Timken's Confidence Meter Takes A Jump!

Timken leads us on his journey. His journey is one of going slow. Being patient. Celebrating the small successes. Celebrating the milestones, and being there when he opens up with more confidence and trust with us. I hear you, this all sounds so sappy, but if you have ever worked with a fearful under-socialized dog before you will understand exactly what I am talking about. If you haven't I hope you can empathize with how hard Timken has worked to get to where he is in just 4 short months.

Once Tim started to get comfortable with us in our home we knew we had to expand his horizons so we have methodically gone about slowly introducing him to new places, stimuli, and people. The slow part is key because in our minds we want to set up and create every new experience for him to be a small success so that he will continue to trust that we will do our best to protect him and honor where he is in his confidence and progress.

One of our goals has been to make several visits to our chiropractor's office off hours and just go in and visit with Tim in tow. Our chiropractor and his wife have become good friends of ours and they are very accommodating to helping us socialize our foster dogs. They are gentle and kind and animal lovers like us. They also are not pushy and this is exactly what Tim needs to expand his view of the world of humans and to feel safe. Here is our first visit to Dr Ray's

We had another visit this afternoon and Tim was on fire! He was excited to go in, he ran right up to check out our friends, he took treats from them both and he played with toys in the waiting room like he does when we are home. He even played tug with Dr. Ray! Tim has just started feeling comfortable really tugging with me so this was HUGE!

Here Tim sits for a treat from Mary, tail wagging. Skip is hoping for a treat too. LOL what a blur!

Tim was having so much fun he was comfortable enough to play with his toys. He was the star of the show showing everyone his rattieness and chasing, shaking, and killing his toys with an audience.

But best of all was when he felt so comfortable that he could play tug with a new person! This was so wonderful to witness. I can still remember a time where if Tim was holding on to a toy and I just reached out to touch it he would drop it and scoot away. Timken you are our hero buddy. You had 4 people all joining in celebration for your progress today!