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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