Sandy's first week

The stories of the first week were weather and Ben. Weather and schedule worked out such that I only left Sandy home alone on her 2nd day here during the first week. Her first day at home, I had a dentist appointment and the cleaning lady was coming in the afternoon and so I chose to work from home. Sandy got a little more bold and came out of the front hall. Friday I went to work and left lots of toys and chew things and treats and hoped all day that Sandy would keep herself occupied with her stuff and not mine. The weekend brought 5 days of dynamic weather.

The weekend was stormy and wet. Sandy seemed unalarmed by the rain and thunder and wonderfully seemed to be fine with going out into the rain to do her business in the backyard and when the rain was light, she was fine out playing in the rain. Sandy discovered the small pond/fountain in the backyard and started dipping her feet in at the edge and pulling out river rocks to throw around and play with. Coming in from the rain presented a challenge since she was warming to me but was still a bit standoffish, but after a few times, she understood that she needed to come in and stop on the towel and have herself dried off. The rain was followed by the arctic weather that hit Austin on Monday. The morning TV was covering it as "Ice Storm 07". All you could get on TV was the news that the weather was turning freezing and that rain on the ground was turning to ice. Well, it did. We had 3 days of business/road closures. I worked from home and Ben was home as school was closed. Again, Sandy proved her hardiness by continual going out in the back to chase squirrels and birds. She was content to lay in the icy grass and watch for the squirrel to return or to throw her pond rocks around.

With all the extra time home, Sandy became less fearful and started walking around the house some. It wasn't until Saturday morning that she would even dare to enter the back hall of the house and still she doesn't go anyware but my room. Ben tried to help with socializing Sandy. She is very timid and won't come to him and actually flees from him at times. I told Ben to give Sandy a treat (a meat scrap) and pet her when she came to him to take it from him and praise her and repeat 4-5 times a day for multiple days and then start only giving treats every other time she came to him (sometimes just give praise). Well, Sandy wouldn't come to him. If he tossed her a little piece of meat and then held out the rest, she would come and accept a pet. This didn't sit well with Ben and he only persisted 2 days.