Rescue Dog Flinched When Mom Tried To Pet Her Until...

The Dodo

It took months for this rescue dog to stop flinching away from her foster mom... and it was SO worth it. Our producer Monica talked to Mable's foster mom, Angela, about the magical moment Mable tried to play with her for the first time.

Transcript

00:00She was much more of a project than I ever would have anticipated.

00:07When I first saw her, you could see it in her eyes.

00:10It's like she wanted to disappear.

00:12Mabel was rescued from an animal abuse case.

00:15When I saw how she dressed out and how shut down she was,

00:19it was a no-brainer that I brought her home.

00:22Seeing her shaking absolutely breaks my heart.

00:25What did the first few days at home with her look like?

00:28The whole time she was shaking so bad.

00:30Having a little bit of a scared day, huh?

00:35It's okay. Do you want to try to go outside?

00:39I couldn't even get near the cage without her absolutely trying to flee away from me.

00:44Come on, girlie, let's go. Come on.

00:48When I first was able to get Mabel out of the kennel,

00:51I had to do so by gently encouraging her with the leash.

00:58Come on. Good girl.

01:02She would bite at the end of the leash.

01:04Our walks for the first few months were not an enjoyable experience to her.

01:10The whole time she was on high alert, her tail was tucked, her ears were back.

01:15It's okay, Mabel.

01:23At that point, I was so committed to this journey.

01:27I did think it was really important to show her that the human touch was not going to hurt her.

01:36I started noticing a lot of small milestones.

01:39Come on, Mab. Ready? Get it. Get it, Mab.

01:45Get it, Mab. Good girl.

01:48The first time that she did zoomies in the yard,

01:51I could not believe that she was excited enough to actually run around.

01:55The first big milestone between Mabel and me was when she tried to initiate play with me.

02:02Are you trying to play?

02:03She came up and she stood in front of me.

02:06She jumped. She had never done anything like that before.

02:14The first time that I was able to pet Mabel,

02:16I sat down on the floor next to her, gently stroking her,

02:19and then I would take my hand off.

02:22And I tried to do that over and over so that she

02:24could get used to a hand coming at her and realizing that it wasn't going to hurt.

02:29Good girl. You're a good girl. It's okay, Mabel.

02:37Good girl. Is that right? Good girl.

02:46After months, we got our first untucked tail walk.

02:49I think my favorite part of this experience is watching who Mabel is now compared to the

02:56dog she was at the shelter. I see less and less of that dog at the shelter every day.

03:02The little milestones are something I'll always be beyond proud of her for.

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