If anyone out there is following this blog, you probably noticed that I didn't post anything yesterday. By the time I could have written, I was exhausted and in tears...
Yesterday was going to be Halo's first day completely alone during the day while I was at work. I woke up, got myself ready, had my first successful morning with no runaways, no one eating the wrong food, and hit the road earlier. I was feeling mighty proud as I pulled into Stefanie's condo complex at 7:30 am. Plenty of time to get Halo inside, drive the 10 minutes to work -- and be early! Everything was clicking right along....
I let Halo get busy before taking her into the condo to put her back in her crate. She did her business, we went inside and got her water and toy into the crate, popped the pup in, closed the crate...and let the crying begin. Halo barked, howled, whined, and cried. Now I was stuck. My mom/puppy trainer instincts said she just needed to cry it out, tire herself out, and learn that noise won't get me to come back. If we were at home, that's exactly what I would have done. BUT! This whole puppy raising gig depends on me being able to give her breaks from her crate to get busy, eat at midday, etc., and working 45 min away from home means that Stef is doing me a HUGE favor by letting me use her place. Being in a condo complex, I certainly don't want to irritate the neighbors, which means they will be upset with Stef, and, well, you can see how this could turn out.
I started trying all of the tricks I know, to no avail. I tried calling the Fidelco puppy raiser department, but of course no one is at their desk at 7:45 AM! I left a voice mail, sent an email with my cell number, sent a text to Stef to tell work I'd be in late, and settled down to work from Stefanie's place until the reinforcements from Fidelco called. And called they did!
Once someone arrived at the Fidelco office, I received a literal barrage of assistance calls. Many of the suggestions I had already tried, but I did get the good advice of covering the crate to make it so she couldn't see. I put a towel over the opening...but it didn't quite extinguish the barking. Hmmm...what did I do when my son had to go in his crib alone at night? Oh yeah, noise! I turned on the tv so Halo would have human voices, then snuck toward the door. She continued to bark and cry, but less heartily than before. Step 2 -- out the door, but wait and listen! About 10 minutes after turning on the tv, she finally quieted down. Probably exhausted, but quiet nevertheless. I got to work about 2 hours late.
Fast forward to lunch time. Get busy, eat, run a little bit, try to get busy again, back to crate...barking and crying with me outside the door...I swear it only took about 3 minutes for her to quiet down.
The day left me bedraggled, especially since a bunch of other things went wrong during the day. Hence, no blog post. By the end of the day, Halo had stopped crying, but it was my turn to let it all out. A necessary catharsis after a terrible day not just with Halo but all the way around.
I'm proud to say that today was considerably better. No more than 5 minutes of barking anytime I left her today. She had to work for her lunch today and did every behavior/followed every command with ease. I was on time for work and was able to enjoy my time with Halo today! As I write, Harley is lying on his back at my feet with Halo lunging and dodging at him. It'll be Harley's turn to be worn out at the end of today!
I can't say enough how fantastic the Fidelco team is at supporting their volunteers. If you want to see or support a high quality non-profit, visit them! It's an amazing group of people. And their dogs aren't too shabby either!
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