I still have new pictures of Mudslide to upload and I am hoping that this week, I can catch up on a few things rescue related! Mudslide’s new height(DADDY LONGLEGS THIS GAL IS!) is 33″ at the whithers! WOW! The one thing that I was to state is that Mudslide is a ‘closet’ eater. What I mean is that when the house is quiet, that is when she feels most comfortable eating. She does not and will not eat with a crowd watching or if there is a lot of activity going around. Though she has not been crated in months and months; I will put her breakfast and supper in Abbi’s crate(though Abbi is rarely using a crate either these days) and just close the door and leave the room. She will then eat in peace. It has taken me a couple of days to figure out this new behavour of hers for it was not a ‘thing’ of the past for her. She used to like to eat her food(grazing) after most of the other dogs had eaten yet now she will not eat if there is too much going on around her. I give her ‘quiet’ time and she eats just fine and the feeding of her in a crate ensures that no other dog is going to bother her and it has given her a level of security. Whatever works for her, works for me! I had noticed that she was not eating and began to lose some weight and I saw that she would go into Abbi’s crate and have this ‘look’, so I trialed feeding her in there. Just as a piece of informative information for people, there is no truth to the words that if a dog is hungry enough it shall eat. I have seen a couple of dogs that would not eat if the environment of security and comfort was not there for the dog. Dealing with a rescue(be it poor genetics or environment) is a competely different story than dealing with a well adjusted well genetically bred dog. Many a person has approached me to say that their dog will not do this or not do that or acts this way or that and then they say; ‘I don’t understand as I have had the dog since he was a wee puppy’ and I have to explain to them that environment is one thing; genetics(nature) is another. This can be applied to behavour be it aggressive, SA etc. and ‘time’ is not always the factor as to why these things happen. To get a bit off topic with Mudslide a bit more; I am currently following a SN’s dog whose owner says that he has on-leash aggression yet she does not believe it has anything to do with with him being SN’s NOR does she believe it has to do with environment or genetics for she has had him since he was a wee puppy. I wish animal dymanics was a simple as some people try to make it and that some things can be very easily explained yet that is not the case. This person believes it is a ‘teenage’ thing or that she is not ‘alpha’ enough and I can see much failure happening to her and her dog over this misconception of things. I am tying this into Mudslide’s situation for she was born into rescue to a loving fostermom and then came to us and her and her three sisters share much of the same ‘possessive’ grumpiness over their food bowls plus share some of the same ‘quirks’ as their mother(whom they have not been around much since the day they were born) and so environment here is one thing, genetics is another and trying to ‘force’ a dog outside of their comfort zone or to mis-diagnose it’s behavour is often a ‘call’ for failure, for home and especially for the dog. We will be very careful to ensure that her new home, whomever that may be; understands this ‘current’ need to eat in private and to respect that. The best way to move forward is to take baby steps and if Mudslide wants to eat privately, then Mudslide shall eat privately. This is not a ‘power’ or ‘manipulative’ thing that she is doing. We want the best for her and when/if she is ready; she can begin to eat out of the crate; if not; she can continue to eat in Abbi’s old crate for as long as she has a need of it. 🙂