25 Minutes and Counting!

Two-eyes did about 23 minutes in his kennel this morning without too much trouble (he had breakfast in there, and for the first time, sat down in his kennel rather than standing the entire time). He started getting a little stressed out near the end, so I stopped around the 23 minute mark and let him out. He then went back in and did a quick and easy 5 minutes in his kennel. During the 23 minutes, I did hear a couple of whines, but they were so soft that if I had not been in the room, I wouldn't have heard them. I also was going out of sight for 10, and then later 15, seconds at a time! He's really doing very, very well.

In the afternoon, he was put into the kennel at 2:45 PM with full bowl of food, and I saw him sitting by 2:48 PM. He was LAYING DOWN in his kennel by 2:51 PM!!!! He would not eat, but he showed no interest when I offered from my hand either, and his body language stayed loose and wiggly. I'll need to stop relying so much on how he's eating and start relying more on loose and wiggly body language. At 2:55 PM I began going out of the room for 15 to 30 seconds at a time. At around 3:08, he began getting stressed, so I let him out.

I wanted to be sure to end on a good note, so I let him back into his kennel (which he really wanted to go into) and let him explore and sniff hotdogs for about ten seconds before pulling him out. The key here was to take him out before he was ready to come out. I then let him back in for another little while (I didn't time it) and let him back out quickly, before he was ready. This way hopefully he was left with a desire to be in his kennel, rather than away from it. This session was a little rougher than I had wanted (about 23 minutes again) but that's how rehabilitation goes- ups and downs. And seriously, for downs, this was not bad at all!!