Timken Learns About Life In The Real World, Part 2b

This post will illustrate what happened when we, the humans, doubted our selves and also didn't step in quickly enough to prevent Tim from going over threshold. We both really felt bad about how this meet up went, but we talked about it and realized that we learned so much from the experience. Some times trial and error is the only way to figure things out.

 Tim meets a new person at her place of work and goes over threshold!

We headed out to meet J Linn at her place of business. J Linn was instrumental in helping our foster dog Sierra use her post surgery leg and she agreed to be one of our persons to help with Tim's socialization. This time it was just us and Tim visiting, no other dogs went in with us. 

This is when we were walking Tim before we went into the building. This was a new place on a busier road than we have had him so far. Notice the body language? He was very nervous.

We walked him up and around the back of the building which was away from the noise of the road and there are trees in the back, he is still very  nervous but was feeling a little more comfortable to walk.

We found some nice grass and weeds that Tim could sniff and hopefully pee before we went into the building. This relaxed him as he loves nature and yes he did pee, a good sign he was loosening up.

 We went in the front door and J Linn came out to meet us. We all sat down on the floor and she asked us to not pet Tim when he came to us for reassurance as he always does when he needs it. We both had wondered why we should not reassure him but neither of us asked as we figured she had a good reason and so we both just sat there and when Tim came up to us we just kept our hands in our laps. 

Mistake #1- We didn't ask why we shouldn't reassure him.

Mistake #2- We didn't trust our instincts

We all sat there and Tim began to quickly get aroused and started to pace. I got some treats out of my purse and decided to give him a few and he took them from me and ate them. Then J Linn asked if she could hand him a treat.  

I want to make this perfectly clear, this post is in no way meant to criticize J Linn. The truth is most people, including Dave and I do not realize the complexities of a dog like Tim. Most dogs do just fine when a little shy, being offered a treat by a stranger, taking the treat, and learning quickly that they can trust that person. Tim is beyond just shy, he has never learned that hands can be trusted, in fact I believe he has learned just the opposite, that hands cause pain and should be feared. I had read about and also been told by a fellow foster mom who has a lot of experience with dogs like Tim that *we* should make sure to be the ones to give Tim treats rather than the new person because of the conflict it sets up for the dog of wanting a treat but being afraid of the new person. 

But we didn't follow through with that, I handed J Linn some treats to offer Tim from her hand

Mistake #3-I didn't trust my instincts again and on top of that I doubted my self on what I believed was the right thing to do which was to explain that I didn't think it was going to work for Tim for her to offer him a treat.

It looks like Tim is growling in this picture but it is just the shot. Here you can see the conflict he was going through. Even with the new person tossing the treat (you can see it in front of him) he was quickly going over threshold.

Here she holds the treat in her hand and he really wants it but is so conflicted. This would have been the time for one of us to say, "you know this isn't working for Tim, I think it would be better to take him out and let him get some fresh air and settle", but we didn't.

Tim did go in for the treat but this was the last time he would take a treat from her. You can't really tell but he was leaning way in to get it and he was trembling.

 After he took this treat Tim came to me for reassurance and I took him into my lap and held him. He was just trembling and nervous. He had gone over threshold very fast, all this happened in about 10 minutes time! I was thinking, "We need to get him out of here, and I found out that Dave was having the same feeling" 

Timken went into this position and it was like the ground underneath him was moving and he was having a hard time holding on. I have never seen a dog do this before.

He just could not get unstuck.

 It was now that Dave said to me, "I think I should take him out". I was so glad he had said that and I agreed he should. This was one of those cases where I was not wanting to hurt any one's feelings, I didn't want J Linn to feel bad and I was conflicted myself. 

We also wonder if we had brought another dog in with us too, like Sybil or Liza who are comfortable meeting new people if this would have helped Tim. It very well could have.

Dave took Tim out and walked him and he was able to settle down some. He was very nervous though and was happy to get back in the safety of the car. I said goodbyes and we were off. Dave and I debriefed and realized our mistakes and vowed to do better next time. Thank you to Timken for teaching us so much. Please stay tuned as we took what we learned and our third visit to a new place with a new person went much much better!