Our goals with Maya were to change the way she viewed people and build her confidence in herself and the world around her. And as simple as it may sound, play became one of our most important tools in her rehabilitation.

At first, Maya showed almost no interest in playing with us. After several unsuccessful days of trying to wake up those dormant play instincts, something surprising happened. Our personal dog, Nikita, created the breakthrough we needed. Maya watched us playing fetch with Nikita one day and eventually decided it looked fun enough to join in. From there, play gave us a way to build a relationship with Maya, increase her self-confidence, and show her that interacting with people could be highly enjoyable.

We also assessed that a large part of Maya’s anxiety came from feeling like she had to navigate the world entirely on her own. She likely had very little history of a person teaching her what to do, where to go, or what was safe. For an already anxious young dog, constantly having to make decisions by yourself can become overwhelming. So we ironically incorporated obedience into her rehabilitation. This wasn't for the "tricks" alone, but to introduce the concept of: You don't have to figure everything out by yourself anymore.

We then began to expand her world. Maya earned small wins being open to new environments before gradually progressing into busier and more challenging places. As a final test in her rehabilitation, Maya spent her last day with us exploring the river, an entirely new environment that would have seriously overwhelmed her at the beginning of the program. Instead, she had the most amazing day.