Kai

          I started this blog to help people with dogs who are shy, fearful, unsocialized, and all around just plain scared. 

Kai's first night with us.

          Ten months ago, my husband and I adopted a dog that would change everything. She was a 24 pound, 6 month old Belgian Malinois/Basenji mix, with gorgeous eyes. One was bright blue and the other a mix of brown, gold, green and the slightest bit of blue on the bottom.      
          She was hunkered down in her crate along with her siblings, and we just had to go see her. My husband asked the woman who ran the rescue if we could bring her out of her cage. As she went to get the pup out, it cowered down into the corner,  but she finally got her out and handed her to my husband. The instant she was in his hands, she tucked her tail up and peed, all over herself and my husband. Even with that as her first impression, we decided we wanted her.
           My husband had to leave to go to class, so I stayed and filled out the adoption forms. A few minutes later, I was the proud owner of a new puppy. She didn't know how to walk on a leash, and she was so terrified of everything that I decided it was best to just put her in my shopping cart. So then I went around the store and got all of the items necessary for a new puppy, headed to check out, and drove back to my apartment. 
          As I attempted to get her out of the car, she pulled away and slipped out of the harness I had just bought her. She runs off and hides under a truck in the parking spot next to mine. I thought that I was going to lose her, there was no way she would come to me, and I couldn't corner her. Luckily the owner of the truck came out and helped me catch her.  I then had to carry her, along with all of her items up three flights of stairs!
           I finally got her into the apartment, and put her in our large guest bathroom (in case she had an accident) I left her in there for a couple minutes and went to get her some treats. When I came back she had gone into the linen closet and jumped onto the wire shelf inside. After a few minutes I finally was able to get her out, and when I did, she ran to the corner of the room. I tried to give her some of the treats but she wouldn't take them from me, she wanted nothing to do with me. So at that point I decided that I would set her up in the kitchen with a bowl of food, a bowl of water, and a blanket. I let her be, but she hardly moved. She got up a couple of times and walked around for about 30 seconds, then ran right back to her corner.
          She was crate trained, because that was all she had ever known, but she was far from potty trained. For the first few weeks we had her, my husband would sit out side for up to 2 hours at a time, in the rain, to try and get her to go to the bathroom. I don't know how, but she held it for days when we first got her. Since she also didn't know how to walk on a leash, every time we took her out to the bathroom, we had to carry her up and down those three flights of stairs! Even after she walked on leash she wouldn't walk up and down the stairs because they frightened her, I think we probably carried her up and down them for at least a month.
           The first week we had her was extremely stressful, she wouldn't do anything but sit in her corner. We didn't know if we would even be able to keep her, but I refused to give her up, I was determined to get through to her and let her know that she would be safe here. It took us five days to name her, up until then we just kept calling her puppy. I have to mention that she did have a name, but it was a ridiculous one. Her name was Llamas, yep Llamas, so obviously we had to name her something new. 
We decided on Kai.