The first 48 hours...

What a shock this must all be for poor Martha. All she has ever known is cruelty at the hands of humans, and she is really the only one who doesn't know yet that she will never be hurt again...
She slept quietly all night in the crate. Actually, quiet is all she is, we haven't heard a single peep out of her since we picked her up.
She came out of her crate Saturday morning and followed the other dogs to the backdoor, but she was too scared to follow. I kept my distance and kept my back to her not to intimidate her, or she would go running. I finally had to carry her outside though to get her to go to the bathroom, but with no luck. She was too scared and would just cower in a corner of the yard...



She did eat however! We have her a small portion, seeing how she had been too scared to eat the night before, but she ate all of it! She spent most of the day Sunday in the crate, and that's where we fed her knowing that she feels safe there.
Later she even ventured out a little, sniffed around the house and followed the other dogs around.



Today she didn't want to come out of the crate, and I was seriously starting to worry about her bladder. It had been two days since she last went to the bathroom! We were gone in the morning but came home early afternoon and let the dogs out in the bckyard and carried Martha out for another try, and this time it was a success! She peed for the first time since Saturday! Poor thing is so terrified she can't even go to the bathroom...
After she was done she didn't understand that she was allowed back in the house, so she curled up in a corner by the house on a pile of leaves... It's the saddest thing I have ever seen! :(



But the progress kept coming! She also took a toy tonight! My pug mix girls Bela and Wednesday were playing with their squeaky toys and we noticed that the sound made Martha perk up and she was watching them play, so my husband tossed one of the toys over next to her, and she got up, sniffed it and picked it up! She carried it back to her bed and was sniffing it and nudging it... I couldn't help but cry a little seeing her take it, she has probably never had a toy before in her life! But with all the horrors she's been through and with all the fear she feels, the sound of that squeaky still stirred something and for a moment she relaxed and tried to play...



We are using the ignoring method and calming signals (See Jan Fennell's The Dog Listener, esp. chapter 5, and Turid Rugaas' On Talking Terms With Dogs: Calming Signals). The selfish part of us want to pet her and pick her up, but it's crucial to give her space and time for her to choose to join the pack, not because we made her...

All in due time...