It's been a busy few days. Had our baby grandson for a couple of overnights. We love having time with him, but get almost nothing else done when we're watching him. Yesterday we went to DDs to celebrate her birthday.
Along with all of this, we've been trying to train the new dog, which is a challenge. He's housebroken, yes, but not in a way that's fully workable for us because he doesn't know how to signal that he needs to go out. Also, he's quite averse to toileting in our back yard and DH & I are not interested in going for a 1/4 mile walk every time the dog needs to potty.
He's not interested in treats and is still quite shy. Praise falls on mostly deaf ears and attempting to reward him with treats is a no-go. He rarely accepts a treat - even meat - from our hands.
Poor guy has been traumatized. Our vet felt heavy scarring under the skin on his back toward his hind end, meaning he was either severely beaten (

) or in an accident. No scarring on the outside, so it wasn't a dog fight or other situation that would have broken the skin.
Given all that he's been through, it's not surprising that he's slow to warm up and is extraordinarily uncomfortable when people walk behind him. So uncomfortable that he walks sideways if one of us is next to him or in front of him, and the other is behind him. He keeps a wary eye on on all humans within, pardon the expression, striking zone. We'll work on that over time.
On the positive front, at the two week mark we're seeing clear progress. He lets us pet him and seems to increasingly enjoy it. He's also gotten used to our daughter's dog and went with us to our daughter's house yesterday and appeared to be reasonably comfortable there. He's slow to warm up to strangers but hasn't a mean or aggressive bone in his body. He veers between a little fearful and completely indifferent to strangers - both animal and human. We brought DD's dog home with us to help demonstrate the ropes to Ozzy and be a four legged companion.