The newest member of our band is the smallest, the craziest and by far the most vocal and opinionated! Lyric.

Lyric started in her life in a house with 30 or so other dogs, a hoarding situation. They were all malnourished, she was one of the smallest and I am told spent her time hiding under the bed. Of the group she was rescued with she was one of the more fearful, always looking for a way to escape and hide. Her housemates (including 2 ‘brothers’ which we fostered) made progress, started to socialize and moved on to homes of their own but little Lyric still refused to interact with any dogs but mine – which took them weeks of work before she would consider it.

We slowly chipped away at her fears, she learnt to walk through doorways, that a collar or harness wouldn’t suffocate her, but her feeling towards dogs were a challenge I have never seen before. It took 6 months before she made her first true new friend, then a couple weeks later a second, and as we slowly worked giving her all the time she needed she started to flourish and now is my prime exerciser of new dogs! She may always need a bit of a controlled introduction but watching her go from shut down to explosive and fearless with new dog friends has been a highlight of this last year.

Lyric continues to work on allowing handling by people outside of her household and close network. We hope to make progress on this in the coming year and some clients will get to meet her during pick ups from day trains!