Attachment

I have celebrated the completion of most of the year's academic duties (we spent most of last week torturing the poor clinical graduate students with make-or-break oral exams) by wandering over to the library and checking out a stack of books on various aspects of attachment theory. This has relevance to my teaching and research, but maybe most immediately, to Charlie.

Charlie came to our house on Monday, after an unsettled early life. She lived with Pam, her breeder, until she was 12 weeks old--I think Pam planned on keeping her (and had named her Ella), but then Pam's father was dying, and she decided she didn't have time for a puppy, and a promising family came along, so she sold her. They lived by the ocean, in Russell, which is a small, historic town north of Auckland. The father, a Kiwi, had grown up with a bearded collie, and wanted his son, who was 6 or 7, to have a similar experience. Seemed good. But then a divorce ensued, and mother and son went back to England (where I presume she was from), leaving Charlie (they changed her name) with Dad. He had to travel for work, and couldn't take care of her, so finally contacted Pam, who took Charlie back--but she was about to be off for the US for a month, so she placed Charlie a bit quickly with a lady who lived on what they call her a "lifestyle block"--some land in the country. Charlie sounds like she had a grand time, chasing ducks and getting all muddy in the pond, but this was not to the lady's liking, and a month later, when Pam got back, she talked to the woman once and ran right up there to rescue her baby (Pam is clearly very attached to her dogs). We heard about Charlie when Pam contacted one of the grad students in the department, who has another bearded collie, to try to tempt her to take Charlie. We visited the next day, and decided to take her after our Christmas party and subsequent trip to the beach (maybe that'll be the next post).

So Charlie came home to us on Monday, probably quite confused about where home is. She came with a great big basket and her own blanket. She seemed a bit tentative, but we really didn't realize how timid she was until we were trying to train her about our new invisible fence. We had this put in because the back yard is fenced, but at some parts it is pretty low, and she is quite capable of jumping over it--we read about the invisible fence, and one of Emily's friends has one, and it works great. Basically it is just a big wire that makes a circuit, usually buried underground, and the dog wears a collar with a receiver, and if the dog gets near the wire, it beeps first, and then gives a shock (which can be adjusted from very mild to much less mild). We thought this would be good because it would not only allow us to circumvent digging in the vegetable garden, but also expand the area available, because we've got a pretty big side and front yard she could run around in...anyway, you start the training process without the collar, by putting up little white flags all around where the fence is, and then taking the dog out on the leash and playing happily in the yard. When they go near the flag, you wave it at them and growl. The fence guy growled twice at Charlie, and she became afraid of the whole front yard and hasn't gone out there since...

Maybe we shouldn't have done this on the first day. Live and learn. But she is settling in now, and playing happily inside the house, anyway, with her ball and rope toy and any socks she finds around...and she has started to venture back out onto the grass in the back yard. Manford has been taking her when he walks Emily to school, and Joseph is done with school today, so he'll be home to play with her. She loves to be scratched, and is getting used to the noises and life in our house. Emily says she is the best dog in the world. In spite of having seen the arguably adorable two-week old puppies at the breeder's house...

Anyway, it may take a while to establish a really secure attachment, but we are all willing to try, and we will continue to post pictures as her hair grows longer. I don't think we will be able to handle it really grown out, given that I can barely get Emily's hair detangled once a day, and it is only on the top of her head...

More soon.
Carrie