Cloud - Akita Labrador mix

Another one who doesn't like the outdoors. I open his kennel door. Cloud doesn't back away but he sits and leans into the wall. I put the leash on him and he doesn't budge. I try to coax him out. Nothing. I try to tempt him with treats. Nothing. Luckily a staffer walks into the room and she manages to convince him to step out of his kennel. She warns me that he isn't going to want to stay outside for long.

She's right. We go out the main door and he anxiously pulls me over to the grass and pees. He sniffs a few more spots nearby and pees at each one. Then he decides he's had enough and pulls me back towards to the entrance. It's a frantic pull and he's strong. I could keep him outside but it would be a struggle and what would be the point? His anxiety level is already high and it rises when he feels any resistance I might offer. Less than a minute after stepping outside, we are back inside.

Cloud isn't relaxed inside but he's less anxious. He won't walk outside so I decide to walk him around inside the facility, or rather I just let him lead. He takes me upstairs right back up to his kennel.

"You've got to be kidding me," I say to him. He's inside his kennel, looking at me. I'm just outside his kennel holding onto his leash. The other two dogs in the room are barking and jumping and trying to get my attention as if to say if he doesn't want to go out then take us out.

We stand there for fifteen seconds. I decide I'll spend some time with him in his kennel if he won't come out but then he does. He's changed his mind.

He leads us on a tour of the facility. He sniffs all around the upstairs, unfortunately goes pee in a couple of spots, leads me downstairs right up to the front door but when I open it, he turns away and leads me back inside. We go upstairs again for some more exploratory walking.

I try to get him to sit with me for a bit on the bench upstairs but he gets anxious in the open space, constricted in his movement by the leash. Can dogs be agoraphobic, I wonder. I take him into the fishbowl, the room with glass walls where potential adopters can hang out with dogs they're interested in. He does a perimeter sniff, checks out the empty food dish.

He's been pretty much ignoring me up to this point. I've just been an anchor at the other end of the leash. However, now that he's off leash and stuck in a room with me, he comes over and stands beside me. I scratch his back and he likes that. I scratch a little harder and he starts doing a happy dance, stepping back and forth between his two back feet and wiggling his butt. When I stop, he twists his head around at me to say, "More," so I start again and again more happy dancing. When I stop, he nuzzles my hand. Finally, some engagement, so I reward him with even more scratching and some ear rubbing.

Eventually, I sit down on the floor. He understands that the scratching session has ended. He lies down a few feet away. He looks through the glass wall at the world outside.

More on Cloud here.

For adoption information on this dog and other dogs (and cats and other animals), please visit Toronto Animal Services.