When the lady today brought Olivia into the "dog viewing room" she handed me the leash and told me she would let me have some time with her, as she needed to do some computer work. She handed me a little bag of treats and left. Olivia seemed hesitant to be in the room with me at first, but then I sat down on the floor to be more on her level. She stood stiffly but let me pet her, soon turning to let me pet her side more. This soon turned into full body rubs, and then her wanting her ears rubbed inside her "cone of shame" (she had it on because she was recently spayed and kept chewing on her stitches). Once I rubbed her ears she was completely at ease. She sat in my lap, she let me pet her, even requesting ear rubs, and leaning into it. She's absolutely perfect, and I adore this dog.
The next step is introducing her to our dogs. First we tried Arya. Arya barked for a while at first, but I suspect this was more her barking at the lady handling Olivia, and not barking at Olivia, Arya is actually really submissive with other dogs, so despite her looming size (125 pounds) and her loud bark, she's actually a gentle giant - as a Saint Bernard should be. It was Olivia who initially had an issue, her hackles raised, she growled a few times, but after several minutes of walking through the parking lot parallel to one another, and then slowly moving closer as we walked back again, They seemed to agree on mutual ignoring. They both sniffed each other's butts, and then just stood around and ignored one another.
Then came Toby. Toby is our dominant dog. He is jealous of affection paid to another dog, and he easily cows Arya, despite the size difference (Toby is 50 pounds). Toby is also not at all accustomed to new people and does not do well in new situations. He spent the next fifteen to twenty minutes barking seemingly aggressively. His hackles were not raised, his tail was between his legs, and he was shivering, which tells me he wasn't barking due to aggression, but due to fear - most likely of the lady handling Olivia. As I said, Toby is not used to new unfamiliar people. Unfortunately, the couple of times Olivia came over to sniff Toby's butt, he was startled and turned around quickly, appearing to growl or bare teeth, but he did not bite. This was enough for the rescue to register his reaction as aggressive, and made the decision to stop the meet and greet. On the plus side, Olivia didn't seem phased at all by Toby's barking. She just hung out, occasionally wanting to be petted. This is ideal for a service dog.
I was told that when there is an issue with dog meetings, we are allowed to come back the next day and try again to see if it's just initial jitters or dogs having a bad day. So I left, empty handed and disappointed.
We went to my parents' house afterwards and Toby spent the rest of the evening playing with their bloodhound. They're the best of friends and because my parents have a large fenced area, he was able to come and go as he pleased, which means he wore himself out. It's frustrating to see him do so well with the bloodhound, and know he'd get along fine with Olivia if he were introduced differently - without the stranger handling the other dog, in a place he's more familiar with, and not outside in the cold. It's practically setting him up for failure. I'm tempted to take a trip out to my parents' house tomorrow to let him play with their bloodhound again to wear him out a bit before trying again with Olivia. It will be our last chance. We've met her indoors twice, and this will be our second attempt at introducing the dogs. If Toby is still acting aggressively out of fear, we will be turned down to adopt Olivia, and she is absolutely perfect for training in as an autism service dog. It's all hinging on what kind of a day Toby is having.
I'm not exactly optimistic. I'm hopeful. I really want to adopt Olivia. I think that she would do well here, and that she would make an absolutely perfect service dog. The big question remains - will Toby do better tomorrow?