Nobody could promise when that would happen.
Her history could not be erased.
Nor could staff know whether she would eventually cross every unfamiliar threshold without hesitation.
Success might look more modest.
Perhaps Daisy would still pause.
Perhaps she would inspect the floor.
Perhaps unfamiliar doors would always require a little more time.
What mattered was whether she could eventually make the decision to continue without being forced.
Until then, the shelter had learned to pay attention to a strange little ritual that would have been easy to misunderstand.
A Coonhound stops at a doorway.
An old Bloodhound turns around.
He begins walking backward.
And Daisy immediately follows.
For Now, Otis Still Backs Through First
The two dogs reach another doorway.
Daisy stops.
Her nose extends slightly beyond the line of her paws, but the rest of her body remains behind the threshold.
Otis continues for another step before realizing she is no longer beside him.
He turns back.
Then comes the movement staff now recognize immediately.
The senior Bloodhound rotates his body until his back faces the open doorway.
His hind paws move through first.
Daisy watches.
Otis takes another slow step backward.
This time Daisy moves with him.
One paw crosses.
Then the other.
Her chest stays close to his as the pair passes through the opening.
A few seconds later, Daisy is walking normally down the hallway again.
Nobody can say with certainty why an open doorway stops her.
And nobody can say exactly why Otis backing through it changes everything.
They only know what Daisy keeps showing them.
Sometimes the difference between standing frozen on one side and continuing forward is an old Bloodhound willing to cross the doorway the wrong way first.