Things work out

Schatzi is in kind of a funk.
We see nothing physically wrong with her, she eats well most of the time and figured out what her favorite flavors are.
Smoked bacon with eggs in the morning and anything that comes from one of the octagonal little trays. Filet Mignon, Porter house Steaks , New York strip ......all in little chunks. This is so convenient .
As a bed night snack she loves a little bit of people food. Rice with chicken, rice with chopped steak, or a meatball with rice. I add mashed carrots occasionally too.
She enjoys the vet approved chewies, she loves the green Willy and still, something is not quite right.
She suddenly does not want to sleep with the herd anymore.
Letting her sleep in her basket and have the whole house for herself at night is not what we want.
We don't like this for several reasons, especially when it starts getting cold again and you want to keep the bed room door closed. At the moment there is not more than 5 cents worth of snow on the Peak, but in 3 months we probably have to use the heater again.
During the day Schatzi looks totally depressed, barely gets out of her basket, we have to add water to her food again, because we don't see her drinking anything. She is listless and looks sad.
She plateaued with learning new things, she is more skittish than she has been in several weeks, she even tried to climb in the back seat when she was so comfortable in the car already.
And an important thing, we cannot understand her reluctance to go into the backyard during the day.
Early in the morning, everything is fine.
She even walks in and out several times, tracking the fox and see what' s new. She pees, she poos, she enjoys being outside, runs up the stairs many times with her squeaky toy and even plays a little catch with Dad.
As soon as breakfast is over, she is in her shut down mode and it is almost impossible to make her go outside for the rest of the day.
Andy is out with her in the afternoon for at least half an hour persuading her to walk around and pee . No results .
After dinner, Dad and Andy are out again, hoping for her to do something. She is panicky and wants to go inside, running between Dad and a door. She is most of the time back on her "Once - a - day - pee " plan.

So I emailed Ellen, a behaviorist and trainer for the mill dogs.
She talked with Andy, just when we came home in a terrible hail storm. It sounded like a base ball bat is hitting the car, but amazingly, there was no damage.
Any time I think, I need to get a little help, info , insight --- what ever it is , things seem to resolve themselves.
The noisy Fourth of July and several nights before and after, are gone.
Schatzi was relatively calm. She almost slept through a few thunderstorms and hail pelting the roof without trembling and hiding in Dad's office. Things are coming along.

The sleeping arrangements got worked out too. Schatzi has Faustimaus' old soft sided bed next to her Dad's . She climbs up the steps into our bed, tussles and gets petted a little and then hops into her own . When she wakes up Dad , it's closer to 6 then 5 by now. Big improvement.

We have her now 3 months and she is doing really well. All in all, she is not the typical dog.
One of my pool friends, has 4 dogs, 1 regular, 2 from the pound and a Sheltie from the mill rescue. The Sheltie lived under a recliner for months. This was his safe place. He would not come out even to eat.
She also said, it takes a very long time for the animals to feel a bit more confident and loose their fear of people. Even after a year, he still pees in the house. He will go out with the other dogs, watch how their business is done, and then come inside and do it there.
Am I complaining ? No way.