She liked cheese! I could also stroke her in there because she couldn’t escape. After about a month I got in the back seat with her and we’d read and eat cheese. First we just stood by the car and I gave treats. "Getting in the car: She didn’t like the car, would drool excessively and sometimes throw up. Here, Stacey describes the regimen she followed to help Akila relax and adapt: And over months of time, it worked: Akila eventually grew accustomed to being touched and receiving affection from her patient and accepting humans. Stacey patiently stuck with a training regimen for Akila that had positive reinforcement and compassion at its core. As Stacey put it: “Do you have any idea how hard it is to bring a dog home and not be able to touch it?” The experience of helping Akila acclimate to regular dog life in a regular home wasn’t easy - at all. The Chappells arrived on the scene within days and took Akila home with them. They ran a photo of Akila in Best Friends magazine to see whether just the right adopters might step forward. They began wondering: Could this 11-year-old dog be helped to live out her final years in the comfort of an actual home? Around the time she turned 11, though, sanctuary staffers started sensing that Akila might want closer companionship with people. She had become, in essence, a feral or a wild animal.Īkila lived in safety and received good care at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.
Her caregivers at the wolf sanctuary had determined that she was not a wolf, but a dog - but by that time, she had missed a key window of socialization. They drove seven hours to the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah, where Akila had lived since she was a puppy.Īs recounted in “My Old Dog: Rescued Pets with Remarkable Second Acts,” the new book I've written with photographs by Lori Fusaro, Akila was 5 months old when she relocated to Kanab from a wolf sanctuary in Colorado. Back in March 2011, they fell so in love with a photo of a dog named Akila that they felt an irresistible need to go meet her.
Stacey and Bret Chappell of Salt Lake City know this to be true. OK, let’s be honest here: Can positive training really work with an 11-year-old feral dog? (Photo copyright Lori Fusaro / "My Old Dog") As a feral dog, Akila feared human contact.
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