Belle today met her new owners again but to ensure that her anxiety was kept to a minimum we met in ‘her’ yard.
Strict instructions were as follows (for us all!):
1. No bending down over her or towards her
2. Moving as calmly and quietly as possible around her
3. No prolonged eye contact
4. If she jumps up, turn your body away from her to ‘block’ her
I also coincided this visit with her lunch so that she could be fed by them and start to change her emotional state around them from anxiety and mistrust to a more positive one.
Both owners complied with the instructions to the letter and within half an hour they were sitting down and feeding Belle by hand. She even let the male owner tickle her quietly under the chin. She was relaxed and calm after half an hour so we decided to end it there on such a good note.
A completely different outcome to a couple of days ago simply because we kept everything calm and controlled around her!
