Zoe Update
It took awhile, but Zoe has finally become a full member of the family. For about the first two and a half months she really didn't want too much to do with Michael and I, she really only cared about Sid. We had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that she wasn't really an affectionate dog and that she didn't want too much to do with humans. We couldn't touch her at all without great effort and coaxing and lots of treats. And even then, it would be about 2.5 seconds before she ran away. Then all of the sudden one day she decided that we weren't going to grab her and eat her and maybe we weren't that bad. And little by little she is becoming a love-pup. She now asks for attention and loves ear scratches and butt-rubs. She is such a different dog than Sid, but she is pretty delightful in her own way.
Tomorrow is her 9 month birthday and the 4 month anniversary of her adoption.
She talks to her bones. She actually whines at them while she chewing away:
She has this way of looking at you like she's got you all figured out. There's no fooling her.
She is very interested in Kasey. Kasey doesn't seem to mind.
She's still a bit leery of Maynard and watches him from a distance:
She loves her neck and ear scratches:
She loves her Sid even more:
This is what I call progress:
She is doing really well in her intermediate training and is starting to trust and listen to us. She will now go up to strangers where before she would run and hide from them. She still won't let the strangers touch her, but I'm ok with that. She still needs some socializing with people and dogs outside of puppy class because she still has some freak-outs at the park. And she still pulls like a mofo on the leash, but she gets better and better every day.
So I'm pretty convinced that Michael and I are decent reformers of Uber shy, scared dogs that most people wouldn't want to work with. It does take a LOT of work, but with the success we've seen, it's totally worth it! That''s what people say about children too, but I'm still not convinced.