Elsa, a Winchester resident, has recently been struggling to walk her 6th grader to school. Elsa is an 18 pound, two and a half year old Miniature Schnauzer. She is a very sweet dog, and appears brave on the outside. She barks at any stranger who even gets near her home! However, she has a big fear, and it is found frequently on this brief outing. What is it, though? We have four words for you: grates and storm drains. 

Image of Elsa at Home, Holding a Stuffie

These metal, barred monstrosities strike fear in Elsa's tiny heart. She is not afraid of them for no reason, however, like you might expect from a dog. Elsa has experienced trauma! When she was 3 months old, she was on a walk in Medford, the town where she used to live. This was before her phobia began. As she turned a corner, her paw slipped into a storm drain, and it took her about two seconds to get it out. The brief amount of time seems irrelevant, but it did a lot of damage to poor Elsa's confidence. Over two years later, she still refuses to walk anywhere near anything drain-like. 

Now, Elsa has been living in Winchester for many months. Her new house is close to McCall, so she walks her 6th grader to school there in the morning. This should be an easy routine! Sadly, there are a great number of drains and grates on the walk. Elsa's owners have to let her drag them around to the farthest possible places from them! On April 24th, 2024, Elsa even had to be carried across the street so she could avoid coming near a storm drain.

The issue even seems to be worsening of late. She has learned that she can avoid the grates very thoroughly, which is good, but now also always demands that this happens. Elsa puts up a big fuss every time she comes even within a meter of one of her fears. Her family is trying hard to figure how to deal with sad, but sweet problem! We all hope that she can find a good way to manage her trauma, and hopefully, overcome it.

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Elsa's family would love help figuring out how to handle this situation! If you have and ideas or advice, please send them to the email below:

13900@wpsstudent.com