Ella arrived a bit fearful which is not uncommon. At her first play time on Sunday she was playing great and running around with Rosie and Jimmy when they all were getting too close to the boundary of our play area. A few of our PAWS members who stand at the boundary gave the dogs a harsh “NO!” which in turn caused Ella to shut down. She tucked her tail and stopped playing the remainder of the play time. This behavior continued at each play time the rest of the week until about Friday when she began to come out of her shell. Her over all demeanor is a bit shy and fearful. She has shown fear towards a coat hanging in our room, a bench in the day room, and any loud sounds. Any new environment she enters she shows apprehension towards. This is causing me concern for a Specialty Dog that will often be entering new environments and will need to not be reactive in those environments in order to assist their handler. I can see issues with her reacting at a grocery store from loud cars in the parking lot to someone making noise stocking shelves. I sneezed once on my bunk while she was laying on the floor next to me and she jumped up in fear. She has improved this week and I believe will eventually gain the confidence needed to perform the tasks required of her here, but my concern is once she leaves here and is exposed to new environments on a daily basis.
Ella’s strengths include being very affectionate and loving laying with her handler. She prefers to be on the bed versus the floor or her crate. She is a lover at heart and wants to be near her handler. She gets long great with other dogs and has shown no signs of reactivity or aggression. She can play a bit rough at times but doesn’t become aggressive.
