To the Vet 10.28.09

It has been 3 days since I picked Quinnie up from Fitchburg and I cant say that any of them have been particularly easy. Quinnie is very nervous around me and more frustrating than that, she is very nervous going through doors.

Getting her in and out of the house is turning into quite the challenge. I have been putting a lead (sorry, a leash, after years of working with horses any 6 foot length of nylon is a lead) on her while she is in her crate then walking her to the door. She cant seem to get there fast enough until she gets there and then all she wants to do is turn around and go back to her crate. I sort of have to barricade her until she decides that the door is less scary than I am and then she bolts through.

Getting her back in is even worse, I open the door, call the other dogs, she follows them right to the entrance, then freezes and jumps of the stairs, she tries over and over again and you can tell she wants nothing more than to be in her warm, safe crate, but that is one scary doorway she has to cross through to get there. I have to go in the kitchen and wait until her foot hits the living room rug before I can dart in and shut the door... if I move to fast she'll barrel right back outside and we have to start all over. You cant imagine how many times I've been late to things over the past few days because I cant get her craziness into the house.

This of course included us being late to the vet today. It was a bit of a long shot but I figured if there were any physiological reasons for her fear then we should find them out. We went to visit my friends at Uxbridge Animal Hospital. Dr Kucia was unbelievably patient and gave as thorough an examination as Quinnie could bear. She appears to be a very healthy 7-9 month old pup who is just terrified of people.

Dr Kucia was only concerned about her dilated pupils. We changed the lighting to see if we could get a reaction but they were "blown out", meaning she was so afraid of everything that was happening that they were simply not responding to the changes in lighting and were fully dilated. The vet says she has only seen a fear response this strong in wild animals like racoons and the occasional feral cat.

Quinnie was so relieved to be out of there she made a bee line straight for my car and as soon as the door was shut she curled into a little ball on the floor board and remained there the whole way home. I am starting to feel like a monster.

** This video was taken the first day Quinnie arrived, if you look closely you can see that when I am standing Quinnie army-crawls and as I transition to my knees Quinnie gets up on all fours and walks very tucked.