Mary: I did these questions in a whole different order so I shuffled the questions around in the list below. I started by introducing myself to her and explaining I am a messenger and I want to take her answers back to her people so they can understand her better. She seems to think this is a good idea -- she feels like she and you "speak different languages."

-- Does she understand we're her pack now?  How does she feel about us?

She says "We hang out together."

I ask, do you know they are your new family?

She gets excited. "They're my FAMILY??"

I say yes.

She figured you were just more random people that came and went and for a while she got to hang out with you. This puts it in a new light for her. I think your various comings and goings had her thinking you were simply another bunch of people she had gotten to know.

I explain yes, you get to live with them and be their dog now. You are part of their family. See?

She says Ok, it was meant to be this way then. 

-- Is she confused when were at our place in Boyne City and sees the neighbors who used to have her?

She says, "I remembered who they were and I remembered I used to live over there."

Did you think your new family was taking you back to the old place to stay?

Not really. She says she hadn't been there in a while.

-- How does she feel about them?

She says, I never got to go anywhere with them. I like this better because now I get to go along.

(I don't actually get a lot of words from Shadow -- it's energetic images and toward the end some pictures. I get this with dogs who are not tightly attuned to people and are accustomed to thinking in big chunks instead of sentences.)

-- Does she feel secure in her place in our pack?  Does she know we are the benevolent leaders?

I pretty much do what people tell me to do. I am a good dog.

(I do not get a lot of dominance issues with her regarding people -- it's like that isn't even part of her wiring.)
 

-- Does she remember us from when she was a puppy and growing up & she used to visit us?  How is that processed for her now that shes with us full time?  Was she happy to move in with our family?

Yes, she says you were always there, right next door. She simply does not seem to question how come she used to live "there" and now she lives "here." Whatever happened seems normal to her.

Was she happy to move in with you?

Yes, she says you are fun and you take her swimming.

-- What is she trying to tell us when she starts whining, pawing and barking? She seems like she wants attention, but she doesnt respond to petting and just keeps staring at our eyes. (Sometimes its when she has to go out but not always. Were still trying to figure out how she tells us she needs to go out.

She says she wants you to come outside with her, play, and run around. She says it means "Let's go!"

I ask her if maybe it would help if she went to the door and showed them the direction she wants to start in. I tell her, "you need to show them more about what you want. Right now they can't tell."

She's like, well, what else WOULD I want??

It could be a lot of things, I say. Maybe you are telling them you need to go out and pee.

She's surprised at that. It doesn't seem to be a big issue -- apparently she doesn't need to relieve herself as often as you imagine, and you are letting her out frequently enough she gets plenty of opportunity and is not even in her thoughts when she is asking you to come out and play with her. 
 
-- Is she happy with us?

She says, "Yes! They take me places!"

So you didn't get to go places before?

No, I was stuck in the yard.

-- Is there something she wants from us that we're not providing?

Run around more!!

(Now that I am asking all these questions, I think she is seeing it as an opportunity to get you convinced she wants more outdoors playtime with you, ha!!)

-- Is she becoming more comfortable/less afraid of Baily, the Golden Retriever next to us?  Will she ever be able to play with her?

I ask her how she feels about Baily.

Baily scares her. Baily seems big in her mind like a statue and Shadow just wants to get nowhere near her. She seems to think Baily owns everything and she needs to give her a lot of space.

I say your people want to know if you ever will be able to play with Baily.

This had not been in her thoughts. I feel like she just has little or no idea other dogs can be playmates.

-- What are her experiences with cats?  She grew up around them in her former home (before she ended up in the shelter) but she seems to want to go after them and attack them like a squirrel.

Cats run! I can chase them!

Do you know cats are sometimes part of the family too, and then you are supposed to be friends with them?

Oh.

She shows me a picture of a cat inside a house, and in there she seems to realize they are not to be chased.

Can you remember not to chase cats when they are in the house with you? It is a rule, you know.

She says something like, "OK, then they are boring."  

-- What does she like best by way of affection from us?

Something like gentle play-wrestling, where you are sitting on the ground and she comes up and you put your arm around her neck and hug her -- not really wrestling where there is a struggle, but more like a playful hug with rubbing. She seems OK with large gestures like that.

-- Does she get confused by all the different places we take her ?

No! She doesn't care where you go as long as she comes along. She thinks this is fun.

-- We want her to know that we may board her or leave her with friends occasionally, but we will always come back for her.  Does she understand that yet?

She really hadn't yet sorted out any sense of permanence in her relationship with you. She was just thinking, "today I am here, yesterday I was there, tomorrow I might be over there." So for that reason she did not feel much concern when you boarded her.

I ask her if she liked the place she was boarded when you were gone.

"The place with the fences?"

Yes.

"That was OK although there were a lot of dogs barking." 

--What did she think of being boarded?  Did she know wed come back?  Were the other dogs frightening for her?

I ask if she was afraid of the other dogs at that place.

She says at first she was, but in a while she noticed they were in separate confinements and she did not have to interact face to face with them so she let go of the concern.

Did you know your people would come back?

I was happy to see them, she says. I don't think before that she was thinking in terms like "will they come back" at all. She just takes things one step at a time (at this stage in her socialization, anyway).

-- Is she ready to be left alone in the house?

She says after a while she gets bored and starts bouncing around, looking out all the windows, and ... (probably getting in to trouble). I don't believe she has a good grip on the rules quite yet. I feel like she is not well-accustomed to indoor behavior expectations.

-- She seems to love to chew on wood pieces outside, doesnt eat it just chews it.  Seems to mostly do this when she has nervous energy.  She did that when she was a puppy we had noticed.  Is there anything to that?

(for what it's worth my dog does the same thing and I have never noticed him swallowing any of it -- he just spits the pieces out)

I ask her how come she chews on pieces of wood.

Gives her something to do with her mouth is the best description I can get. She is showing me the texture
and feel of the bits of wood, which are interesting to her and fun to break apart. I am getting the image
of rough, warty twigs like pine.

-- She seems to finally be learning to play with us fetch and tug with her designated tug toy.  Is there something more she wants?

Oh, she says that is loads of fun! She is showing me a picture of herself pulling and pulling. I tell her
that is one of the games people like to play with dogs.

Now she is barking and bouncing all over in circles, very pleased.

I ask her what other games she would like to play with you.

She seems to think you should swim in the water with her, going after sticks :-)

I am laughing, and I tell her usually the person THROWS the stick, and the dog RETRIEVES it.

Oh! She gets that idea right away. It's reciprocal! (my words, her picture) She understands immediately the idea you do something, and then she does something in return. Very retriever-like thinking, immediately gets the picture.

I tell her that's excellent! Good girl! That's how the people like to play with dogs! Now she is barking and saying "do it again! do it again!"  I tell her that is right, you get it. She is really pleased by me telling her this. She likes reciprocal games and she likes having pleased me.

I get this dog as having all her basic instincts and wiring, but being very undeveloped in terms of knowing how to socialize, how to get to know humans as individuals, and all the rest of the habits and rules of life as a domestic dog. I think you have to start with the very basics for her. She does like to please you (very basic dog wiring) and understands reciprocal play so you have a good foundation to build on -- but the ideas of belonging to her own family, having expectations of  humans, and having continuing relationships with individual humans are not yet in her experience.

-- What is the basis of her fear/aggression of other dogs?  What were her early experiences with them?

She just does not have anything to go on here. She is showing me pictures of being tied up in the yard, seeing another dog, and barking to keep it away from her little area, not really knowing what she was barking for but setting up an alarm. 

--What are her memories/feelings of the Cocker Spaniel, German Pointer near our place up north which cause her to act highly aggressive (to the point of wanting to go after them)?

She knew they (dogs) were out there apparently having fun, and she was not with them, and she shows me she wanted to drive them away.

I am asking her if ever a dog hurt her or came right up and tried to attack or harm her.

No, they were all at at distance, she says.

-- Does she want to play with other dogs but is too afraid?  Is this a conflict?

>From what I am getting here, I think she does not know WHAT she wants. She sees them at a distance, she barks, they disappear, the stimulus is gone, she goes back to doing something else. It worked.

I am asking to be shown how she "feels" when she sees the dogs and barks at them. Fear? Curiosity? Envy?

She is barking at them because they appeared. Moving objects, living things, barking.  I am not getting much of a program here at all.

-- Does she feel too non-socialized/afraid to ever interact freely with other dogs?  (In other words, is this a block that can be overcome or is it inherent in her nature?)

I get what you are asking here, but I do not know if I can word it to Midnight so it makes sense....

I ask her, do you realize sometimes other dogs are the same as you, and might be friends or playmates?

She is baffled.

I am showing her a picture of Patty's dog Scarlet, and saying Scarlet is another dog like you. She wasn't scary. You could even be friends with a dog like that. She is curious.

I am showing her a picture of two dogs playing tug with a big stick. I say this is a game, like when you play tug with people. I show her, you could even play in the water with another dog, or swim with it. They are just like you, most of them.

I show her pictures of sniffing the ground with another dog. I tell her you can just go alongside each other and have company when you are outside. It can be easy.

She seems to have deep memories encoded within her of being sniffed by her mother and playing with her litter mates. I am reminding her of how that felt, cozy and safe and fun. She is interested.

I do think socialization with other dogs is within her, somewhere (to answer your question). You would have to come up with a baby-steps program to develop the potential, but I do believe it is present. When I showed her safe, interesting pictures she was curious, not frightened.

--I forgot to mention her periods of being lost in concentration like when shes staring out our dining room doorwall on the patio.  We try and focus her attention elsewhere but there and some other places (like our deck ) she just enters this Twilight Zone where she doesnt even hear us.

She is "elsewhere in her thoughts" is all I can get. She doesn't seem to realize she even does this. I do not think she is 100% attuned to the human wavelength (due to early neglect, I imagine) and sometimes goes off into some dog reverie where she is not available to you. I cannot tell if this is inattention or actually something like petit mal epilepsy -- I do not do medical diagnoses. It doesn't feel like anything bad to me at all, just zoning out, but if it becomes a problem you might ask a vet. To me it feels like when a little girl is reading a book and does not hear her mother calling her to dinner.

- - -

I hope somewhere in here is the key to your understanding Midnight a little better and beginning to set up a relationship with her. From here, it seems like repeated play and fun with structure might be the place to start. She's good-tempered, I feel, but very undeveloped and has no idea of the possibilities -- probably a soundly bred dog with close to zero appropriate socialization and guidance, but ready to please if she can figure out what is expected, or even figure out that SOMETHING is expected. I keep getting the feeling first you need to get her attention, possibly with treats :-)

At the end of our session, I say good bye to her and she wants to know if she was a good dog. I tell her yes you were, you followed along very well and answered everything I asked you. I praise her for being focused.

Best wishes to you all and to Midnight,

Mary P.