Sam has made his biggest break through to date! HE is wearing a very loose collar! And, of course, only doing so in our presence for we would never leave him unattended in one. We have been slowing working with leashes and leaving them lying around and then over time touching him gently with them over his body. He has had been fine for the last while with me gently looping the leash over his neck and moving about. Then we moved to collars and tonight he accepted us putting on the collar and with lots of praise and lots of leans on his part, he is now prancing about! We have not yet tried tags or other ‘danglies’ on the collar and will work on that at a later date. As previously, stated; I am very comfortable if Samari only wears a harness yet he is going to be adopted with Cletus and be around other dogs that wear collars; and at one time; he will easily see those collars come off and be put back on. I do not desire to see him ‘bolt’ or panic over that. I want to see him comfortable around them and while he is still a little nervous when he first sees a collar come out to be put on one of the other dogs; he no longer runs and even shows interest now. We are always talking gently and softly and Sam is responding. The most important thing is to go slow and at Sam’s pace. He has also turned into quite the bed hog! 🙂 WHICH is just fine Sean says! Sam is one of the softest dogs I have ever touched. He is like soft velvet and these days, I am positive that I see him smiling. He and Cletus are going to be very hard to let go yet this is why I started BHRR in the first place(to help those that need us) and we now know that Sam is going to be ready to be adopted sooner than we originally thought. Cletus is to be greatly credited for that and it will have been a true pleasure to have had my heart touched by these two boys. I believe that I am giving them the strong foundations they need and we hope to place them in the best match possible spoiling home to ensure that their healing/understanding plus acceptance continues over the course of their lifetime.