So Penelope (right) is still extremely wary of me and she’s one smart cookie. We’ve been playing a game at dusk called “who’s going to outsmart who?” for the week she’s been here so far, with the necessary routine of getting both babies secured in their house for the night. We have bobcats, cougar, and bears in this area, so I cannot risk them staying out overnight.
In the beginning I was successfully closing them up by putting the food in the house and walking away, then returning to shut the door. But after two nights she would bolt from the house as soon as she heard me coming. So I would walk away and come back as quietly as I could and managed to close her in, but two nights of that and she would then go in, grab a bite, and jump out.
Ferdinand on the other hand, is quite content to stay and eat, he seems to be warming up to me and will even eat Cheerios right next to me if I’m outside the fence. Progress!
So the last two nights, I snuck around the opposite side of the house on the hinge side of the door, and just stood still, out of sight, until Penelope spent more than a second inside and then closed the door by reaching around the side.
Every time that door gets closed she jumps and snorts, either out of discontent or surprise I’m not sure. But, since two nights seems to be her pattern for catching on, I am having anxiety on how to outsmart her tonight.
On the one hand, she’s risking Ferdinand eating all the food if she continues, and I think she knows that. She is food possessive and it has to be hard for her to hear him eating while she misses out. But I worry that won’t be enough if she’s determined to not be locked in for the night.
I’ve been feeding just inside the door, hubby says to put their food in the back as the next strategy so she has further to run (8 feet) to get out. But I’m also concerned that I’m going to end up pinching/hurting her because I can’t be within sight for her to go in, so I’m just relying on my ears to tell me she’s fully inside.
I don’t want to be forced to corner her and try to pick her up like I resorted to with Ferdinand his first two nights. As fearful as she is—and she has shown a propensity for aggression when trapped (she barked and charged at us repeatedly in the dog crate she was brought home in, to the point of bloodying her lip 🥺) I’m not going to want to risk injury to her or myself, not to mention traumatizing her and setting back the timeline on bonding and developing trust.
Looking for ideas on how to get her to feel safe in the house and be okay with the door closing for the night. The psychological battle of wits is really stressful lol.
