to explore.  He took a couple of test drives just a few feet out of the kitchen, then back to his corner.  A peek around the corner, then a few feet more.  To my amazement, he made it all the way to the other side of the room and down the hallway to the bedrooms (that's the whole length of our house).  Wow! 

In fact -- this is so cool -- I'm writing this back in the bedroom, and I can hear him now.  He's in the living room, and maybe, just maybe, he's going to do it again without the cover of darkness.  That would be HUGE.

Footnote:  Yesterday afternoon marked the one-week anniversary of Mojo's homecoming.  Looking back over the posts from these first days, it is remarkable how quickly he has melted our hearts, even though we haven't quite been able to do the same for him. 

I can't wait to see what the next week brings!

This Could be the Start of Something Big!

Well, well, well ... notice anything missing from this picture?  Like, maybe, a corner?

Mojo and Jay went for a walk out to the pasture, and when they came back in, Mojo opted to stay in the dining room instead of hi-tailing it for the kitchen.  (Well, for the sake of accuracty, Mojo would have been low-tailing it.)

So we sat in the living room, in plain sight, and he seemed content to know we were nearby, and went to sleep.  It's been a couple hours and he's still there.  Part of it could be his desire to expand his range of motion, and part of it could be that he loves the warmth of the radiator!

I'm dying to have him try out his memory foam dog bed, but so far, he just likes to look at it and sleep on the floor instead.

Do You Want Cheese With That?

I wish I could have taken a video of this because it was priceless and adorable! Mojo's eyes were torn between looking at me (I was several feet away), or looking at that piece of cheese on the floor.  His head never moved, just those wonderful, soulful eyes.

I believe his inner dialog went something like this:

(looking at the cheese):  "I love cheese."

(looking at me): "Could you bring me that cheese?"

at cheese:  "I could go get the cheese."

at me: "Can't you bring me that cheese?"

at cheese: "I really love cheese."

at me:  "Seriously, you didn't throw it anywhere close enough to me."

at cheese:  "Maybe she could bring it to me ..."

at me:  "Oh.  You're not bringing it here, are you."

at cheese:  "If she'd just leave, I'd get that cheese."

at me:  "LEAVE!"

... and so I did.  Let's just say the cheese wasn't on the floor for long. 

Any move out of the corner is a victory to me!

Beautiful, Beautiful Boy

Sigh.  Love, love, LOVE this dog!

50 First Dates

Whenever the movie "50 First Dates" is on TV, no matter how far along it is, we watch it. Love Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler together, love the happy ending ... love the movie. (If you're not familiar with it, the idea is that a woman was in a terrible auto accident, and as a result her memory resets to the morning before the accident every day, so when a guy falls in love with her, he has to "meet" her for the first time each day, and she has to fall in love with him again each day. But it's funnier that that.)

Sometimes with Mojo, we feel like we're in our own version of that concept.

Yesterday, it seemed like he was definitely considering a move beyond the kitchen doors. Jay left for a Bible study at around 6:30, so I mosied back to the bedroom where I had my computer set up and was working on a few things. And then I heard an unfamiliar sound: a doggy head shake with flapping ear percussion! Was it possible that Mr. Mojo was out and around?

Almost -- he was standing at the kitchen threshold, nose in the air.

I know, I know ... I should have just let him be and gone back out of view, but I thought maybe if he saw where I was, he would come my way. Nope. But when I checked the kitchen, he was sitting up, he was a little engaged, and so I gave him some loving, sat with him for a while, and talked to him all the way back to where I was working.

When Jay got home, Mojo sat right up, went out for a quick constitutional, and later on, we could hear him wandering around a little more. But he was not yet a dog without borders.

Then, this morning I heard him up and peeked out to see him walking around the kitchen, sniffing at the place where treats are stored, and told Jay maybe he needed to go out. (Jay says it was my way of saying that he needed to get up LOL.)

So he rushed to get dressed, went to greet Mojo, and darned if that beautiful dog wasn't back trembling in his corner. What the ...?

It's as if he has this imprinting in his mind of some evil person who yells "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO BE MOVING AROUND -- GET BACK IN THAT CORNER AND STAY THERE!"

Once he and Jay went a few laps in the freshly fallen snow (up to Mojo's knees!), he was more relaxed, accepting pets (and treats of course) and back in his comfort zone.

His foster dad, Ben, says the behaviorist explained that Mojo captures each experience as a photograph, and when he collects enough photos of a certain thing, it becomes an accepted fact. For example, that when we come into the kitchen and love on him, he doesn't need to look away or back into the corner because we're just going to keep doing what we always do: give him some pets and rubs and he won't be harmed. We're building up a lot of those photos and building his confidence that he's safe when we come in the kitchen.

BUT, he doesn't have any/many photos of what happens when he wanders around the kitchen and virtually none of what would happen when he comes out. At least, not of what happens in his forever home with us here. So it seems (to me) that he draws on old memories of what happened when he used to do such things, and those must be awful pictures indeed. I wish his memories went no further back than the time he spent with his foster family, and that hed realize it's OK to come out and play.

I guess we just haven't had enough dates yet ... but I know that time will come.

The Road Less Travelled

Today we had one of those late-winter snow falls that make you feel like you're living in a snow globe. The air temperature is actually pretty warm, there's no wind, and the flakes are huge. They fall on top of each other and in no time, the ground is covered and the roads are a slushy mess.

Could there be a better environment for a walk in the woods? When we got home from work today, Mojo sat up ... an indication that a trip outside would come in handy. After business was taken care of, Jay took him on a couple laps around the yard, and then took him on an adventure. I wanted to take a couple pictures, so I just had to follow the clues -- big boot prints, small paw prints.

Jay took Mojo deep into our little woods alongside a creek. Plenty of smells, lots to see. He still goes into a crouch when Jay stops (what on earth did someone do to this dog?????), but with some quiet chatter and gentle pets, he'll pop back up and stick by his side. His right side. Mojo does NOT like to walk on the left side!

Where's Mojo?

Chopped Liver

So, yesterday Jay got kisses on his hand! (The camera caught the tail end of the love fest.)

I, however, apparently haven't passed muster (yet) unless I have a treat in my hand.

Sigh. My time will come.

We can tell Mojo is conflicted about staying in the kitchen corner or venturing out where we are ... I think he's getting closer to wanting to test drive a trip to the living room. He seems most rested and relaxed when both Jay and I are in the kitchen talking (not to him, but to each other), or when I'm in there cooking or emptying the dishwasher or whatever. It's as if he's comforted to know we're around.

Moving forward, one inch at a time!

Snow Big Thing

Another stealth attack on the food and water bowls overnight! I could hear Mojo up in the middle of the night and was wishing he'd decide to venture out into our part of the house, but not yet.

As Ben, his foster dad, has reminded us ... the smallest thing is a big mark of progress with Mojo, and for me, that was having him sit up for me as soon as I opened the back door early this morning. He was ready for his close-up with a snowy yard. So out we went, and he went, but found the sounds of cars zipping by on a slushy road a bit unsettling. He was quickly ready for the safety of his corner.

But Jay woke up looking foward to some one-on-one time with his boy, so off they went for a few laps around the back forty. It's hard to see that tail, but it's totally moving in the right direction!

To Have and To Hold

Sunday evening, Mojo wisely chose to hang out in the kitchen instead of the dining room. After all, the rug and floor in the kitchen holds many more possibilities of interesting smells (and crumbs!), and it's just an all-around nicer place to be.

So each time I had to go in there last night, I'd make a point of walking over to his food and water station, shake the bowl and look at him and say, "and if you're hungry, your food is right here."

I did that probably 5 times, and just left it at that.

This morning: food and water, GONE!

Smart dog.

He also walked to the back door when I went out to put the cat food in the bowl, but retreated to his corner when I came back in. Me thinks the boy needed to GO!

So, when Jay got up, he grabbed the leash and Mojo was willing to be led out ...
where he peed for what seemed like an hour. Ah, the benefits of a housebroken dog. And we got a nice poop out of him, too. We were like proud parents cheering their kid's first boom-boom on the potty.

Now, he's back in his corner, but it looks as if Mr. Mojo may be getting his groove back.

Getting a Grip

This is really hard. To know that Mojo is in a safe place and to see that he doesn't know it yet. To watch him try and disappear. To ignore him so that he can just settle in and work these things out.

I feel sad -- because I don't know what went wrong for him at such a young age, but clearly it was enough to take all the sparkle out of him.

I feel mad, because somewhere out there is an idiot (sorry, I'm not choosing to find a nicer description) who is responsible for this.

I feel deflated, because my ego whispers the lie that I should be enough ... that Mojo should be able to tell that we already are so committed to him, and that even though his foster parents warned us that this would take time .... I guess I wanted to be part of some miracle conversion that would be accomplished in hours instead of days.

And I am also dismayed with myself that I'm having a hard time accepting that.

I guess it's a good thing we are studying perserverance as taught in the book of James in our couple's Bible study!

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

What was that old bumper sticker? "Give me patience, Lord ... but hurry!"

The Ins and Outs of Doors

His first night with us, Mojo didn't budge from his spot in the dining room. Well, he reversed position, but it didn't look like he had done anything else. He ate a few bites out of Jay's hand, but ignored the water bowl.

Sunday morning, when Jay decided to take out the garbage and leave through the front door (that is right in Mojo's sight line), it created a stir ... he backed himself up as far into the corner as he could go.

What was he thinking? Maybe he was afraid he was going to be hauled off again, put into yet another strange car, or strange home. It was, after all, the only door in our house he had experienced.

So, off to church we went, leaving him half on his new bed (only his behind has given it a bit of attention thus far), and half on the floor.

Leaving him there while we were in church was definitely an act of faith! Would he decide to get up and explore? Did I remember to leave the food far enough back on the counter tops (it's been years since we had dogs curious enough to pull food down for themselves, and I hadn't even given it any thought)? Did we close the basement door (we always do, but would this be the day it could have mattered if we didn't)? Will he eat the couch? Did I care if he did?

We definitely weren't concerned about him peeing (etc.) ... after all, we'd had a relatively incontinent senior dog in the house for the past several months, so we were pretty used to that. Not that we'd allow it long term, but until he figured out where the "out" door was and we figured out how Mojo would communicate the need, we knew the odds of a few accidents were high. Pee happens.

When we got home, he was almost where we found him; a little less scrunched up, but glued to his spot. We decided it was necessary to get him outside -- it is a beautiful day, and this dog needed a little fresh air.

It wasn't a Kodak moment -- he trembled, wet himself, and trembled some more, but once up and out the door, he was willing to walk with Jay for several laps around the yard. He stayed pretty low (in the first picture, look at how his back legs are positioned: he just goes belly down as if ready to do an Army crawl), but eventually he was getting the hang of it. Tons of smells, sights, and sounds to absorb, and he was in a constant state of alert. Who knows how many times it'll take before that tail will come out from between his legs.

He's beautiful, he's fragile ... and he's now a part of our family. It's unbelievably hard to not just want to scoop him up and hug him and pet him and coo in his ear. To ignore a Lab is a challenge ... one I'll confess I haven't mastered yet. I admit to random acts of petting and coo-ing.