Moving Apart

Salinas and Chima are pretty close. They regularly check in with each other, especially when they are anxious, and while at times the relationship is a bit co-dependent, for the most part it is just a healthy friendship.

But the reality is, these girls are going to be separated. As much as I'd love to keep a lot of dogs that come into foster care together, there are very few people who are interested in adopting two dogs. It the world was a perfect place these dogs would never need rescue in the first place and would get to happily live out their life together with loving attentive humans there by their side. That's not the world we live in though.

So starting two days ago, the girls started on their first step towards separation. Their crates had been side by side for the last 2 months, but I moved Salinas' crate about 4 feet away from Chima's. They can still look straight into each others crates but they can't touch or nose each other through the wire.

To the left of the crate (where the remaining blanket of fur lies against the baseboard) is where Sal's crate was located.

Chima definitely noticed, but more in a "hmmm, I wonder what she's doing that for." kind of way. Salinas on the other hand, got a very worried look on her face when this first happened. She'd stare at Chima, then look up at me, then paw at the latch of the crate, then look back at Chima. BUT, there was no whining and whimpering and no crying that first night. We did some clicker work initially, reinforcing when Sal settled in her crate with a click and a treat and after the first click she was all about earning the treat so she's not too overwrought about this. We are going to go three nights at this distance, and assuming Salinas is ready, then I'll grow the gap and try to reconfigure it so she can see Chima, but just a partial view. The goal is for their crates to end up across the room from each other out of sight line. It might seem mean, but it would be a whole lot meaner and irresponsible of me to send them into a brand new home without any practice at being apart from one another.

Salinas, looking over at Chima and making sure she's still there.  This photo was taken the very first time they were crated separately for the night. 

So stay tuned as we continue this journey towards separation. I'm pretty sad about it, and I hate doing this, but as a pet parent, you can't always be the nice buddy with the treat canister. Sometimes you have to do things that are in their best interest and will help them in the long run, but that they aren't going to be initially jumping for joy over the situation. Of course, treats are involved here too, but you know what I mean.