Day 9: She's Relaxing a Bit

Day 9:  Pippa seems to be relaxing a bit...and I noticed all my other dogs are a bit more mellow in the house as well.  I plugged an Adaptil diffuser in to the outlet near Pippa's favorite corner.  I also put an Adaptil collar on her.  Not sure if these things are helping to make her more relaxed or if she's just naturally relaxing more.  My other dogs seem more mellow, so maybe the diffuser is having an effect.

Instead of being all curled up in the corner, she's starting to sprawl out a bit, which is a good sign that she's relaxing.  Pippa will now drink water in front of me and even ate a treat with me watching.  Granted, the other dogs were all hovering around and she didn't want to share, but she still ate with me watching.  Normally, she won't eat anything until I look away.  I have been leaving a small bowl of water for her in the hallway, and I can hear her get up and get a drink on occasion.  She's no longer completely frozen in fear inside.  She still tends to scurry around but we're making progress.

Outside, she's made huge progress.  She has stopped trying to hide in the one tight spot I have in the yard (which is completely blocked so she can't get back there...didn't stop her from trying, though).  She will now wander around the yard, sometimes even trot.  Pippa likes to follow Charm around, because Charm is always hunting and finds interesting things.  When Charm stands on her back feet to look at birds in the trees, Pippa will tilt her head up and look too.  I think Pippa would like to stand on her back legs too, but isn't confident enough yet and is a little too fat to do it!  Pippa seems to like Buster too, and will sniff him and follow his lead as well.  If I'm petting Charm or Buster, Pippa will try to sneak up to me.  If Charm is in my lap, Pippa usually gets brave enough to come up to me, but if I move at all, she scurries away.

Pippa still has about a 4 foot comfort zone regarding people.  If I get closer than 4 feet and she's standing up, she'll back away to give herself more space.  The only time she lets me get close is when she's laying down.  Then, I can pet her, pick her up, whatever.  She's an interesting dog...usually, dogs with space issues like that always have space issues.  Pippa only has an issue when she's standing.  She's getting braver, though, and I'm hoping her "personal bubble" will shrink down a little bit.