What Maia taught me

Maia, through pain and a naturally anxious personality, had become "one of those dogs" to such an extent that she was now even growling at her owners. She had endured months of an undiagnosed right undisplaced patella fracture which now, some 6 months later, was still healing through conservative management.

She trotted with a bounce in her step and with no resistance to me leading her from her carers car up the path and into the rehabilitation room. Once there, leaving her to explore the room, I sat quietly. No muzzle in sight. This decision had been made through discussion with her carer who knew her best. I'd also sprayed the room with adaptil, a natural calming pheromone, and put on a "Chill hits" album on spotify. Both of these evidence based strategies to decrease canine anxiety. However, what was to come I'd never had expected.

After feeding Maia countless small pieces of liver and stroking her head, neck and shoulders as well as asking her to follow commands such as "give paw" and "sit" all was progressing well so I gently allowed my hand to move from her shoulder to her forelimb. She immediately reactively flashed her head around towards my hand with a threatening growl. I released the limb. She had set her boundary and I had crossed it. Then something very interesting happened. Someone was walking around outside the room. She reacted by going to the door, jumping up at it and growling. Throughout this experience I had been talking with a slow soothing tone to Maia. After the person outside the door went Maia chose to come and sit in front of me allowing me to palpate her caudal trunk and hindlimbs. Was it that she viewed the person outside as a greater threat and therefore chose to include me in her pack rather than isolate herself against this new threat?

I don't know as I not a canine psychologist but what I learnt was going slowly gains a dog's trust. I only had the confidence to do this as I had pre-emptied to the carer that I needed to gain Maia's trust first and she had agreed. It was only through discussion with her carer that I could learn more about her character first and make such a leap forward in gaining her trust.