Well, this weekend, we tried to bring some of the people and dogs that Dimples knew to hopefully bring her out of survival mode and back to the comfort zone that she knew when she was with her caretakers/brother. She did appear to come fairly closeby when the little boy who spent a lot of time playing with her at the shelter sat on her favorite mattress with her littermate. He really felt as if she wanted to approach but is just too afraid of humans and can't get past that fear.
We are going to try a variety of approaches in the coming day to see if we can capture her in a manner other than a normal box trap. Although many dogs may eventually enter a 'haveaheart' type trap, she doesn't appear to see it as a source of food but instead fears it more than she is hungry. Her fear of being in an enclosed cage keeps her from entering it and she would rather ignore the food and starve than enter the box and give up her freedom. Dimples may be 5 months old but she is still has great willpower.
We are going to continue to spend the week trying to get her back into the arms of safety and into a nice foster home but if it doesn't work out, we will need MANY volunteers on Saturday to help monitor the perimeter of her yard to ensure that she is safe while we go to plan D. Please plan on coming out to help if it is at all possible.
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My feeling is that it's too soon to be sure she won't enter a trap, but that she needs a longer period of time when the trap is set and the area is quiet and still, so that she can work up her nerve. So I believe that many volunteers are needed, and that the volunteers are needed not all at once, but smaller numbers in shifts around the clock starting Friday (assuming that not enough volunteers would come out during the work week).
ReplyDeleteI agree completely--these things can take time and patience. Less is more when dealing with shy dogs, so the quieter the area, the more likely Dimples is to show herself and enter the trap.
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